Chastain Has ‘Career Moment’ With Watkins Glen Pole

Ross Chastain celebrates the Busch Light Pole Award at Watkins Glen International. (Gavin Baker/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Ross Chastain shocked the NASCAR Cup Series field with his first road course pole during Busch Light Pole Qualifying Saturday at Watkins Glen International.

Wheeling the appropriately schemed No. 1 Busch Light Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Trackhouse Racing, Chastain toured the 2.45-mile road course in one minute, 12.130 seconds (122.279 mph) for his second career Cup Series pole and first since Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway in June of 2023.

Because he’s not in the playoffs, Chastain hopes to play spoiler Sunday and snap a 27-race winless drought dating back to last year’s season finale at Arizona’s Phoenix Raceway.

He was seemingly at a loss for words, however, in trying to describe his pole-winning lap Saturday afternoon.

“Man, turning right seems so simple, but gosh, it has just been such a challenge for me,” Chastain admitted. “I’ve gone to [the] Skip Barber Driving School to learn how to turn right. I’ve leaned on Josh Wise and Scott Speed so much. Chevrolet took us out to Spring Mountain [Motor Resort] and done schooling with Ron Fellows and the instructors there. And it wasn’t any one thing that created our improvement. It’s so many years of trying to learn how to do this.

“This is just a career moment, a lifetime achievement to go faster than everybody in the Cup Series on a road course,” Chastain added. “It’s just unbelievable for both Trackhouse [Racing] and myself.”

Martin Truex Jr., who led the first round with the only one-minute-11-second lap of the day (1:11.811), will join Chastain on the front row Sunday after going second (1:12.264/122.052) in the pole round with the No. 19 Reser’s Fine Foods Toyota Camry XSE for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Road course ace and three-time Australian Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen was third quickest (1:12.376/121.864), followed by two more playoff drivers in Alex Bowman and Austin Cindric.

A.J. Allmendinger, Atlanta winner Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez, Noah Gragson and Michael McDowell filled out the top 10 drivers that made it through both sessions of qualifying.

Title hopefuls William Byron (Group B) and Chase Briscoe (Group A) were the fastest drivers in their qualifying groups that failed to advance out of the first round.

Byron (1:12.148/122.249) lost out on the pole shootout by just .029 seconds, while Briscoe (1:12.619/121.456) missed the cut for round two by an even slimmer .017 seconds.

They’ll start 11th and 12th, respectively, for Sunday’s 90-lap race. In total, 11 of the 16 playoff contenders will start outside the top 10, with qualifying proving to be a tough go for those fighting for the Cup Series championship in the Round of 16.

Other playoff drivers deeper in the starting lineup include Chase Elliott (14th), Ty Gibbs (15th), Tyler Reddick (16th), Christopher Bell (17th), Kyle Larson (20th), Denny Hamlin (22nd), Brad Keselowski (28th), and defending Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney (30th).

Harrison Burton, driving the famed No. 21 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for the Wood Brothers, qualified worst among the playoff drivers and will start 33rd.

With just 38 drivers in attendance at Watkins Glen, all drivers made the field.

Broadcast coverage of Sunday’s Go Bowling at the Glen is slated for 3 p.m. ET, live on USA, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.

The USA broadcast will feature radio-style commentary, with MRN’s Mike Bagley and Dillon Welch joining the traditional NBC Sports commentary crew of Rick Allen, Jeff Burton, and Steve Letarte.