NASCAR: 5 drivers who could sign with Chip Ganassi Racing for 2019
By Asher Fair
Ross Chastain
Ross Chastain currently competes full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, where he has competed full-time since the 2015 season. Until this season, all of his full-time career in the series had been spent driving for JD Motorsports. From the 2015 season through the 2017 season, he drove the #4 Chevrolet in all but two races. In these two race races, he drove the #01 Chevrolet.
However, through the first 26 races of this season, the 25-year-old Alva, Florida native has driven in just 24 races for JD Motorsports. In two of the last three races, he has driven the #42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.
In these two races, the races at Darlington Raceway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway, nobody has been on Chastain’s level. He won stages one and two in the race at Darlington but finished in 25th place after leading 90 of the race’s 147 laps as a result of the fact that he was involved in a late accident with Kevin Harvick.
In the race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Chastain again won both stages one and two. The difference between this race and the race at Darlington Raceway was the fact that he sealed the deal by winning this race after leading 180 of its 200 laps.
Chip Ganassi Racing may want to consider hiring Chastain as a full-time Xfinity Series drivers next year given the success that he has shown in his two races driving for the team this year. But given the fact that the seat of the #1 Chevrolet in the Cup Series is open as well as the fact that Chastain has 132 career Xfinity Series starts and 27 career Cup Series starts to his name already, he may end up becoming Kyle Larson’s teammate in 2019.
But if Chip Ganassi Racing do not do what they were rumored to do and sign Kurt Busch and they do not sign Chastain either, who else might they sign to replace Jamie McMurray behind the wheel of the #1 Chevrolet for next season?