Watermelon Farmer Ross Chastain Wins Vegas Xfinity Race

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LAS VEGAS, NV – RIS – Ross Chastain won all the stages and took the checkered flag in Saturday’s DC Solar NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.  He led 180 of the 200 laps, but it just wasn’t that easy.  Torrid racing was the issue of the day.  The track developed three grooves, low. High, and middle, which made for an entertaining race. 

Chastain had challengers during the entire race.  He withstood all the challenges and came away a dominating winner, even if it wasn’t easy.  The 25-year old watermelon farmer was given a change to drive a top car from Chip Ganassi for three races.  His first attempt ended in rubble after a scrape with Kevin Harvick.  That wasn’t going to happen this time.

“Holy cow! I‘m just a watermelon farmer from Florida—I‘m not supposed to do that,” said Chastain, who carried one of his trademark watermelons to Victory Lane. “This shows you anything in your life is possible. I gave one away at Darlington, and this was awesome racing.

“I never thought this would happen. It‘s incredible. Allgaier was awesome. He‘s insane. I had to play possum there (on the restarts) and then changed it up. The car was just amazing. This was all we could ask for. We did it!”

Running in his No. 42 Chevrolet Camaro that showed its superiority on longer runs, Chastain was forced to win the race in short sprints. Vinnie Miller‘s spin on Lap 175 caused the sixth caution and forced a restart on Lap 181. Trying to side-draft Allgaier right after the cars took off, Chastain brushed the side of Allgaier’s No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet and kept the lead.

On a Lap 188 restart, after Chase Briscoe‘s brutal crash into the inside backstretch wall, Chastain moved up the track to block Allgaier‘s run into Turn 1—and kept the lead.

On the final restart with five laps left, after a five-car pileup slowed the race for the eighth time, Chastain cleared Allgaier through Turns 1 and 2 but got a tap from the No. 7 car that propelled him forward down the backstretch.  Chastain pulled out to a 1.629-second lead at the finish.

Cole Custer ran third in his Stewart-Haas Ford Mustang and claimed a bonus of 10 playoff points for finishing second in the regular season. Christopher Bell was fourth, followed by Elliott Sadler. Ryan Preece, Brandon Jones, Ryan Truex, Austin Cindric and Spencer Gallagher completed the top 10.

A bone-jarring wreck in Turn 4 interrupted Chastain‘s dominance of the first two stages. Matt Tiift‘s No. 2 Chevrolet turned sideways in the middle of the corner, right into the path of Ryan Reed‘s No. 16 Ford. Reed slammed into the front-left of Tifft‘s Chevy, and both cars rocketed into the outside wall.

Reed climbed from his car and sat down on the asphalt, leaning against the car door as he collected himself.

“I haven‘t seen the replay, so I don’t know exactly what happened,” Reed said after exiting the infield care center. “Not sure if he lost a tire or what. That was a tough one. Knocked the wind out of me pretty bad. The right side is all banged up.

“I‘m all good. Nothing broken or anything. I‘ll just be sore tomorrow. Thankfully, everyone on our Ford Mustang worked really hard this weekend. I feel like we were getting it better and able to run the top 10 once we got the car a little better. It just got cut short, unfortunately.”

