There’s going to be a lot of NASCAR entertainment in Indianapolis this weekend.
The Xfinity and Cup Series compete on the 2.6-mile road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Saturday and Sunday while the Craftsman Truck Series kicks off the action Friday night at Indianapolis Raceway Park’s (IRP) .6-mile oval.
Ross Chastain is going to be there for all it.
Chastain will drive the familiar blue and black No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet for Trackhouse Racing in Sunday’s Cup Series race where he should be one of the favorites.
In last year’s Indy race, Chastain appeared to finish second but he was later penalized by NASCAR and relegated to a 27th-place for using the access road to avoid trouble on the course just before the end of the race.
Chastain already has one road course win – Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas in March 2022. It marked his first career Cup Series win.
Since then, he’s also captured victories at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway in April 2022, and most recently at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway in June. He also won the Busch pole award at Nashville and led 99 laps in route to victory.
Chastain will bring some momentum to Indianapolis after leading the first 16 laps and finishing seventh in Monday’s rain-delayed race at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.
He owns two Cup starts at Indy road course, but should become even more familiar with the layout after driving the No. 91 Chevrolet in Saturday’s Xfinity race for DGM Racing. Saturday will mark his fifth Xfinity Series start this season.
Before his work at the big track begins, he’ll be at Indianapolis Raceway Park Friday night to watch his younger brother Chad Chastain as well as Cup teammate Shane van Gisbergen. Both will drive in the Truck Series race for Niece Motorsports.
Van Gisbergen, who won the Chicago Street Race driving for Trackhouse’s PROJECT91 program in his only Cup start, makes his oval track debut driving the No. 41 Worldwide Express Chevrolet at IRP in a paint scheme similar to Chastain’s Cup car.
Chastain expects good things from the three-time Supercars champion all weekend.
“Shane has a good foundation for his Niece truck start and support from Worldwide Express,” said Chastain who has driven a Niece Motorsports truck several times this season.
“The Worldwide Express partnership has grown from their start with Niece Motorsports to Trackhouse and within NASCAR so its great. And I will take Shane a lot more serious this time for the Cup race than I did last time (laughs). Admittedly, I thought let’s give him a race to get his feet under him and we’ll see. I definitely paid attention to him but I definitely didn’t have him going out and winning in his first Cup race because it’s so hard to win one of these things.”
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NBC will broadcast Sunday’s Indy Road Course race at 2:30 p.m. EDT.
Trackhouse Racing PR
