Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Ross Chastain Interview after Coca-Cola 600 Win | VICTORY LAP

Episode Date: May 27, 2025

Coca-Cola 600 winner Ross Chastain sits down with Kaitlyn Vincie on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour to break down his biggest NASCAR win yet. In this exclusive interview, Ross shares the inside story of his dramatic drive at Charlotte, the team’s race-day strategy, and how it felt to take the checkered flag in one of NASCAR’s crown jewels. Kaitlyn and Ross also discuss his mindset entering the race, key moments that made the difference, and what’s next for Trackhouse Racing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

they suddenly were in view. And I was like, oh, I didn't realize I, now I can tell who it is. So I knew I had caught them. This thing, if you can see it, this big win ring is thrown off my body. Are you doing, Ross? It's great to see you. Caleb Vintzi filling in, of course, for Kevin Harvick here on the Victory Lab. First thing I want to know is how the celebration's been since the Big Crown Jewel win. Yeah, a little sore. This thing, if you can see it, this big wind ring is throwing off my body pretty heavy on the left hand here. Keep switching back and forth. Stayed up all night, Sunday night, saw the sun come up and went straight to the airport for a 10 a.m. flight. Went to Milwaukee and saw the moose. So the moose is a partner that's been with us since the beginning. They followed me through Expinity and all the way. way into now track house. So I went up, announced an extension on their contract and saw a bunch people and already had that plan. So made the decision in Victory Lane that no matter what, I will make the 10 a.m. flight. So best case, best thing to do is just stay up and we did that.

Good for you. I love to hear that for you. And this was a very hard fought win from everything that happened obviously in practice, the team working through the night on the race car. You doing your job behind the wheel. How do you feel like this is kind of a statement win? And to the rest of your competitors a bit? Well, we've changed some processes at Trackhouse going into this year to add the third car full time. And then as well as once we got into the year, we realized we weren't having the speed in the cars.

I mean, we have so many things that are going right for Trackhouse from the activation side, partnerships, the work energy here at the shop, shop floor, a lot of smiles, but just not fast enough. We just want to go faster. So we just entasked the groups, the different leadership groups, with just rearranging some stuff. Let's do it a little different. And they have and institutes new processes. And I don't even begin to understand how a lot of this works.

There's so many moving parts. About 200 employees here at Trackhouse. And all to put three or four cars on the track, that's really tough to point at one thing that's the problem. Because it's not one thing. So we've made some changes. And so we've lived through that. And we've seen some fruit out of that, some real results. And we unloaded Saturday with, I believe, the fastest car.

I could have done a little bit better job. But really for group two, we were right there with the 24 for speed on fast lap. We were the fastest two in our group. And then long run was amazing. So we never did quite capture that with the second car we built. And I do caution to say backup car, because in today's world of Gen 7, and it's a completely built car.

We built the entire car. The chassis and the body were sitting here in the shop. They had to assemble everything else. So it's a little different and a little unique that we were at home for all that to happen. Well, it all came together. You had a fast car. So too did William Byron, one of the better cars, I would say. But you were able to make the move, obviously, on him.

Do you just go into another Ross mode in those moments? Like, what is your mindset when you're coming down to the wire to make a win like that happen? My mindset was really goes back to that final pit stop where I ran two extra laps by accident. And then so when I could see the 24 and 11 when they, when they pitted. By the time I ran two more laps, I couldn't even see them. They both had kind of white cars, pretty, I call it vanilla coloring. I couldn't see them from a long ways away. And they suddenly were in view.

And I was like, oh, I didn't realize I now I can tell who it is. So I knew I had caught them. but we're not an overly talkative group. Like they're not telling me, they're not cracking the whip to try to pat, you know, try harder because they know I'm trying as hard as I can. So got by the 11 relatively easy before he pitted for his fuel issues. So I don't know what his balance was or story is.

But then the 24 made three really key blocks with about 15 to go. And I thought, that's it. I was loose when I got there. then I got tight and I kind of just thought I tried really hard right there. It's kind of it. So I had a bit of a just slow down like the front tires are hot and they need to cool down. And at the same moment, I actually thought I'm a little hot too. So we have cool shirts. Like we run the cool shirts in the car and I had mine off. So I just reached over and just turned it on full blast. And it within a lap starts pumping cold water and that help cool me down.

