CUP: Contact entering Turn 3 ends Ross Chastain’s run at the Brickyard 400

Jul 27

by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief

Ross Chastain picked up the 4th last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 presented by PPG at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway when his #1 Busch Light Lime Chevrolet crashed after 17 of 168 laps.

The finish, which occurred in Chastain’s 245th series start, was his first of the season and first in a Cup Series race since October 6, 2024 at Talladega, 27 races ago. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 42nd for the #1, the 692nd from a crash, and the 875th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 79th for the #1, the 1,427th from a crash, and the 2,003rd for Chevrolet.

“The Melon Man” wrote a new chapter in his story this past May when he became the first driver since 1969 to win a Cup Series race after being classified last on the grid. In no less than the Coca-Cola 600 – where no race winner started worse than 37th – the 40th-place Chastain rolled into victory lane in a backup car after his primary wrecked in practice due to a cut tire. The win assured Chastain his spot in the Playoffs, a stabilizing force in a year where teammate Daniel Suarez wasn’t re-upped for 2026. Chastain has also fought through an inconsistent season, scoring just as many top-five finishes as DNFs (3 each). Coming into Indianapolis, four of his previous five starts saw him finish 24th or worse.

After running various paint schemes this year for sponsor Busch Light, including Busch Light Apple, Chastain debuted a bright green car at Indianapolis for Busch Light Lime. This was one of the 39 entrants to attempt Sunday’s 40-car field. Last year saw Chastain finished 15th, having improved on all four of his previous Brickyard 400 finishes. This year, he ranked 30th in opening practice with a best lap of 50.594 seconds (177.887mph), then qualified 33rd with a speed of 50.333 seconds (178.809mph).

Securing the 39th and final starting spot was Denny Hamlin, who during his qualifying lap swung wide off Turn 2, causing his #11 Progressive Toyota to glance off the outside wall, then spin head-on into the inside barrier. Hamlin walked away without injury, but as the only driver who didn’t complete a qualifying lap, the fastest car in practice was junk. Hamlin and his fellow Toyota teams spent more than seven hours piecing together Joe Gibbs Racing’s backup car, which would incur a redundant tail-end penalty on Sunday.

Prior to the start, four other drivers incurred tail-end penalties for unapproved adjustments: 22nd-place Michael McDowell in the #71 Delaware Life Chevrolet, 27th-place Zane Smith in the #38 Aaron’s Rent To Own Ford, 35th-place Jesse Love in the #62 C4 Ultimate Energy Chevrolet, and 36th-place John Hunter Nemechek whose #42 Pye Barker Fire & Safety Toyota was 2nd-fastest to Hamlin in practice. Coming to the green, Josh Bilicki also pulled out from 37th in his #66 Sherfick Companies Ford and lined up behind Hamlin on the longer inside line. Just ahead of Bilicki, Nemechek trailed the shorter outside line.

When the green flag dropped, Bilicki remained in last place, 3.862 seconds back of the lead at the yard of bricks to Nemechek’s 3.671 in 38th with Hamlin already up to 37th, 3.483 behind. Entering Turn 1, Katherine Legge’s #78 Droplight Chevrolet was booted out of line around the 34th spot, nearly slapping the outside wall. Legge kept the car out of the fence and dropped back in line directly in front of Bilicki off Turn 2. By then, both cars now trailed the rest of the field by open track. At the end of Lap 1, Bilicki was 7.485 seconds back of the lead, and on Lap 3, he was 11.067 behind to 38th-place Legge’s 10.534.

Over the next several laps, Bilicki lost touch with Legge, who herself remained some distance back of the car in 37th. On Lap 8, Bilicki reported his car was tight, so team owner Carl Long called for one pound of air out of his right-front, one out of the right-rear. By Lap 11, when Cody Ware’s #51 Arby’s Ford dropped to the 37th spot, Ware was 19.752 seconds back of the lead to 38th-place Legge’s 26.359 and Bilicki’s 32.286. On Lap 15, Bilicki was 39.778 behind the leader to Legge’s 31.751, then on Lap 17 that increased to 44.176 to 34.829. While Bilicki now had trouble hearing his team due to static, he was soon told to slow down for an incident in Turn 3.

As the field worked its way through the corner, Hamlin had just passed both Chastain and McDowell, who ran nose-to-tail at corner entry, around 21 seconds back of the lead. Just past the entry, McDowell bumped Chastain’s rear bumper, sending the #1 spinning up the track. McDowell pushed up the track, bumping Chastain with his right-front fender as Chastain backed into the wall with the left-rear, then spun around as he continued to bounce off the wall. Under the ensuing caution, Chastain gestured at rescue crews to use his hydraulic system to raise the car off the ground. It’s unclear whether this was done, but Chastain was able to roll away, dragging a gouge into the track with the damaged right-rear corner as he limped onto pit road.

