Chastain’s focus in recent weeks has been on taking home a trophy, considering he’s had five runner-up finishes this year, but he also knows that his consistency could take him just as deep into the postseason as winning races would.
The Alva, Fla., native has a series-best 23 top-10 finishes through the first 26 races of the year.
“We just have to keep doing what we’re doing and just keep being fast,” Chastain said. “It’s about not taking ourselves out of contention, putting ourselves in a position to win and then going against some of the toughest competition out there. This is the second level of our sport. It’s one of the highest levels of motorsports, and it’s hard to win. It’s hard to be in this sport for any amount of time, let alone having a shot to win races year after year. It’s tough, but we are putting together a very consistent year.
“We have speed week in and week out, so as long as we keep doing that, the wins will come,” he added. “I want to end this year with a championship, for sure, before I move up to the Cup Series next season.”
While Chastain has seven races left before his full-time journey with Kaulig Racing ends, he was quick to add that he still has a desire to be involved with the team in the future.
Chastain said he would “definitely” be interested in running a part-time schedule for team owner Matt Kaulig in 2021 if the right circumstances arose to put such a package together.
“I want to still be here in some capacity; it’s a potential,” Chastain affirmed. “I think Matt Kaulig and Chris Rice want me to. Nutrien Ag Solutions is a big part of our lives. I’m a farmer; they’re the largest agriculture retailer in the world. Keeping involvement with this group is important to me, but I also realize how important the (No.) 42 car is, and balancing that will be tough. I want to race. I want to run as much as I can. In 2019, I think I ran 77 or so races across the top three series, and I loved it. I wanted to run more Xfinity races, because Xfinity was what I missed the most that year.
“But I do realize going forward that the demand of the Cup series, the mental strain, all of that is a new variable for me,” Chastain added. “Their races are longer, and yes, we don’t have practice or qualifying right now, but that doesn’t mean that I need to be getting hot in these cars on a Saturday every week. So balancing that will be tough. I realize where the importance and the focus will be with CGR, but as a racer, I just want to race.
“I’m not saying that I’m definitely going to be doing anything with Kaulig next year; I just know that I want to, and I know that it’ll make me a better race car driver. It puts my mind in a better place knowing I’ve got more races on the schedule.”
For Chastain, who grew up as an eighth-generation watermelon farmer with a dream of driving race cars, the whirlwind of the last week has reminded him that it has been a long – but rewarding – road to get to this point.
“Through the good times and the bad times, this journey has been so humbling,” he said. “It keeps me humble too, to think about where I’ve come from. I signed a piece of fan mail recently and saw myself in a fire suit that wasn’t made for me, with somebody else’s name that they changed the name on to where I got to use it the next year. That doesn’t happen anymore, not at the level I’ve gotten to here … but to think about those times and just glance across and sign a piece of fan mail is crazy and humbling.
“I wouldn’t trade my path for anything, but I also would not wish it on anybody, because most people would not have done it the way I have,” Chastain continued. “I’m not even saying that I would have written it down and planned it this way, but it’s the only way I was going to get here. And now I’m here.”