And like it's okay. So little things like, like that, like that ability to like cool my my torso, like from my waist up to my neck, got cold water pumped around it that it hadn't been because I was comfortable out by myself. But once I couldn't pass for the lead, I got pretty hot panicked and that helped cool me down and like, okay, reset. And then I could see he was getting tighter than I was. And we hit that that bob off turn four where he actually got loose, but it was over from there. very interesting hearing all the different little things that go into to this win have you had a moment to soak it in because it is a crown jewel it's such a hard race to win a lot of things have to go right where is this one going to stack up for you you think hard to say it has sunk in i mean i've been wearing the ring ever since marcus gave it to me in the champion's toast and it does say champion on it so it's unique that they call it champion of a single race so this ring is my reminder. It has been for now a couple of days. I just got back to the shop and for the first time just spoke to the to the entire shop, the entire workforce here. And Justin sent a video in Tony Lunders, Andrew, our sales, head of sales and Phil Surgeon. I got him on the mic. He's a pretty quiet guy, but got him up there. Tell him stories. We had a good Sunday night. Phil came and celebrated with us and had a had a group together. And we all, you know, arms around each other's shoulders as a son came.

up. It was really, really cool. Yeah, it sunk in, but I don't know, you know, where it stacks up. The first win is so hard to beat for the company back at Coda in 22, but really, and Justin said it, that was hard. That was incredibly hard, but we were kind of in the air of the new car first year. Then we lost our edge. We were not as competitive for a while now. And so to go and pass the 24, a team that tested at Charlotte with Chevy. So when Chevy did that, the test, the OEM test, the 24 was the car and driver and team that was tasked with do it. The one car has a test coming up later in the year. We'll carry the load for Chevy. So we went into what their test data was. So as I'm catching the 24, I thought about that.

He had like a complete day at the track to work through a lot of things. And they gave that information at. That was Chevy's information. So as we built our car, we stood on that as a foundation. through our setup. So how are you going to beat the car that did the actual test? Like he should be the best car and he was. But we got our balance perfect at the end of the race. Yep, everybody did their job. You obviously included. So what's kind of the agenda moving forward for the team? Besides the obvious wanting to win more races, what's kind of on your agenda as we go through these summer months leading towards the playoffs? Yes, I want to win more. We want to go to Nashville. When again, I want another guitar. I've already seen the trophy.

the guitar so I want another one. I was there for the unveil of that and the Cracker Barrel 400, which is cool. After I stop at Wendy's and I maybe hit Cracker Barrel for the next meal. But really, I mean, really, and I mean this when I say it, big picture, I need my teammates. They're racing up there for the lead with me. I need that extra set up advancements. I need help. You saw it in the truck race Friday night. I was pushing Caden Honeycutt. to get him to the lead. I need my teammates there to push. I need restart,

try any people I can trust. I need Phil Surgeon to be able to look over at Squid and they make a good adjustment and it takes them into the lead or the top five. And they're racing. We need to do that across the board with our cars. So we saw some glimpses of it with Shane finishing 414th and Connor and Daniel. But we need it more often. We need, you know,

rising tide raises all ships and we've got three full time. And we need, there more. So that's that's what I want like if you know because we don't have the same feedback coming out of the cars just this weekend. Daniel had quite a different feel in this car. So try to understand that, understand the process that went into building the cars and what we did right and what they didn't in other weeks. It's what they did right and what we did not do right. So just understanding that hindsight is always 2020 but the processes are better and mainly better because we're just unloading faster race cars.

Well, you reference Nashville, obviously, next. You've won there in the past in 2023. What is it about you in the Music City USA track that seemed to go well together? It's one of your best ones. Well, I love country music, and I love live music. So that's a fun time. I always stay after the race and go down to Broadway,

go to Tutsis after the race. That's always a good time. Yeah, the track is, very unique. It feels like a mile and a half, but it's not. So it takes me some time to get acclimated to it. I'm running the Xfinity race. So that's exciting. That's going to be a challenge. But in a JRM car, so excited for that with acceptance insurance. You know, whenever, to give you an answer, though, I don't know. I've had fast cars there, to be honest. Like, if my cars aren't good, I can't go fast. So it's, yeah, we'll look to build off our notebook, but also,

the things we've learned more recently about these cars and trying to keep moving the needle. We want to not, you know, of course, driving by winning the World 600 with five to go, I think, is amazing. Yeah. But like William won all those stages and let all those laps. That's what I really want to do. Well, we are wishing you all the best of luck as you head out to Nashville. Congratulations again on a crown jewel win. And thanks so much for your time.

Appreciate it. Thanks, Caitlin.