Ross Chastain and the No. 1 NASCAR Chevy Camaro ZL1 didn’t make the Championship 4 in the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs, but that didn’t stop him from bringing a race-winning performance to Phoenix Raceway on November 5th, 2023. In fact, he beat all four of the championship contenders across the line to take the checkered flag – something that hasn’t been done since the Playoffs format was implemented in 2014.
Chastain led 157 of 312 laps during the race, passing Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota TRD Camry after a restart on Lap 282. He never looked back, and went on to win by 1.230 seconds ahead of Ryan Blaney, whose No. 12 Ford Mustang won the overall 2023 Cup Series championship. In fact, Blaney and Chastain traded paint a few times as the former attempted to make the pass for the win, but Chastain didn’t surrender the lead, even though he wasn’t racing for the title.
“I was not going to crash him,” Chastain said of Blaney in a postrace interview. “I was not going to use my front bumper, side fenders, anything. Dirty air? Different story. Yeah, I’m going to. I’m going to keep the lead because that’s everything. Before the second-to-last run, I thought we had [Blaney] covered… then that last caution came out, and I asked [crew chief] Phil [Surgen] and the guys to please let me turn better without getting any rear grip.”
Chastain added, “I just knew we could hold [Blaney] off.”
Meanwhile, championship contenders Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Camaro, and William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Camaro, weren’t able to get past Blaney when it mattered most.
“Yeah, his car was really fast,” Larson, who finished third, said. “Really the last few months. Yeah, especially here today.”
Byron ultimately finished just behind Larson in fourth after leading 95 laps.
“Once the track rubbered in, we got really tight,” he said. “Especially when we lost the lead on track, we just had a big balance shift and got tight back in second through fifth, just couldn’t gain a lot of speed through [Turns] 1 and 2, just kind of having to really over-slow the car, get it to the bottom. That’s all we had there.”
Finish | Start | Car Number | Driver | Team | Laps Run | Laps Led | Car |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 8 | 1 | Ross Chastain | Worldwide Express Chevrolet | 312 | 157 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
2 | 15 | 12 | Ryan Blaney (P) | Menards/Dutch Boy Ford | 312 | 2 | Ford Mustang |
3 | 4 | 5 | Kyle Larson (P) | HendrickCars.com Chevrolet | 312 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
4 | 1 | 24 | William Byron (P) | Axalta Chevrolet | 312 | 95 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
5 | 9 | 17 | Chris Buescher | Fastenal Ford | 312 | 18 | Ford Mustang |
6 | 2 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Bass Pro Shops Toyota | 312 | 1 | Toyota TRD Camry |
7 | 3 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Busch Light Harvick Ford | 312 | 23 | Ford Mustang |
8 | 6 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | FedEx Toyota | 312 | 14 | Toyota TRD Camry |
9 | 19 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Love's/Delo Ford | 312 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
10 | 5 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | Columbia Sportswear Company Toyota | 312 | 0 | Toyota TRD Camry |
11 | 16 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | Tootsies Orchid Lounge Chevrolet | 312 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
12 | 21 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Get Bioethanol Chevrolet | 312 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
13 | 28 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Smithfield Ford | 312 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
14 | 12 | 41 | Ryan Preece | United Rentals Ford | 312 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
15 | 31 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | Castrol Edge Ford | 312 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
16 | 20 | 9 | Chase Elliott | NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet | 312 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
17 | 23 | 48 | Alex Bowman | Ally Chevrolet | 312 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
18 | 17 | 22 | Joey Logano | Shell Pennzoil Ford | 312 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
19 | 22 | 42 | Carson Hocevar(i) | Sunseeker Resorts Chevrolet | 312 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
20 | 7 | 43 | Erik Jones | Allegiant Allways Rewards Chevrolet | 312 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
21 | 11 | 54 | Ty Gibbs # | Monster Energy Toyota | 312 | 0 | Toyota TRD Camry |
22 | 10 | 45 | Tyler Reddick | Toyota Toyota | 312 | 0 | Toyota TRD Camry |
23 | 24 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Fry's/Cheez-It Chevrolet | 312 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
24 | 26 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | Mahindra Tractors Ford | 312 | 2 | Ford Mustang |
25 | 18 | 8 | Kyle Busch | 3CHI Chevrolet | 311 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
26 | 25 | 21 | Harrison Burton | Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford | 311 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
27 | 34 | 15 | JJ Yeley(i) | Total Point/Patriot Mobile Ford | 311 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
28 | 33 | 77 | Ty Dillon | Gainbridge Chevrolet | 310 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
29 | 35 | 31 | Justin Haley | Campers Inn RV Chevrolet | 310 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
30 | 14 | 38 | Todd Gilliland | Boot Barn Ford | 309 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
31 | 29 | 7 | Corey LaJoie | NEGU Chevrolet | 308 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
32 | 32 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger | Action Industries Chevrolet | 308 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
33 | 36 | 78 | BJ McLeod(i) | Pala Casino Chevrolet | 306 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
34 | 30 | 51 | Ryan Newman(i) | Serial 1 E-Bikes Ford | 305 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
35 | 27 | 2 | Austin Cindric | Discount Tire Ford | 301 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
36 | 13 | 20 | Christopher Bell (P) | Rheem/DEWALT Toyota | 108 | 0 | Toyota TRD Camry |
# – Rookie
i – Points ineligible
* – Part-time driver
P – Playoffs eligible
Subscribe to GM Authority for more Chevy Camaro news, Chevy news, NASCAR news, GM motorsports news and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
No Comments yet