“I mean it’s certainly wild that there’s such a disparity in the manufacturers.” When Denny Hamlin said that, it was as if he were peeling the curtain back. He, without mincing words, pointed at the gap between Hendrick Motorsports and the rest of the Chevrolet. He hinted that even under the same manufacturer banner, not everyone is playing with the same information. And his words just make more sense when you see what’s happening over at Trackhouse Racing. 

Now, TrackHouse did everything in their power to ensure this season is the IT season for them. They even went ahead and got talent like Brandon McSwain, a former lead engineer at Hendricks, to lead Ross Chastain’s team. Plus with the coming of Shane van Gisbergen and rookie Connor Zilisch looked sorted. But well, nine races in and they are more entangled than ever. Now, days after Hamlin pointing out the bias, Ross Chastain has come out to address the downfall of the team at the Out of the Groove’s Eric Estepp. 

“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.” And truly, he is struggling. 

Chastain is Trackhouse’s most experienced driver currently but 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. The problem is that those “small improvements” that Chastain said they are looking for have not been easy to come by. When asked to pinpoint the issue, the veteran gave a very telling answer.

According to Chastain, if it were something as straightforward as downforce, horsepower, geometry, springs, shocks, or underfloor, they would have fixed it by now. The fact that they haven’t suggests the problem runs deeper than a single component. And part of the problem can be traced back to the 2026 Chevrolet Camaro update. 

Several updates were made this year. The larger hood louvers were designed to improve cooling and match their rivals like Toyota and Ford. They have changed how the air flows through the car, not over it. That’s a huge deal in NASCAR, and Trackhouse Racing seems lost trying to figure it. Chastain did hint at a confusion too after the Kansas race.

“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.” And the team’s condition, nice races is reflecting that. 

Chastain has slipped to 20th in the standing, while Zilisch sits 33rd. Even SVG, the team’s current bright star, sits at 18th place. This is why Hamlin’s comments are lingering in the garage. Historically, Hendrick Motorsports has contributed to over half of the Chevrolet brand’s wins in the Next Gen era which is a huge disparity for a single team.

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. 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.

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.