Ross Chastain, shown at Mid Ohio Sports Car Course in August 2017, won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.LAS VEGAS – Ross Chastain held off Justin Allgaier for his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory Saturday, pulling away on the final restart for a long-awaited breakthrough in his 132nd series start.
Chastain led 180 of the 200 laps, but had to dig in on several restarts to stay in front of Allgaier, the regular-season Xfinity Series champion.
Just two weeks after the 25-year-old Chastain had a much-publicized dust-up with Cup Series star Kevin Harvick when the drivers cars’ collided at Darlington Raceway, he earned a difficult victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“I’m just a watermelon farmer from Florida!” said Chastain, who indeed worked on his family’s watermelon farm until his teens. “I’m not supposed to do that! Man, that’s a testament that anything in life is possible.”
Chastain swept all three stages in the second start of his three-race contract with Chip Ganassi Racing, persevering each time the action slowed in the wreck-filled race. In victory lane, he gleefully held a watermelon aloft like a trophy.