Tag: driver

It is not easy to win in NASCAR, but that is not necessarily acceptable to Ross Chastain.

Chastain has five victories to his resume, and he narrowly missed out on being the Cup Series winner in 2022, finishing in second on the season.

However, on Feb. 16, the Daytona 500 marks a new season and a new opportunity.

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“The Daytona 500 is such a big event to kick off the season. To kick off the first points event, the walking out for the Daytona 500, the race is big, but it’s the most nerve-racking for me pre-race, because it’s the whole season,” Chastain said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital. “When we’re on the pre-race stage, and we walk out, it’s the first time that the season’s starting. So much opportunity is right there in front of me, and I get to try to take it. 

“Once I get in the car, it all goes away, I don’t see the grandstands, I don’t think about anybody else. It’s me, my car, my crew chief, and my spotter. That’s it. It’s amazing how the human mind can just block everything. Everything else goes away. And it’s only that car and every detail, every smell, every vibration, every feeling in it. It’s all that to say, at the end of the race, I’m having a Busch Light no matter what.”

In an ideal world, Chastain would have several cold ones to celebrate a win. The driver partnered with Busch Light last year, and that has landed him an acting gig in a Super Bowl commercial this year – the commercial debuted on Wednesday’s edition of “Fox & Friends.”

Chastain said his initial reaction when he got the nod was, “when can we film it?” However, it took him by surprise how much work actually went into it.

Ross Chastain, #1 TrackHouse Racing Busch Light Throwback Chevrolet, races into turn 2 during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Goodyear 400 on May 11, 2024 at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. (Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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“We filmed for hours, a lot of takes. Trying to get the angle right and trying to get my ‘What’s wrong with going in circles?’ It sounds so simple to say, but they wanted it to come across a certain way,” he said. “The take they used was actually pretty early, but we did a lot more seeing what else, you know, what kind of octaves and different tones I could do it in,” he said.

The commercial, though, is just another benefit of being a Busch Light athlete, said Chastain.

“It’s been life-changing, really. What it’s done for Trackhouse, my team and me, it’s solidified us in the sport. This will be my fourth year going into a Trackhouse and second year with Busch Light,” he said. “It’s amazing to see what Justin Marks, our owner, what he’s built, and just how the team operates and what his vision was for Trackhouse was exactly this. It was to partner with brands that believed in the future of the sport. 

“There can be negativity around anything, you can pick the happiest idea in the world, and somebody’s gonna have a negative view on it, so Justin has a forward-thinking mindset and does things a bit different, and Busch Light wanted to be a part of that. Justin’s a disruptor, he wants us to come inand do things a different way, and Busch Light lets us be us. They wanted to be with Trackhouse because we were different, because we weren’t what they had seen for so long in a sport.”

Just one week after the commercial, his season will officially get underway, and Chastain has had enough of coming up short in both the big race and the season standings.

“[The goal is] to survive 500 miles. It’s such a grueling race from an attrition standpoint; so many cars crash, we’re so close together. We always think we’re all gonna do better and not crash, but we crash. It’s what NASCAR drivers do. If you’re there at the end like we were last year – I could see the white flag and made a move to try to win and spun myself out. I’ll do that a little differently. 

“But no, Daytona 500 is played out the same way. It’s always different. And then, once we go from there through the season, this is our fourth year with Trackhouse, my fifth year with my team, just continue to evolve. I think I’ve got the best team, so it’s all out there. When I walk out for driver introductions, it hits me, this is the opportunity to go take what we want. I’m a competitor, I want to beat all the people in this race.”

Ross Chastain, #1 TrackHouse Racing Busch Light Chevrolet, stands next to the Harley J Earl trophy prior to the running of the NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 on Feb. 19, 2024 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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Chastain added, “That goal of winning in the competition, it drives me. It’s why I do all this, it’s why I’m in New York today, and brands like Busch Light want to be a part of that. They want to win, as well, they want to win to consumers, sell more beer, and that’s the people I want around me.”

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