Unofficial Race Results for the Inaugural DC Solar 300 - September 15, 2018
Las Vegas Motor Speedway - Las Vegas, NV - 1.5 Mile Paved
Fin, Str, Driver, Car, Laps, St1, St2, Tms, Laps, Playoff Pts, Pts, Status
1) 5, Ross Chastain, No. 42 DC Solar Chevrolet, 200, 1, 1, 6, 180, 7, 60, Running
2) 8, Justin Allgaier, No. 7 BRANDT Professional Agriculture Chevrolet, 200, 7, 5, 3, 16, , 45, Running
3) 1, Cole Custer, No. 00 Code 3 Associates Ford, 200, 4, 2, 2, 3, , 50, Running
4) 4, Christopher Bell #, No. 20 GameStop Tomb Raider Toyota, 200, 2, 4, , , , 49, Running
5) 3, Elliott Sadler, No. 1 OneMain Financial Chevrolet, 200, 3, 6, , , , 45, Running
6) 34, Ryan Preece, No. 18 Rheem Toyota, 200, , , , , , 31, Running
7) 36, Brandon Jones, No. 19 Menards Mastercraft Doors Toyota, 200, 10, 7, , , , 35, Running
8) 38, Ryan Truex, No. 11 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet, 200, 8, , , , , 32, Running
9) 2, Austin Cindric #, No. 22 MoneyLion Ford, 200, 6, 8, , , , 36, Running
10) 14, Spencer Gallagher, No. 23 Allegiant Chevrolet, 200, , , , , , 27, Running
11) 18, JJ Yeley, No. 38 RSS Racing Chevrolet, 200, , , , , , 26, Running
12) 10, Ryan Sieg, No. 39 Big Valley Towing Chevrolet, 200, , , , , , 25, Running
13) 12, Jeremy Clements, No. 51 RepairableVehicales.com Chevrolet, 200, , , , , , 24, Running
14) 16, Landon Cassill, No. 4  Chevrolet, 200, , , , , , 23, Running
15) 17, Joey Gase, No. 35 Sparks Chevrolet, 200, , , , , , 22, Running
16) 15, Alex Labbe #, No. 36 Sticky-stuff.com/James Carter Attorney Chevrolet, 200, , , , , , 21, Running
17) 21, Ray Black II, No. 8  Chevrolet, 198, , , , , , 20, Running
18) 39, Garrett Smithley, No. 0 FAME-USA.com Chevrolet, 197, , , , , , 19, Running
19) 23, BJ McLeod, No. 15 teamjdmotorsports.com Chevrolet, 197, , , , , , 18, Running
20) 31, Josh Williams, No. 90 Sleep Well/Star Tron Chevrolet, 196, , , , , , 17, Running
21) 22, Cole Rouse, No. 78  Chevrolet, 194, , , , , , 16, Running
22) 27, Spencer Boyd #, No. 76 Grunt Style Chevrolet, 194, , , , , , 15, Running
23) 20, Max Tullman, No. 26 Yurpal.com Ford, 192, , , , , , 14, Running
24) 19, Bayley Currey(i), No. 55 Prevagen Toyota, 191, , , , , , 0, Running
25) 29, Chad Finchum #, No. 40 Smithbilt Homes Chevrolet, 191, , , , , , 12, Running
26) 33, Vinnie Miller #, No. 01 JAS Expedited Trucking Chevrolet, 191, , , , , , 11, Running
27) 26, Josh Bilicki #, No. 45 Prevagen Toyota, 190, , , , , , 10, Running
28) 7, Tyler Reddick #, No. 9 Nationwide Children's Chevrolet, 188, , 9, , , , 11, Accident
29) 35, Daniel Hemric, No. 21 South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet, 188, 5, 3, 1, 1, , 22, Accident
30) 6, Shane Lee, No. 3 Childress Vineyards Chevrolet, 188, , , , , , 7, Accident
31) 13, Chase Briscoe, No. 60 Ford Ford, 181, 9, 10, , , , 9, Accident
32) 24, David Starr, No. 52  Chevrolet, 145, , , , , , 5, Engine
33) 28, Mike Harmon, No. 74 Shadow Warriors Project Chevrolet, 93, , , , , , 4, Clutch
34) 25, Timmy Hill, No. 66 CrashClaimsR.Us Dodge, 74, , , , , , 3, Suspension
35) 11, Ryan Reed, No. 16 Drive Down A1C Lilly Diabetes Ford, 64, , , , , , 2, Accident
36) 37, Matt Tifft, No. 2 KCMG Chevrolet, 63, , , , , , 1, Accident
37) 40, Stan Mullis, No. 13 OCR Gaz Bar Dodge, 51, , , , , , 1, Vibration
38) 32, John Jackson, No. 72 CrashClaimsR.Us/James Carter Attorney Toyota, 30, , , , , , PE, Vibration
39) 30, Jeff Green, No. 93 RSS Racing Chevrolet, 18, , , , , , 1, Vibration
40) 9, Michael Annett, No. 5 Allstate Parts & Service Group Chevrolet, 5, , , , , , 1, Accident

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series, (#) Rookie
Total Race Length - 200 Laps - 300 Miles
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 30 Mins, 56 Secs.
Average Speed: 119.258 MPH
Margin of Victory: 1.629 Seconds
Race Comments: Ross Chastain won the Inaugural DC Solar 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, his first victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Prior to the start of the race, the following cars dropped to the rear of the field under penalty for the reasons indicated: No. 0 (backup car), No. 8 (failed inspection three times).
Caution Flags: 8 for 40 laps: Laps: 7-12 (No. 5, 18 Incident Frontstretch [2])
47-51 (End of Stage 1 [39])
66-70 (No. 2, 16 Incident Turn 4 [None])
92-96 (End of Stage 2 [51])
125-129 (No. 18 Spin Turn 2 [35])
177-180 (No. 01 Spin Turn 3 [38])
183-187 (No. 60, 9 Incident Backstretch [39])
190-194 (No. 3, 21, 9 Incident Turn 1 [51]).
Lead Changes: 11 among 4 drivers:
C. Custer 1-2
R. Chastain 3-11
C. Custer 12
R. Chastain 13-70
D. Hemric 71
R. Chastain 72-130
J. Allgaier 131
R. Chastain 132-134
J. Allgaier 135-148
R. Chastain 149-179
J. Allgaier 180
R. Chastain 181-200.
Mahle Clevite Engine Builder of the Race: Hendrick Engines, No. 42 
Mobil 1 Driver of the Race: Justin Allgaier, No. 7 
Sunoco Rookie of the Race: Christopher Bell, No. 20

Ron Fleshman with John Davison

RIS NASCAR Editor.  Has been with RIS since the middle 90's. Writes on each of the three main series of NASCAR.

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Volume 2018, Issue 9, Posted 10:34 PM, 09.15.2018