Ross Chastain likes his long-run speed after winning pole position for Ally 400

It might not just be his short-run, single-lap speed that is good. Ross Chastain seems to like his car’s long-run speed as well. After getting a little emotional following his first career pole award, Chastain could be poised for a big NASCAR race tonight in Music City.

Trackhouse Racing was super fast in qualifying. Unforutnately for Daniel Suárez, he hit the wall in the final qualifying round and will go to a backup car. Still, it shows that these teams know how to get a car ready for this track.

Not only did Ross Chastain win the pole in single-lap qualifying, but he was also second best in 10-lap average during practice. All-in-all, the No. 1 WWEX Chevy looks like it is ready to compete for 400 miles.

“Yeah long-run for sure,” Chastain said when asked if he preferred long or single-lap speed, via Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports. “It’s nice when I have to pass a bunch. Hopefully, everything stays how it is and we get out to a lead there, but race trim wise the car is super strong. Really good balance and none of them, it doesn’t feel great going through the corners here they always feel slow to me because there’s not a lot of banking, there’s concrete. But it shows really good. So, I feel I would rather have good average speed than single lap but we’ve put a lot of work into single lap for sure.”

Ross Chastain is on the pole for today, but there is another stat from the weekend that could mean more — he was second in 10-lap average in practice. His outlook for Nashville: pic.twitter.com/5rzWi1hK3J

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) June 25, 2023

Could this be Ross Chastain’s big break, in Nashville? Trackhouse Racing started in Music City and they might make a little more team history in the process before Sunday is over.

Ross Chastain wins first carer pole award

When Bubba Wallace spun out and Ross Chastain earned his first pole award, the Trackhouse team celebrated in a big way. Everyone knew what it meant for the team to get the first pole award not just for Chastain but the organization as a whole.

As Chastain talked with NBC Sports, he was emotional and had tears in his eyes. He was thankful for the work his team put into the car and almost couldn’t believe he had topped the board in qualifying.

“It’s so much bigger than just one race or just getting first pit stall and everything for Nashville,” the driver said. “Where Trackhouse was born and started out of Broadway with Tootsies and Justin [Marks] and everybody.

“It was personally just so much agony in qualifying my entire life I’ve never tied together laps like the car was capable of. I’ve always left time out there and just to back up my time from round one to round two was the goal. So much, I don’t know how to describe it, it was so much personal frustration with myself over the years.”

Frustration no more. This might be just what Ross Chastain needs to break through since his slump that started after Darlington.