Ross Chastain gives unfiltered opinion on NASCAR | Sports News

NASCAR’s determination to ditch the Playoffs in favor of a return to a new model of its predecessor, ‘The Chase,’ will even imply that a common season win no longer ensures a driver a spot within the 10-race run for a title.

Furthermore, the motive force who wins the common season will begin ‘The Chase’ with the higher hand, beginning with 2,100 factors, forward of the runner-up on 2,075, third place on 2,065, whereas each driver beneath them drops back by a additional 5 factors.

For some, notably these drivers not recurrently battling for wins with larger groups, this might show a troublesome hurdle to beat, having to rely on constantly scoring strong factors as an alternative of relying on one-off impressed performances to remain within the race for a title.

However, in keeping with Ross Chastain of Trackhouse Racing, who reached the Playoffs in three of the final 4 seasons, he doesn’t consider dropping the “win and you’re in” reward will affect the will of any of the drivers to achieve victory lane.

“In my opinion, a win is so massive in life, to win in the Cup Series, that every driver that straps in on race day is willing to do whatever it takes,” he instructed reporters at North Wilkesboro Speedway. “Any of them that say they won’t try to win with everything they know how to do, I don’t think is telling the truth. 

“Not that anybody’s doing that, but I just think that a win in the Cup Series means so much that it doesn’t matter the points. In that moment, you’re worried about winning, and that’s why we’re all here. That’s why we started racing as kids and kept trying to move up. We wanted to win at a higher level. 

“At a higher level, we chased that next series, the next class. At least that’s what I did, and that’s what I see a lot of my competitors did as well when I look back at their upbringings. So I think now that we’re all here, we’ll all do whatever it takes. It’s that special to win in these Cup races.”

Luckily for Chastain, with six Cup Series wins to his identify, together with at the least one in every of his 4 seasons with Trackhouse, wins needs to be a lifelike chance in 2026, as ought to a spot in ‘The Chase’ if he can stay constant enough all through the common season.

The similar might be stated of his teammates, with reigning Rookie of the Year Shane van Gisbergen returning for his second full-time season, having gained on 5 of six street programs final yr, and Connor Zilisch coming into his rookie season after profitable 10 races in his debut O’Reilly’s Auto Parts Series season in 2025.