Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain finished 24th, and teammates Shane van Gisbergen and Daniel Suárez finished 25th and 35th in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis.
On Sunday, Chastain competed at the front of the field most of the race, but an untimely caution a few laps after a pit stop left him in 28th when the race restarted with 25 laps remaining. He raced to 24th in the final laps that ran without caution.
Van Gisbergen was in the same predicament as Chastain. After a mid-race spin and a speeding penalty on pit road, he restarted the race in 29th with 25 laps to go and drove to 25th before the checkered flag fell.
“We were too tight in traffic, and then eventually got on the other side of it and I made an error and spun,” said van Gisbergen. “We just couldn’t get it back. We weren’t amazing.
“We were probably a 15th-place car but then detuned it a little bit and ended up where we did. Little frustrating, but it’s kind of where we’re at. 20th and 15th is a huge improvement for us, but obviously in the playoffs, you expect more. There’s that pressure there.”
Suárez didn’t get a chance to race at the end. He climbed into the top 15 in the second stage, but on lap 62, his car was pushed into the Turn 1 wall by another car. The damage ended his race a few laps later.
In the first stage, Chastain finished eighth, Van Gisbergen 12th, and Suárez finished 20th. In the second stage, Chastain finished 10th and Van Gisbergen 19th.
The St. Louis race marked the second of 10 playoff races. One race remains in the first round of the playoffs, when four of the 16 playoff drivers will be eliminated.
With their 24th and 25th-place finishes Sunday, Chastain and Van Gisbergen are 11th and 14th of the 16 drivers in the playoffs. Chastain is 19 points above the cut line while Van Gisbergen is 15 points below the final transfer position.
Four drivers will be eliminated every three races, with the four remaining drivers competing in a winner-take-all Championship race at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 8.
The third race in the Round of 16 is Saturday at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
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