Ross Chastain scored his first victory of the 20🔯25 NASCAR Cup Series with an incredible ch🐬arge from 40th and last on the grid in the Coca-Cola 600.

But 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 bl꧋ew a tyre in practice a💃nd smashed the wall between Turn 3 and 4, wrecking the #1 Chevrolet.

It was a massive setback for Chastain, who had be🍌en amon✱g 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 wreck𝓡ed car.”

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

“For about an 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 muꦇchღ, so go build another one, and we did’.

Work continued in the early hours of Sunday and the mechanics got little time to rest before they wer😼e back in the garage o get 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 thos💧e guys home, and the last of us, there were probably eight 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 s🌼leep 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-built car woul🌠d run well, Chastain was quickly up to speed in the race,🍬 slicing his way through the field to enter victory contention.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Wil🌱liam Byron had 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 eventuall♋y took the che﷽quered flag to register his sixth career win in the Cup Series.

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

“You saw us crash yesterday. You heard 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 h꧙ere, we don’t get there [in the victory lane]. We’re not in contention.

“It took the whoꦡle time. I don’t know what it means yet. I’m excited to find oཧut, 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5最新开奖结果:with teammate Kyle Larson cra🧸shing out, Byron retook the lead in the🦋 championship in Charlotte.