While recent results have been encouraging, Ross Chastain finds himself still searching for speed in his No 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet nearly one-third of the way through the NASCAR Cup Series season.
Winless through 11 races, the 32-year-old Chastain will set out this weekend to defend his race win from last September at Kansas Speedway, the site of Sunday's AdventHealth 400 in Kansas City, Kan.
Over the past six races at Kansas dating back to 2022, Chastain grids as the fourth-most productive driver, trailing leader Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman. The Alva, Fla., native has an average finish of 8.7 with a win, two top fives, and four top 10s. He has led 6.4 per cent of the laps around the 1.5-mile speedway.
In last season's only triumph, he cleared Martin Truex Jr. on a late restart and held off William Byron for his fifth career win, spoiling the postseason opener as a championship non-qualifier going to Victory Lane.
According to Chastain, his weekends this season have started out poorly in practice and qualifying, with the No 1 car behind before the green flag flies.
The end result has been a 23.5 average starting position including three straight of 31st or worse, which he said has affected the confidence level for himself and Trackhouse teammates Daniel Suarez and Shane van Gisbergen.
"Just the speed of (our) cars on Saturdays is just terrible," Chastain said after his season-best runner-up finish at Texas Motor Speedway last Sunday. "We're just not confident, all three drivers. So there was one pit stop today that (crew chief Phil Surgen) and the group. ... They made me a confident driver all of a sudden with one adjustment."
After 11 races, Chastain ranks 11th in points, slotting 281 behind Byron, who leads in his Hendrick Motorsports No 24. He currently has posted two top fives and six top 10s with one DNF and no stage wins in 2025.
On Tuesday, an important day for NASCAR to clean up its issues and get stuff done, the sanctioning body finalized what everyone had been hearing: Homestead-Miami Speedway, which awarded titles from 2002-19 as the season finale, will return to that slot in 2026.
It's a great opportunity for the popular 1.5-mile layout at NASCAR's southernmost US venue to get back in the mix and show the kind of product it is known for.
"We talked about it for quite a while, but we felt this was the right opportunity, the right time to do it," said Ben Kennedy, executive vice president, chief venue and racing innovation officer of NASCAR. "(The track) has put on some amazing races, and this was a big opportunity for us to shake things up."
Hosting the finale again this season, Phoenix will continue to have a spot in the 10-race playoff, whose championship event will consist of a race at either a short track or speedway but not a superspeedway.
However, 2020 Cup champ Chase Elliott added, "I think (NASCAR's) always changing and always evolving. I don't think that's ever going to stop."
So for all those wishing for the pie-in-the-sky dream of starting and ending the season in Daytona at the World Centre of Racing – from the sport's season-opening Super Bowl and back to a real high-stakes, high-speed championship – just forget about it.
For the time being.