NASCAR: Ross Chastain shattered an under the radar record in 2019
By Asher Fair
Ross Chastain absolutely obliterated an all-time NASCAR record with his rampant participation in the sport’s top three series in 2019.
Across NASCAR‘s top three series, the Cup Series, the Xfinity Series and the Truck Series, there were total of 92 races contested throughout the 2019 season. Of these 92 races, 36 were Cup Series races, 33 were Xfinity Series and 23 were Truck Series races.
There is a 83.70% chance that you will find a race in which Ross Chastain competed if you randomly select any one of those 92 races.
That is because the 27-year-old Alva, Florida native competed in 77 of these 92 races across these three series. He competed full-time in the Cup Series, albeit not for points, for Premium Motorsports, and he missed just one race.
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He was slated to compete full-time for points in the Xfinity Series for JD Motorsports and Kaulig Racing, but he switching his points eligibility to the Truck Series and competed full-time for Niece Motorsports.
He ended up competing in only 19 Xfinity Series races in 2019, while he did not miss a single Truck Series race. Chastain’s 77-start mark is not an all-time record, but it is certainly one of the highest marks in NASCAR history in that particular category when looking at all three of these series lumped together.
However, in regard to his competition in all three series, Chastain did break quite a notable record. And he didn’t just break it; he absolutely obliterated it.
To start the season, Chastain was literally entered in every race for several months. He competed in the first 14 races of the Cup Series season, the first 13 races of the Xfinity Series season and the first nine races of the Truck Series schedule before he finally missed a race, that race being the Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway in June.
That meant that he competed in the first 36 races of the season across the Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Truck Series.
The previous record?
22.
It will surprise absolutely nobody that it was Kyle Busch who held this record, one he set in the 2008 season by competing in four Truck Series races, 10 Xfinity Series (then Nationwide Series) races and eight Cup Series races before missing the Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway because of the fact that he was competing in the Xfinity Series at Talladega Superspeedway on the same day and he had to compete in the Cup Series race at the track the following afternoon.
Chastain’s championship effort in the Truck Series ultimately came up shy, as he finished in second place in the championship standings with three victories, the first three victories of his Truck Series career, at Kansas Speedway, World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway and Pocono Raceway.
He also won one Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway, marking his second career victory in the series, and recorded his first career top 10 finish in the Cup Series at the same venue.
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Ross Chastain is slated to compete full-time for Kaulig Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in the 2020 season, but he still plans to compete in the Truck Series and in the Cup Series as much as he can. Will he even manage to come close to this new record that he set in 2019? Better yet, will anybody ever challenge it?