Chastain Picks Up Win in Wild Talladega Finish

 Ross Chastain won the Geico 500 from Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday afternoon to pick up his second victory of the season.

Chastain ran up front over the final run, and was third coming out of the final corner. The lead cars of Erik Jones and Kyle Larson made contact entering the trioval, and Chastain was able to get clear of everyone else as the field began wrecking behind him.

Chastain won for the second time in the past five weeks, and said he was excited to get off to such a good start with his new team Trackhouse Racing.

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“Justin Marks and what he laid out for us was ambitious,” Chastain said. “I had no idea what to expect other than that I had my group from last year. I’ve wrecked myself so many times.”

Chastain said he was committed to run the bottom on the final laps and didn’t want to take himself out of contention.

“I’m always the one going to the top too early and making the mistake,” Chastain said. “There at the end…I’m not going up there again, I did that a couple times today. They just kept moving out of the way.”

Jones finished sixth on Sunday after making contact with Larson on the final lap while defending the lead.

Jones said he didn’t realize the bottom lane had so much momentum coming to the checkered flag.

“They kind of doubled up behind us, and that top lane was getting some momentum,” Jones said.  “Looking back, I wish I would have stayed on the bottom and let [Chastain] push me. I didn’t realize they were coming with that much speed.”

“You can only see so much going on from the seat; you’re trying to make the best decision you can in the last 1500 feet.”

Unofficial results:

1. Ross Chastain

2. Austin Dillon

3. Kyle Busch

4. Kyle Larson

5. Martin Truex Jr.

6. Erik Jones

7. Chase Elliott

8. Michael McDowell

9. Alex Bowman

10. Kevin Harvick

11. Ryan Blaney

12. Justin Haley

13. Aric Almirola

14. Corey LaJoie

15. William Byron

16. Kurt Busch

17. Bubba Wallace

18. Denny Hamlin

19. Landon Cassill

20. Noah Gragson

21. Austin Cindric

22. Christopher Bell

23. Brad Keselowski

24. David Ragan

25. JJ Yeley

26. BJ McLeod

27. Todd Gilliland

28. Cody Ware

29. Cole Custer

30. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

31. Daniel Suarez

32. Joey Logano

33. Ty Dillon

34. Harrison Burton

35. Greg Biffle

36. Daniel Hemric

37. Chase Briscoe

38. Chris Buescher

39. Tyler Reddick

 

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