NASCAR COTA: Chastain earns first Cup win in last-lap chaos

NASCAR COTA: Chastain earns first Cup win in last-lap chaos

As a late circumspection sent the race into a two-lap overtime, Tyler Reddick held the lead - but Chastain used a deft move in the esses to reuse the lead.

Chastain took the white flag – signalling the last lap – as the leader but Allmendinger and Bowman did not let him get away.

Coming into the last set of turns, Allmendinger got virtually Chastain for the lead, then Bowman went to the outside of Allmendinger and Chastain to transiently grab the lead.

At the penultimate corner, Chastain nudged Allmendinger who careened into the path of Bowman, sending both cars off undertow and Chastain escaped with his first career Cup Series victory in 121 starts.

The win is the first for Trackhouse Racing, which is in just its second full-time year of Cup series competition. The team is co-owned by Grammy Award-winning rapper Pitbull and former suburbanite Justin Marks.

“It’s insane,” Chastain said. “To go up versus some of the weightier with AJ, I mean, I know he is going to be upset with me, but we raced hard, both of us, and he owes me one.

“But when it comes to a Cup win, man, I can’t let that go lanugo without a fight. People don’t know how good this group is. I can’t believe Justin Marks hired me to momentum this car.”

Asked how he managed to win without losing tenancy of the race on the final restart, Chastain said, “I don’t know how we got when by. I was so worried well-nigh AJ on the second-to-last restart that I let Tyler momentum right by both of us.

“And AJ is so good. I’ve learned so much from him. And it was like how do you go write-up the guy? He taught me so much. I’ve learned so much from so many people from 417 Speedway when home with my dad.

\"Ross

Ross Chastain, TrackHouse Racing, ONX Homes / iFly Chevrolet Camaro celebrates his first win.

Photo by: Rusty Jarrett / NKP / Motorsport Images

“I was thinking well-nigh on those late restarts, my dad used to make me race on old tyres, and when then I was not going to win. It was in my throne surpassing I plane started. It crossed my mind, like, ‘We’re not going to win, we’re on old tyres’, but I couldn’t think that way.\"

Chastain\'s victory continues an impressive run in which the Floridian has not finished outside of the top three in the last four Cup races.

Bowman recovered from the final-lap skirmish with second place as Allmendinger sink the brunt of the incident, stuff sent into the gravel and was classified a lap lanugo in 33rd place.

Christopher Bell was the highest-placed Toyota suburbanite in third, vibration points leader Chase Elliott to fourth place.

Reddick, whose own chances of victory had evaporated within overtime having passed Chastain and Allmendinger for the lead, finished fifth superiority of polesitter Ryan Blaney.

Blaney was tamed to stage one victory by Chastain\'s Trackhouse team-mate Daniel Suarez, while Denny Hamlin took the second stage victory from Kyle Busch.

Martin Truex Jr ended the day in seventh superiority of Penske rookie Austin Cindric, while Erik Jones and Austin Dillon completed the top 10.

NASCAR Cup Texas Grand Prix results - 69 laps

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