Sunday marked the third time the NASCAR Cup Series has visited the Iowa Speedway, and it delivered a third different winner in as many races, as Ty Gibbs put together another phenomenal drive and took advantage of a two-tire call from crew chief Tyler Allen during the final green-flag pit cycle to hold off Christopher Bell to earn his second career win.
While the outcome produced the seventh runner-up finish of the season for Bell and continued a brutal summer stretch for last-place finisher Tyler Reddick, who crashed out of the race on the fourth lap, Ross Chastain was quietly one of the drivers who left the Hawkeye State in a much better position than where he began the weekend.
Chastain scored points in both stages and finished seventh, accumulating a season-high 43 points and recording just his fifth top 10 finish of the year. Of those five, however, it was only his third such result on a non-drafting track, which speaks to the lack of pace and unfortunate circumstances that have plagued Chastain and the entire Trackhouse Racing organization all season.
However, thanks to arguably his most complete performance of the season, plus the fact that many of those near the Chase cut line struggled on Sunday, Chastain jumped three spots to 18th in the standings, just 47 points below Austin Cindric for the 16th and final Chase position with three regular season races to go.
Ross Chastain back in Chase contention after Iowa
Let's face it; Chastain has had a miserable season from the beginning. His Iowa result was just his third top 10 finish since May, a stretch that also included six finishes outside the top 20. His Chase outlook appeared bleak to say the least. Even Chastain was questioning if a postseason bid was attainable for his No. 1 team amid the season they have endured.
That said, he had pace at Iowa from the time he first took to the track in practice, qualifying ninth for the race and leading his most laps (40) since his Kansas Speedway win in September 2024 after crew chief Brandon McSwain kept him on the track longer than his competitors during the final green-flag cycle in the closing laps.
As a result of the performance, Chastain gained 35 points on the cut line and was more relieved than anything to leave the Midwestern short track with some newfound momentum and a breath of fresh air after the recent string of poor results.
"It feels so good," Chastain said, per NASCAR.com's Dustin Albino. "It was a complete weekend. The very first lap, very small changes all weekend."
As good as Chastain ran on Sunday, though, that speed was accompanied by poor showings from each of the drivers around him on the cut line. For starters, Erik Jones' race was over before it even started when he was an innocent bystander in Reddick's crash. He finished 35th and dropped two spots to 20th in the standings as a result.
While Shane van Gisbergen, Austin Cindric, and Ryan Preece remain ahead of Chastain, their advantage was trimmed significantly after less-than-ideal days. Sure, van Gisbergen's oval improvement is becoming too hard to ignore after recently equaling his career-best finish on those layouts at North Wilkesboro Speedway, but he brought out one of the race's cautions in a single-car spin and finished a disappointing 30th at Iowa.
Cindric, meanwhile, holds onto the 16th spot, despite recording his 11th consecutive finish outside the top 10 (29th), while Preece went a lap down early and only recovered to 20th by the checkered flag, which was good for his third result of 20th or worse in the five most recent races.
Even Brad Keselowski, who was one of only five drivers entering Sunday's race who had finished inside the top 10 in both Cup races there, struggled all day and finished two laps down in 27th. In other words, every driver around Chastain in the standings had a poor showing at Iowa, only adding to the importance of the strong performance from the Alva, Florida, native.
With the remaining regular season races set to be contested at pair of tracks (Richmond, New Hampshire) measuring one mile or under in length, plus the unpredictable high banks of Daytona International Speedway, the challenge is only beginning for Chastain in his late-season pursuit of a fourth postseason appearance in five seasons at Trackhouse.
Still, if he can have the speed that has eluded him for most of the season and continue to benefit from the misfortune of others around him, it is entirely possible that Chastain keeps the momentum going from Iowa and moves up a few more spots to announces his arrival to the 16-driver Chase field over the next three weekends.
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