DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — One of the big themes at Trackhouse Racing entering the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season was “managing expectations.”
Team owner Justin Marks and team president Ty Norris believed it was important that Trackhouse continue its upward trajectory after the team’s dramatic breakthrough season in 2022.
That year, both Daniel Suarez and Ross Chastain won races and both drivers made the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. Suarez advanced into the Round of 12 and Chastain made it all the way to the NASCAR Championship Race with his “Hail Melon” move at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway that got him the last spot in the Championship Four.
Trackhouse entered 2023 with high hopes of continuing its upward trajectory.
Chastain did his part by winning two races last season, but he was eliminated in the Round of 12. Suarez failed to make the playoffs and did not win a race.
But Trackhouse ended the season with Chastain’s win at Phoenix Raceway , becoming the first driver in the current NASCAR Championship format that was not eligible for the title.
Ryan Blaney’s second-place finish clinched the championship for Team Penske.
Chastain arrived at Wednesday’s Daytona 500 Media Day in his new Busch Light driving suit. That is his sponsor beginning this season after the Anheuser Busch brand was most recently on Kevin Harvick’s Ford at Stewart Haas Racing.
It’s a new look for Chastain, but what’s his outlook for 2024?
“Keep working,” Chastain responded to a question from SPEED SPORT. “We definitely took some time and took some days, weeks, and better part of a month to unplug, then we came back in January and it’s full speed ahead working as hard as ever and doing everything we know to do.
“We’re not going the same prep that we did for 2023 or ’22 and definitely not for ’21. As we’ve evolved and learned, we keep growing. What are the expectations? I don’t have any number-based ones or anything. Just go compete. Whatever we learn after the first two and the superspeedway stuff here and in Atlanta and then go out west and we evolve our packages for springs and shocks, that’s what gets me excited.”
The 31-year-old Florida driver’s story is well known. He is “The Watermelon Famer” from Southwest Florida, the eighth generation of a family of watermelon farmers.
As a kid from Florida, his family made the trip to the other side of the state to Daytona Beach to attend NASCAR races at Daytona Int’l Speedway, including the Daytona 500.
SPEED SPORT asked Chastain as a native Floridian, what the Daytona 500 means to him and what it would mean to win it?
“Why not us?” he responded. “I have to think that. Why can’t we win? There are no reasons why we can’t. From there, indescribable… I don’t know what it would mean. If it happens, you’ll get to watch us experience it for the first time together.”
The 66th Daytona 500 is scheduled for Sunday and between Wednesday’s Media Day Chastain and the other NASCAR Cup Series competitors have single-lap qualifications on Wednesday, the Blue Green Vacations Duels qualifying races on Thursday night and practice sessions for Friday and Saturday.
The weather forecast for Saturday and Sunday currently calls for rain, but Trackhouse will be ready whenever the green flag drops.
“We plan accordingly,” Chastain said. “We have rooms booked in case we need them. That’s a necessary insurance plan.
“I don’t dwell. I’d rather the rain be here than at the farm. We don’t need any more rain. A little bit is OK but not the two days of steady rain like they’re talking here. Farmer at heart here has been looking at different weather apps my entire life and listening to forecasts and meteorologists. We’ll see.”
Chastain revealed how he spends his time during a rain delay. Most drivers return to their motorhomes in the driver/owner motorhome lot and wait to be called back to their cars once the weather clears.
“I try not to eat,” Chastain said is his biggest challenge. “Even if I’ve eaten and prepared, and we go out and run 10 laps in the race and we get out, I’m looking for food. It’s just my natural nervous instinct. So, I’ll eat more.
“Even though we aren’t racing, we’re still burning calories. The nerves and the adrenaline and the heart rate is up. It’s impossible not to need to take in more calories during these events.”
Chastain is prepared for the weather, but it’s not among his expectations.
After all, it all comes down to managing expectations.
“I don’t know what the next step is,” he admitted. “Competing is top of mind for me. It’s really all I focus on. I focus just as much for the Daytona 500 as I do any track in Cup. They are all so important and so pivotal. I never know when the last one is going to be. That’s just the way the world works.
“One of these will be my last win.
“I’m fortunate to have a couple now but we’ll see. Obviously, the World 600, Southern 500, Daytona 500… those are big ones, but I can’t prepare any more than I do for them because I’m preparing as much as I can, or as much as I know how. There’s probably always more I can do but it’s as much as I know how to do.”