Chastain Pays Off Iowa Pace With Solid Top-10 Finish

Ross Chastain leads a group of cars Sunday at Iowa Speedway. (Matthew Thacker/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

By Justin Glenn, SWN Staff Writer

NEWTON, Iowa (Aug. 9, 2026) – Ross Chastain’s 2026 has been a season full of untapped potential.

Some weeks Trackhouse Racing doesn’t have the speed to seriously compete, then in others the speed is there, but misfortune strikes and fumbles their execution. 

In Chastain’s case, that same song has spun for 22 weeks. But at Iowa Speedway Sunday afternoon, the usual narrative came to a brief stop.

Trackhouse’s No. 1 Chevrolet team showed up with pace on Saturday, translated it into Sunday’s race and put together a complete weekend seemingly for the first time all season. 

Chastain came home seventh in the Iowa Corn 350, earning his fifth top 10 of the season and first since Naval Base Coronado at San Diego on June 21. 

“It was an incredible weekend for this No. 1 Busch Light Farming Chevrolet team. It was just a complete weekend from the very first lap,” said Chastain. “We made very small changes all weekend. We just made a few air pressure adjustments, a couple tenths here and a couple tenths there throughout the race, and really, we could have left it alone.”

It isn’t news to anyone about how difficult the year has been for Trackhouse. The organization has taken a dip in performance and all three team cars are in different tax brackets competition wise. 

On one hand, Shane van Gisbergen has held serve in road racing, improved on ovals and sits in Chase position. Twenty-year-old rookie Connor Zilisch has had a gruesome initiation to the Cup Series, but has shown signs of promise.

Meanwhile Chastain, the team’s lead veteran driver, has been outside the top 20 in points for the majority of the year. 

All of that comes on top of contract rumors following the 2027 season, so coming into Iowa, Chastain was looking for a weekend to return to form.

The sport is used to the aggressive, blue-collar, heavyweight contender each race. The seven-eighth-mile short track posed an opportunity for Chastain, with two 11th-place finishes there prior to Sunday. 

Saturday, he was eighth quickest in practice. That translated into a ninth-place starting position behind his teammate Zilisch inside the top 10. Good track position allowed for crew chief Brandon McSwain to open the playbook of strategies. By the end of stage one he drove up to sixth.

Teams realized quickly that tire fall off wasn’t too big of an issue. McSwain called a two-tire stop halfway through stage two, which jumped teams that elected four tires at that juncture. 

In the final 15 laps of the second segment, Chastain motored up to third from his top 10 position to collect 13 total stage points. 

To start the final stage, fresh tires on the No. 1 allowed Chastain to become the top running Chevrolet with 100 laps to go. Once the final pit cycle began, he cycled to the lead and led 40 laps.

This was the most Chastain had led in a race all season and second consecutive race he’s been out front, following five laps led at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. 

Chastain’s team elected to stay out long in hopes of a late caution with cars trapped a lap down and other leaders many seconds behind. That gamble to win the race didn’t pay of, however, as there wasn’t a caution. With 20 laps to go, Chastain finally gave up the ghost, pitted, and cycled back to seventh.

“To run in the top five and take a shot at those guys [top Toyota and Ford competitors], I love that Brandon McSwain swung for that,” Chastain said. “A seventh-place finish still feels really good.”

While having to settle, that’s the kind of day Chastain needed. Chastain has been one of the top drivers in NASCAR since joining Trackhouse in 2022. But this year has been a regression into the early days of his Cup career, when he was in search of long term commitment from an organization.  

Iowa was a reminder that the Alva, Fla., native still has it. In 2026, there’s been hints of past success, but nothing has truly bloomed until Sunday. Still, Chastain climbed from 21st in the standings to 18th, 47 points back of the final Chase spot after amassing 43 points. 

One race doesn’t change everything. But with three races remaining, the 33-year-old has a real shot at a buzzer-beater postseason spot with Richmond (Va.) Raceway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway left. 

He was fifth in 2024 at Richmond, has two straight top 10s at the ‘Magic Mile’ and his aggression in the draft doesn’t count him out of a strong Daytona regular season finale. 

Chastain doesn’t need a win; all he needs is points execution. That’s the new art of the Chase with a late summer bubble battle brewing in August. 

If given the right equipment, Chastain can get it done at a high level. That’s all he’s done with deep postseason runs since he signed at Trackhouse five seasons ago. It’s also the reason for his long-term deal with the team in 2023. 

But Chastain isn’t focused on the long haul right now. His eyes are on what’s immediately ahead after Sunday, and the thought of sneaking into the Chase at the last second.

“I don’t care about points unless the speed comes with it,” Chastain said. “Today was the speed we are looking for.”

Coverage of the Cook Out 400 from Richmond is slated for Saturday, Aug. 15 at 7 p.m. ET on USA, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.