KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Ross Chastain can’t help but smile when he thinks of Kansas Speedway, where two of NASCARs top three touring series return for races this weekend.
His career sat at a crossroads in 2019 when he arrived for a spring NASCAR Truck Series race.
Six months earlier, Chastain had signed with Chip Ganassi Racing to drive full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, the second tier of stock car racing in the U.S.
It was supposed to be Chastain’s big break, but that ride went away a month later when the FBI raided DC Solar, which sponsored the No. 42 car Chastain was set to pilot. With the sponsorship gone, the team also dissolved.
“Chip Ganassi kept me on as a reserve driver, a simulation development driver, just to be nice,” Chastain said. “That’s basically what it came down to.”
Chastain, the son of Florida watermelon farmers, had toiled off and on in NASCAR’s Truck and Xfinity Series since 2011.
He picked up his first Xfinity Series win shortly before the full-time gig materialized and vanished almost as quickly.
“My career changed in 2018 when I got that opportunity in the 42 Xfinity car,” Chastain said. “When that went away, I fully expected to go back to how it used to be, where a top 10 would be like a win and we would just keep plugging away.”
NASCAR drivers are used to traveling in ovals, so sitting at a crossroads is an uncomfortable place to be, but Chastain wasn’t ready to give up on his NASCAR Cup Series dream.
Spurred by support from Chip Ganassi COO Doug Duchardt, Chastain started driving for Niece Motorsports in the Truck Series and delivered a breakthrough win in the season’s seventh race, crossing the line first in the Digital Ally 250 at Kansas Speedway for his first Truck Series win in 65 career starts.
“After I started in 2011, we finally won in 2019,” Chastain said. “That’s a lot of losing.”
But the win at Kansas also signaled an end to those days. He won a couple more truck races as the season went on, which led to a full-time Cup Series opportunity with Chip Ganassi last season.
“The fact that we were able to go win after the adversity we had, he (Duchardt) just told me, ‘That told me more about you than anything else,’” Chastain said.
Trackhouse Racing bought Chip Ganassi’s NASCAR operation after the 2021 season and kept Chastain.
He has rewarded that decision with two Cup Series victories, the first of his career.
“This year has been incredible,” Chastain said. “I feel grateful, but also I realize that we deserve to be where we’re at. We’ve put in the effort.”
Still, he traces that success — and his emergence as NASCAR’s “Watermelon Man” — back to that May 10, 2019, trip to Victory Lane.
“I think it saved my career, honestly,” Chastain said. “... I fully believe that if we didn’t win those races that year, starting here, I don’t know if I’m sitting here today.”
With every win, Chastain has become a viral sensation for his trademark watermelon-smashing celebration, a tradition that started with his 2018 Xfinity Series win.
He actually didn’t come to Kansas prepared with a watermelon for the race three years ago, but Chastain rectified that oversight by busting a melon open during an appearance at the track last week.
The team supplies a watermelon every week, which sits in a foam case at the entrance to the team hauler.
“It’s a motivating tool now,” Chastain said. “... When anybody — a tire-changer, an engineer, a mechanic, the crew chief, the owner — sees it, they know that for me, for Ross Chastain, that watermelon means winning — and we are here to win.”
Kansas Speedway weekend schedule
Saturday, May 14
9 a.m. — Parking lots open
9:30 a.m. — Grandstand opens
9:45 a.m. — ARCA Menards practice/qualifying
11 a.m. — NASCAR Camping World Truck Series practice
11:30 a.m. — NASCAR Camping World Truck Series qualifying
12:35 p.m. — ARCA Menards driver introductions
1 p.m. — ARCA Menards Series Dutch Boy 150
4 p.m. — NASCAR Cup Series practice
4:35 p.m. — NASCAR Cup Series qualifying
6:30 p.m. — NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver introductions
7 p.m. — Heart of America 200*
* Fireworks to follow
Sunday, May 15
9 a.m. — Parking lots open
10 a.m. — Grandstand opens
12 p.m. — Pre-race concert: Summer Breeze
1:30 p.m. — NASCAR Cup Series driver introductions
2 p.m. — AdventHealth 400
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