The Trackhouse team effort behind Ross Chastain’s Coca-Cola 600 win

Ross Chastain scored his first victory of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series with an incredible charge from 40th and last on the grid in the Coca-Cola 600.

But the fact that Chastain was even able to line up at the start in Charlotte was nothing short of a miracle. Just a day earlier, the 32-year-old blew a tyre in practice and smashed the wall between Turn 3 and 4, wrecking the #1 Chevrolet.

It was a massive setback for Chastain, who had been among the fastest drivers on long runs.

“It was pretty deflating,” said crew chief Phil Surgen. “We finally show up with some speed, and then we’re loading a wrecked car.”

The initial hope was to repair the damaged primary, but as parts were removed, it became clear: the rear frame was bent beyond repair. By the time the team made the call to switch to the backup car, precious hours had already been lost.

“For about an hour and a half we thought we were going to have to fix the primary,” said Chastain. “That would have been fine. Then NASCAR said, ‘No, there’s something bent, too much, so go build another one, and we did’.

Work continued in the early hours of Sunday and the mechanics got little time to rest before they were back in the garage o get everything in place.

“At 8:30 p.m., there were 30 people at the shop,” Surgen recalled. “Road crew, engine support, shop guys who left concerts and baseball games—they just dropped everything and showed up.”

“As the night wore on and different stages of the process kind of evolved, we sent some of those guys home, and the last of us, there were probably eight or ten of us that left at 2:30 last night. The first guys got back there at 5:30.

“So a couple of hours of sleep and back at it this morning. We worked all the way up until the wire until we had to re-inspect today at 2:00 p.m.”

Chastain denies Byron victory

Although there was no guarantee that the newly-built car would run well, Chastain was quickly up to speed in the race, slicing his way through the field to enter victory contention.

Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron had been leading the race comfortably heading into the closing stages, but Chastain pulled off a brilliant move on the outside of Turn 2 with six laps to run to wrest control of the race.

He eventually took the chequered flag to register his sixth career win in the Cup Series.

“It’s sinking in that we won the World 600,” he said. “We won the Coke 600, but what that means for the team and me and everything else,

“You saw us crash yesterday. You heard me talk about [how] they were up until 2:30. They rebuilt the car, and we put ourselves in — we just slowly worked our way.

“It took all 600 miles. [If it was] a 400-mile race here, we don’t get there [in the victory lane]. We’re not in contention.

“It took the whole time. I don’t know what it means yet. I’m excited to find out, though.”

Chastain's late-race pass left Byron heartbroken, as the Hendrick driver missed out on victory despite leading 283 out of 400 laps. However, with teammate Kyle Larson crashing out, Byron retook the lead in the championship in Charlotte.