Ross Chastain in disbelief reacting to Bristol tire wear: 'It doesn't make sense'

While the NASCAR Playoffs have been average for Ross Chastain, he’s done enough to make the Round of 12 after Bristol. Now, the battle starts over as points reset for New Hampshire, Kansas, and the Roval.

Ross Chastain only has a single top-10 finish in the last 10 races. It was at Watkins Glen. He has been fighting for more speed all year long, and it has rarely been there for the No. 1 team on the ovals.

What did Chastain think about the tire battle at Bristol? Well, he wasn’t sure what to think.

“I don’t know. I don’t know what just happened,” Chastain said, via Matt Weaver of Motorsport. “So, I’ve gotta go back and look at this because it doesn’t make sense.”

When asked if he was fine with just doing enough to make the next round, Ross Chastain admitted that he was fine with it. I mean, why wouldn’t he be? Now, the real work begins, because just good enough won’t cut it from here on out.

“We did it. That’s what we did,” Chastain said. “There was chances tonight to get spun out, there was such a difference in speed, and cars that aren’t competitive with us that were better tonight with all the circumstances, and they’re just blasting my back bumper off. You know, this is their couple of races a year in these cars, it’s just crazy. Yeah, good to survive because we could have been wrecked a dozen times tonight.”

Ross Chastain has to improve in Round of 12

Ross Chastain enters the next round under the cutline. To be fair, 6th to 12th place are separated by only 13 points. So, there could be very thin margins near the bubble. Or, we will see a few drivers have troubles and plummet in the points compared to their peers.

Once you start talking about the 12 best drivers in the sport, it changes things. Simple mistakes can cost a driver 10+ points. Then you find yourself at the Roval needing to get three more points, and there are four cars ahead of you with only two laps to go. It’s not where you want to be facing elimination.

There is something about Trackhouse that isn’t clicking. And I don’t think it is a coincidence. They use ECR engines from RCR. This season, every team using ECR engines has complained about performance, speed, and at some points, the dependability of the engines.

Ross Chastain called out his team’s lack of speed early in the season. Then he won the Coca-Cola 600. But he hasn’t done much since. AJ Allmendinger lost it when he suffered multiple engines failures this season. Of course, Richard Childress Racing has struggled to give Kyle Busch the cars he needs to compete.

Is it possible for Trackhouse to get Ross Chastain to the Round of 8? Does anyone think they can make it to Phoenix without dramatically changing the performance of the car? Lately, it seems like Chastain can at most pull out a P12 finish. That has to change.