Trackhouse Racing's Ross Chastain is the one and only NASCAR Cup Series driver slated to take full advantage of NASCAR's limitation on full-time Cup drivers with three or more years of experience competing in Xfinity Series races. Those drivers can compete in no more than five races per year.
Chastain competed in his fourth this past weekend at Dover Motor Speedway, though his afternoon was unfortunately cut short by a rear gear issue. After finishes of eighth place at Circuit of the Americas, fourth at Darlington Raceway, and fifth at Nashville Superspeedway, he had to settle for a 38th place DNF.
He had a similarly bad experience in Sunday's Cup race at the Monster Mile, as his afternoon was also cut short by a late wreck.
Ross Chastain skipping Indy, running Iowa
Chastain will not compete in this Saturday afternoon's Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with his full focus on Sunday afternoon's Brickyard 400 Cup Series race as he looks to bolster his playoff seeding with the regular season winding down. He is locked into the playoffs thanks to his Coca-Cola 600 win at Charlotte Motor Speedway in late May.
But unlike his other Xfinity Series starts this year, which saw him sit out either four or five race weekends before making his return, he is only set to miss one race this time around, as he is set to make his fifth and final start of the Xfinity Series season at Iowa Speedway next weekend.
Chastain is once again set to be behind the wheel of the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, the same car he drove in his other four Xfinity Series starts this year, at the four-turn, 0.894-mile (1.439-kilometer) Newton, Iowa oval next Saturday afternoon.
Iowa returned to the Xfinity Series schedule last year for the first time since 2019, and before finishing in 11th in the inaugural Cup race at the venue, he placed ninth for DGM Racing in the Xfinity Series event. Chastain's best Iowa finishes are a pair of fourth place efforts with JD Motorsports in 2017 and 2018.
The No. 9 Chevrolet is not on this weekend's entry list at Indy.
This weekend's Pennzoil 250 is set to be shown live on the CW Network from Indianapolis Motor Speedway beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, July 26, and next weekend's Hy-Vee PERKS 250 is set to be shown live on the same network from Iowa Speedway beginning at the same time on Saturday, August 2. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action from the NASCAR Xfinity Series!