NASCAR Truck Series: 5 reasons Ross Chastain can still win the 2019 title

Motivation

After everything that he has gone through over the last several months dating back to late last August, there is no reason to believe that any other driver in not only the NASCAR Truck Series but in NASCAR is more motivated to perform at a high level than Ross Chastain is.

Chastain and his Niece Motorsports team made the bold decision, with half of the 16-race regular season already in the books, to make him eligible for Truck Series points. They knew from the start that it would be an uphill battle for him to qualify for the playoffs, but they knew that they had everything they could possible need to get the job done in a shortened amount of time.

Additionally, this decision required Chastain to give up his points and his championship eligibility in the Xfinity Series. While he undoubtedly gave up the lesser of his two championship opportunities, he still had a chance to advance to the Xfinity Series playoffs, and now he doesn’t, period.

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Chastain proved that he and Niece Motorsports have what it takes to qualify for the playoffs and win the championship with the most dominant performance in his Truck Series career in just his second start as a championship eligible driver.

The fact that the victory that Chastain earned in this race was taken away from him should only magnify his motivation, and considering the fact that it happened early in his stint as a championship eligible driver, he and the team still have six golden opportunities to lock themselves into the playoffs.

In other words, he is basically back to square one, but on the plus side, he has 43 points to work with to get into the top 20 in the championship standings instead of zero, and on the minus side, he has six races remaining as opposed to eight to secure another victory.

With how Chastain has been driving, the loss of two of these eight races may not end up mattering much. Realistically speaking, it’s not like much has changed for him from the time he declared for Truck Series points until now aside of the fact that he is now going to be even more fired up to get the job done after NASCAR stripped him of his hard-earned M&M’s 200 victory.

Will Ross Chastain find a way to qualify for the 2019 NASCAR Truck Series playoffs despite his recent setback and make a run at his first career Truck Series championship this year? He has all the tools he needs to do it, and there are many additional reasons why he should not be doubted.