On Lap 20, Chastain made it to pit road. The crew radioed the suspension looked good despite significant cosmetic damage, particularly to the rear of the car. Chastain radioed water temperature and oil pressure looked good, and he stopped in Stall 38 on the Turn 4 side of pit road. There, the team didn’t notice any fluid leaking, and set to work on both ends of the car. Bear-bond was added to the right-front corner, the crew making sure to cut out grooves for the hood flaps. Others took a screw gun to the twisted splitter. But as they called for a saw on one of the fenders, the team was down to the final 30 seconds on the “Crash Clock,” their car three laps down. Time expired on Lap 22, but it wasn’t until Lap 26 that he drove to the “Damaged Vehicle Policy” spot in the infield. On Lap 30, the team reported they were done for the day, and Chastain drove the car to the team’s hauler. Over heavy static on Lap 34, NASCAR radioed Chastain was the first car out. The car’s onboard camera shut off on Lap 35. Meanwhile, McDowell made a stop for repairs at the same time as Chastain, then cut down a right-front tire and finished six laps down in 30th.

Much of the remaining spots in the Bottom Five was filled because of the Lap 56 restart, where a mid-pack stack-up caused several drivers to run in the back of each other. Among these was Austin Dillon, whose #3 Get Bioethanol Chevrolet pulled behind the wall with liquid on his windshield and reportedly a ruptured radiator. In the infield DVP zone, the team was told they could only replace hoses, not the radiator or cooler, so their day was done. At the time, Dillon was in 36th ahead of 38th-place Noah Gragson, whose #4 Rush Truck Centers Ford had mechanical issues that forced him to make at least two extended stops, and 37th-place Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., who during the Lap 56 restart slapped the outside wall hard with the right side of his #47 Rate Chevrolet. Gragson first returned to the track on Lap 61 and climbed to 33rd at the finish.

By the time Gragson returned, Stenhouse made it to the garage for repairs, which were completed with 38 laps to go. Though 66 laps down in 38th spot, Stenhouse climbed past Dillon, then Cody Ware, who was on pit road for an extended stop. Damage to the rear of Ware’s car caused it to not drive straight, and Ware pulled into his garage stall in the infield. Due to radio issues, Ware wasn’t clear he had to pull into the DVP zone, which interestingly was now located in Ross Chastain’s garage stall, Stall 21. When he pulled in, Ware said he needed air and felt like he was going to pass out. He climbed from the car, out due to fatigue, and settled to 37th as Stenhouse passed him.

The last car Stenhouse caught was Erik Jones, whose #43 Dollar Tree Toyota avoided damage on the restart, but a loose right-front wheel came apart in Turn 3, putting him into the outside wall. Stenhouse finished 35th, 24 laps behind Bilicki, whose electrical issues forced at least two trips to the garage. Bilicki turned 125 laps, but couldn’t quite reach the finish, and came up 28 laps short of catching Gragson.

Legge and Live Fast team up for impressive 17th-place finish

On a day that saw Bubba Wallace secure his spot in the Playoffs by ending a 100-race winless streak, a day that also saw Denny Hamlin’s backup car bounce back to finish 3rd, Katherine Legge authored another of the day’s feel-good stories. After dropping as far back as 38th during her first-corner incident, Legge lost a lap, then got it back when rain fell with four laps to go in regulation. With 22 cars remaining on the lead lap, Legge picked her way through the field, battling ahead of both Chase Briscoe and Shane van Gisbergen, then Josh Berry, whose #21 PPG Ford ran out of fuel. She finished in 17th, besting her 19th-place showing at Chicago. This marks not only a career-best NASCAR finish for Legge – improving even on her best Indy 500 finish of 22nd (out of 33 instead of 39) – but the fourth-best finish for Live Fast Motorsports and the team’s best-ever run on a non-superspeedway.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*The Brickyard 400 has yet to have a repeat last-place finisher in any of its 29 runnings. The only driver who could have repeated on Sunday was Ryan Preece, the last-place finisher from 2020, who finished 4th.

*This marked the first last-place finish for the #1 in the Brickyard 400, a race whose inaugural event in 1994 saw the #1 win the pole with Rick Mast.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

39) #1-Ross Chastain / 17 laps / crash

38) #3-Austin Dillon / 56 laps / crash

37) #51-Cody Ware / 58 laps / fatigue

36) #43-Erik Jones / 89 laps / crash

35) #47-Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. / 101 laps / running

2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Kaulig Racing (3)

2nd) 23XI Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, Legacy Motor Club, Penske Racing, Trackhouse Racing (2)

3rd) Front Row Motorsports, Garage 66, Hyak Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, NY Racing Team, RFK Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Rick Ware Racing, Spire Motorsports (1)

2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Chevrolet (11)

2nd) Ford (6)

3rd) Toyota (5)

2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP