Ross Chastain scored his first victory of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series with an incredib﷽le charge from 40th and last on the grid in the Coca-Cola 600.

But𒁃 the fact that Chastain was even able to line up at the 🥀start in Charlotte was nothing short of a miracle. Just a day earlier, the 32-year-old blew a tyre in practice and smashed the wall between Turn 3 and 4, wrecking the #1 Chevrolet.

It was a massive setback for Chastain, who had beꩲen among the fastest drivers on long runs.

“It♊ was pretty deflating,” said crew chief Phil Surgen. ﷽“We finally show up with some speed, and then we’re loading a wrecked car.”

The initial hope was to repair the damaged primary, but as parts were removed, it became clear: the rear frame was bent beyo😼nd repair. By the time the team made the call to switch to the backup car, p🌺recious hours had already been lost.

“For about anꦰ hour and a half we thought we were going to have to fix the primary,” said Chastain. “That would have been fine. Then NASCAR said, ‘No, there’s something bent, too much, so go build another one, and we did’.

Work continued in the early hours of Sunday and the mechanics got little time to rest befo🙈re they were back in the garage o gඣet everything in place.

“At 8:30 p.m., there ෴were 30 people at the shop,” Surgen recalled. “Road crew, engine support, shop guys who left concerts and baseball games—they just dropped everything and showed up.”

“As the night wore on and different stages of the process kind of evolved,♔ we sent some of those guys home, and the last of us, there were probably eigh🐼t or ten of us that left at 2:30 last night. The first guys got back there at 5:30.

“So a couple of hours of sleep and back at ♐it this morning. We worked all the way up until the wire until we had to re-inspect today at 2:00 p.m.”

Chastain denies Byron victory

Although there was no guarantee that the newly-buil⛦t car would run well, Chastain was quickly up to speed in the race, slicing his way through the field to enter victory ﷽contention.

Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron hadꦜ been leading the race comfortably heading into the closing stages, but Chastain pulled off a brilliant move on the outside of Turn 2 with six laps to run to wrest control of the race.

He eventually took the chequered flag to register his sixth career win in the Cup Seri൲es.

“It’s sinking in that we won the World 600,” he said. “We won the Coke 600, but what that means for the team✱ and me and everything else,

“You saw us crash yesterday. You h🧜eard me talk about [how] they were up until 2:30. They rebuilt the car, and we put ourselves in — we just slowly worked our way.

“It took all 600 miles. [If it was] a 400-mile race h💃ere, we don’t get there [in the victory lane]. We’re not in contention.

“It took th♚e whole time. I don’t know what it means yet. I’m excited to find 🐟out, though.”

Chastain's late-race pass left Byron heartbroken, as the Hendrick driver missed out on victory despite leading 283 out of 400 laps. However, 168澳洲幸运🔥5官方开奖结果历史:wi🎃th teammate Kyle Larson crashing out, Byron retook the lead in the champioඣnship in Charlotte.