TALLADEGA, Ala. – Though the first 90 percent of Saturday’s NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race at Talladega Superspeedway was run without calamity, the dreaded Big One finally reared its head late in the going.
And as the smoke cleared in turn four, a seemingly-strong run by Ross Chastain – and potential victory in the Sugarlands Shine 250 – came to a grinding and sudden end.
An Anthony Alfredo spin with 13 laps to go, after virtually no issues through the first 81 circuits, set up an eight-lap sprint to the finish and made it clear in a hurry that the intensity level was about to pick up.
It did just that on lap 87, with Chastain making a four-wide pass down the backstretch for the top spot after receiving a push from Sheldon Creed, whose GMS Racing team has a technical alliance with Chastain’s team – Niece Motorsports.
But though Creed’s bumper was the catalyst for Chastain’s move to take the top spot, it was also the catalyst for the end of the Alva, Fla., native’s day moments later.
As the field worked back into turn three on the 88th circuit, Creed got a run through the center of the corner and ducked to the middle groove in an attempt to pull alongside Chastain for the lead.
Chastain tried to block the maneuver, but Creed was already there. The two made contact, Chastain was turned down the track as a result and a 10-car pileup broke out that eliminated Chastain, Timothy Peters, Clay Greenfield and others.
In an instant, Chastain went from having a shot to lock himself into the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway in November to being last in the top six, two points below the cutoff line with two races remaining before the final elimination of the season.
Chastain didn’t complain at all after being checked out by medical officials, however. He kept his head up and accepted responsibility for the crash that threw his championship hopes into the most turmoil they’ve been in since the playoffs began.
“I’m not going to sit here and quarterback it back; I definitely turned left on him (Creed),” said Chastain after being released from the infield care center. “I’m sorry to everybody that got taken out. My Niece Motorsports boys and girls deserve better than that. The CarShield Chevy was fast enough to go compete for the win today, but that one was on me. It was a bad judgment call on my part.
“Now we get to go to Martinsville and Phoenix and redeem ourselves. We’re going to press the attack.”
Asked if his mental philosophy is going to change for the final two races in the Round of 6, Chastain was quick to shoot down any theories of that happening.
“Absolutely not,” Chastain said. “I will go try to win practice, try to win qualifying and try to win the race. We just have to go execute. That was poor execution on my part, today. Again, I’m sorry to everybody involved and, you know, we’ll just go on and just go execute and try to win these next two.
“That’s my job and that’s what we’re going to do. It’s as simple as that.”