Who would’ve thought Ross Chastain of all drivers would struggle to qualify for the playoffs at the start of the 2024 season? Especially, looking at his track record to come up with clutch performances in the last two seasons. Chastain has four Cup wins driving the No. 1 Chevy for Trackhouse Racing, but they have fired blanks in 25 races since the beginning of this year.

Although there’s still one final shot for Chastain and his team to turn the tides in their favor. But, reflecting back on the dismal outing and preparing for the Southern 500, the driver is baffled to find himself in this do-or-die situation.

What’s gone wrong for Ross Chastain in 2024?

If we look at Chastain’s past wins and strong finishes, it is evident that he likes the road courses and Superspeedway tracks. Something the #1 team has failed to capitalize on this season. In four superspeedway configuration races, Chastain has been unable to register even a single top-10 finish.

Apart from two top 5 finishes, there’s hardly anything to cheer about in terms of results so far in 2024. And this has inevitably put him in this sticky situation, 27 points below the cutline and banking on a hail-melon victory at Darlington Raceway. Sharing his thoughts on the subpar showings, even Chastain couldn’t help but scratch his head in disbelief at how his season has turned out to be.

“I’d say right now it’s real that we are in this position. If you’d had me fill out a bingo card start of the season right? I wouldn’t have dabbed this block for sure.” Ross Chastain was quoted said during the press meet at Darlington Raceway. What’s more surprising is that his teammate, Daniel Suarez, who is below him in points standing, has secured his playoff spot with a win at Atlanta Motor Speedway. But all hopes are not lost just yet; we have seen a single win overturning the misfortunes of the teams this year.

Harrison Burton and Austin Cindric have been able to do that this season. So as long as there is a slither of hope in terms of a regular season finale race, Chastain can bank on his skills to make that final push.

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Kevin Harvick feels the No. 1 team will bring out the big guns at Darlington

We have heard the stories of NASCAR teams reserving their best racing setup for the clutch moments. And given the pressure and high-stakes situation, Chastain’s team might have a trick up their sleeves to deploy at Darlington this weekend. Sharing his thoughts on the playoff bubble, Kevin Harvick dissected the road map on how Chastain could advance into the next round.

He also brought Bubba Wallace into the conversation, who is in a similar spot as Chastain. “Those cars will be, they’ll be championship-prepared cars. “It’ll be — everything on it’ll be — not that they don’t push it, but if you have something that you’ve been saving, that you might think is iffy, you put it on right now, on the No. 23 and the No. 1 car, and anybody else who hasn’t won a race, you know, will be in that, that scenario,” Harvick said via the Happy Hour Podcast show.

Now the onus will be on Ross Chastain and his team to deliver the results. All they need to do is park the No. 1 Chevy in the victory lane and turn a corner for good.