Denny Hamlin seemed sure that Ross Chastain’s year was done and dusted. “Not enough time, not enough car”, he said on his podcast after the Window World 450 in North Wilkesboro last month. 21st in the standings and 83 points off the cutline, his Chase pursuit was all but over as far as Hamlin was concerned, but after Iowa, things look much better for the Trackhouse Racing driver.

“I was just happy that I could see the leader all day. And that I was putting cars a lap down myself that had been lapping me all year, so definitely a good feeling,” Chastain said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

“Can we replicate it at Richmond? I have no idea, but we are putting every foot forward to try to be just as good or a little better there,” he added.

For weeks, Chastain had been fighting an uphill battle. The No. 1 Chevrolet simply did not have the speed needed to consistently run near the front. He had only one top-five finish through the first 22 races of the season, and that made his Chase deficit look increasingly difficult to overcome.

Hamlin had started to lose faith. But Iowa gave Ross Chastain the kind of performance that could force the Joe Gibbs Racing driver to reconsider his assessment. He specifically praised Chastain’s approach before the race on the Actions Detrimental podcast. He noted how Chastain had stopped obsessing over the points deficit and instead focused on improving his performance.

“Even pre-practice, I think he did an interview and was like, it’s too many points. He says it’s just too many. I’d love to just run better at this point. So, you know, I think he’s taken the very underpromise-overdeliver approach, which I respect.”

Chastain backed that mentality up on the track. He started ninth and remained competitive from the opening laps and finished sixth in Stage 1. He was even stronger in Stage 2 and finished only behind Christopher Bell and Joey Logano.

The No. 1 team then made a strategic call in the final stage. They kept Chastain on the track longer than most of the field. He led 40 laps before making his final stop on Lap 330 and returned to the track seventh on two fresh tires.

He stayed there through the final 20 laps. The result moved Chastain three spots up the standings to 18th with 479 points. He gained 35 points on the Chase bubble and now sits 47 points behind Austin Cindric, who occupies 16th place and the current cutline. Ryan Preece sits between them in 17th with 497 points.

With only three races remaining, Ross Chastain now has a realistic group of drivers ahead of him to chase. And as such, he gets Hamlin’s approval.

Chastain had already made it clear that Iowa could not be treated as a one-off. “This cannot be a splash in the water,” he said, urging his team to show up strong in Richmond.

Chastain admitted that the misfortune of other contenders helped his points gain. But he also finally had the speed to put cars a lap down that had been doing the same to him all season.

Iowa may have changed the picture for Chastain, but Richmond will show whether it was a genuine turnaround or just one good weekend.