With nine races gone from a season that should have shown some promising signs by now, Trackhouse Racing now serves as the most obvious example of the problems plaguing Chevrolet. Owing to Chevy’s issues with their new body and the lack of data shared among its teams, Trackhouse Racing remains arguably the worst team on the grid among the full-time charters this season. Now, their drivers themselves are starting to admit their inferiority, while other teams raise questions about Chevy’s honesty.

The year 2026 was supposed to mark a step forward. Rookie Connor Zilisch brought fresh energy, and Shane van Gisbergen was expected to take over road courses while adapting to ovals, as Ross Chastain remained the team’s anchor. But the results have been quite different.

And speaking to Out of the Groove’s Eric Estepp ahead of Talladega, Ross Chastain addressed the downfall, which stands in stark contrast to 2022, when Chastain finished runner-up in the standings at Phoenix and almost won the championship.

“We are struggling bad right now, and we know it. We’re trying. In meetings with the smartest people that we have and trying to get out of us drivers what we need better at the racetrack so that our different groups in Trackhouse can go to work, and we’re just looking for small improvements.”

When asked to pinpoint the issue, Chastain offered a simple answer. If the problem could be narrowed down to something as specific as downforce, horsepower, geometry, springs, shocks, the underfloor, or the outer body, the team would have already fixed it.

Chastain is Trackhouse’s most experienced driver currently, and his results are enough to prove the team’s situation. Chastain is yet to post another top-10 finish this year after Atlanta.

Meanwhile, less experienced drivers like Connor Zilisch and SVG are constantly complaining about the loss of speed and lack of power on the straights. Justin Marks was on the same boat as Chastain a few weeks ago, regretting how he was unable to provide his star rookie, Connor Zilisch, with a car that could actually complement his racing skills.

Now, while the team tries to figure out solutions, other drivers and team owners are starting to suspect intervention. Denny Hamlin was the first to call out the disparity among the Chevy teams.

Per Hamlin, Trackhouse Racing doesn’t really get the exact data as the top team, Hendrick Motorsports.

“I mean it’s certainly wild that there’s such a disparity in the manufacturers, like you know, when I look at Hendrick, and obviously, they are the flagship Chevy team, but then, like the other teams that get the ‘same information,’ the same is, it’s like way off, like last. So, it’s crazy. It almost seems like you guys are better off not getting the ‘same information,’” Hamlin said.

And numbers back him up. The new generation of cars has seen Hendrick Motorsports contribute to 60 out of the 67 total wins for the Chevrolet brand – a remarkable number of wins from just one team alone. In fact, things haven’t changed in a decade. Rick Hendrick’s company has provided 94 of the 158 total wins for the Chevrolet brand.

Richard Childress and his team are another example of the same disparity. Before 2024, both teams were incredibly fast, threatening to beat Hendrick Motorsports on multiple occasions. Yet somehow, as soon as GM shifted its operations to the HMS garage primarily, both were shunted down. There is no certainty about the same, but such comments from drivers do pose serious questions about the entire situation.

For now, Trackhouse Racing can only rely on Shane van Gisbergen, who has begun to somewhat deliver on his promise. In nine starts this season, SVG has one top-five finish and two top-10 finishes. His fastest performance was at the COTA, where he secured second place behind Tyler Reddick. He also scored sixth place at EchoPark Speedway and qualified fifth at Martinsville Speedway before finishing 11th in the race, the same as Phoenix Raceway.

His current position in the standings is 18th, with Ross Chastain in 20th and Connor Zilisch in 33rd. That said, how does Ross Chastain plan on improving his team as they move forward?

Ross Chastain is relying on results from Kansas

The Kansas Speedway did not bring any positive news to Justin Marks and his team. They were only able to claim a P26 finish at best with their three charters. While the results were definitely not ideal for the team that wants to go back to winning ways, Chastain did discover a silver lining.

To Chastain, Kansas was still good enough to provide data to understand where he needed to improve. “I just need to first focus on the entry of the corner in my opinion and get into the corner better, and then we’ll slowly step through it, and at Kansas, I could not get into the corner fast at all,” Chastain said.

“I was slow. So, for us, that’s where it starts: Where do I first lift off the gas? Because that’s where the loss in lap time comes from. We are trying big, big swings and not seeing the results that we want.”

So far, Ross Chastain hasn’t found himself in a good place when it comes to his race pace. He ran well at COTA and some other tracks during the middle portions. But by the end of the race, the other competitors completely overshadowed him, and he was relegated to the back of the pack.

But his preparation to increase his speed in the corners and bring his car more under his control is a part of a much bigger strategy. The upcoming tracks are some of his best ones in the NASCAR Cup Series schedule. Chastain is a winner at both Talladega and Charlotte. Additionally, he has multiple top 5 finishes at Texas and Watkins Glen.

No wonder he’s trying to push himself harder to finally claw back to the top 16 before it is too late for his team to bounce back.