NASCAR CUP SERIES: COOK OUT SOUTHERN 500

September 5, 2021

Ross Chastain

Pit Road TV Quotes

An Interview with:

Q. Throughout the Southern 500 here tonight there was all the playoff cars and then there was Ross Chastain in contention for the win. What a great night for you guys. What more did you need to maybe challenge that 11 and 5?

ROSS CHASTAIN: A better driver. I can go fast. I just can't quite race with them, and it starts with my restarts. I've got some work to do there, so I gave up the outside to take the bottom to be safe and then Kyle rolls around me.

Was able to make one last charge there at him at the end, but yeah, I just need to clean up a few things. I've worked with Josh Wise and Scott Speed, and they helped me a lot. This McDonald's My Rewards car, I think it was the fastest car here tonight, so it's humbling to come with this CGR Group these final 10 races here, a place where my career kind of took a totally different trajectory three years ago, and to have people like Clover and The Moose and Advent Health on board supporting me and still letting me race three years later, it means the world. I've just got to clean up some more, though.

Q. What is it about this place for you? I remember back in 2018 when you had that amazing run for Ganassi here at Darlington. You've been so close to winning here twice in the Xfinity Series. Talk about this place, how good it is for you and also the competition level of now doing this on the Cup side.

ROSS CHASTAIN: Yeah, it's hard to say. I feel like I've put in work, but I always feel behind, so I never feel fully prepared. So I'm not going to say that.

I'm going to say it's probably a lot of hot Saturday nights in south Florida racing at 417 Speedway. We don't run up against the fence there, but it's as sideways as we are here at Darlington, and I didn't run up against the fence at all tonight. A lot of Florida Saturday night short tracks and a lot of older, wiser guys and other racers down there that taught me a lot. To come back here now three years later for the people that supported me then and put me in that car, we're still here and we're still fighting, and it means the world.