Ross Chastain, who took NASCAR by storm in 2022, back for more melon madness at Trackhouse Racing

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Surrounded by friends, family, various members of the Alva, Florida, community and, yes, with a watermelon on the table in front of them, Ross Chastain and Trackhouse Racing co-owner Justin Marks announced a contract extension between the parties on Thursday afternoon.

It marked the second such announcement from the organization in as many days during Speedweek with Daniel Suarez, the team's other driver, announcing an agreement on an extension on Wednesday. Both drivers were set to run in Thursday night's Bluegreen Vacations Duel races to determine their starting spots for Sunday's 65th Daytona 500.

Marks wasn't willing to divulge particulars, saying only, "Won't disclose details of the deal, but his beard will be gray," indicating that the extension would keep Chastain in the fold for years to come.

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With an emotional video presentation preceding the announcement, Chastain, whose career was all but left for dead just a few years ago, traced the improbable steps that carried him at the podium on Thursday in a media room he claimed to have once stolen Wifi from.

“It’s more than I ever dreamed of,” Chastain said. “It’s wild to look back on the path we’ve taken and the people that believed in me along the way. Team owners that took my deals on short money, no money … it’s pretty impossible to plan out a path through NASCAR and there was never a plan. It was to get to the next race and early on, securing funding to do that personally and a lot of commitment and sacrifice by (family and friends) to put me in race cars.

“It’s incredible to find a home here at Trackhouse. I always slaugh that it’s ‘Trackhouse’ and we’ve made it a home.”

Chastain went the first 120 starts of his career without a win before finally breaking through at Circuit of the Americas last spring. It was just the beginning for him and Trackhouse as both he and Suarez made the postseason, combining to win three races.

Nothing mellow about melon advocacy

To Ross Chastain, being an eighth-generation watermelon farmer isn’t just an interesting story angle or a unique identifier for television broadcasts or in press conferences.

There’s a passion there; like the one that pours out in his wall-riding, feather-ruffling driving style that finally helped him make a name — and a few enemies (cough, Denny Hamlin, cough) — during a breakout NASCAR Cup Series season last year.

And now that he’s on the big stage, he’s not about to squander the opportunity to preach the importance of the sweetest member of the Cucurbitaceae family.

Seriously. Just ask him about it.

“I’m not shy about that,” Chastain said during Daytona 500 media day on Wednesday. “It’s our livelihood and even if it’s not our watermelon, a rising tide raises all ships and shining a light on agriculture and how there’s such a small percentage of the world’s population in charge of feeding all of us is something I can use this platform to talk about.

“Getting into more of the details, there’s a lot more to be desired how I can truly help on the ground floor, in the fields, getting my hands dirty with some programs and getting food to the people that need it. There are people not too far from us right now in Daytona International Speedway right now that might be hungry. There’s things I can do to help. So, we’re working through some of that now to get food to the people who need it.”

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It seems almost counterproductive — smashing a watermelon onto hot pavement as part of a victory celebration. But it’s not the destruction that Chastain believes leaves a lasting impression.

The taste of victory is sweet. By following a win with a bite of watermelon, Chastain can convey just that.

“No matter what is going on in the world, sports are an escape for a lot of us, me included,” Chastain said. “If somebody is watching at home, at a restaurant, walking past a TV that’s muted, they don’t have to know anything about it other than, ‘That guy just won and now he’s smashing a watermelon, I wonder what that’s about? Actually, I kind of want a piece of watermelon now’.”

Legacy of the 'Hail Melon' cemented with NASCAR ban

Chastain didn’t quite get a win, or a spot for free watermelon advertising, in last year’s penultimate race at Martinsville.

Instead, he had to settle for a place in historic immortality.

Surely, that’s where Chastain resides after his now famous “Hail Melon”. Facing elimination from the playoffs, Chastain hammered the throttle getting into Turn 3 of the final lap, dropping the wheel and letting the car roll with the wall around the corner and to the finish line. He passed five cars with the maneuver, enough to earn him entry into the championship race where he finished second to Joey Logano.

Further cementing the move’s place in the annals of the sport, NASCAR announced at the end of January that such moves in the future would be banned.

And for Chastain, that ruling was a relief.

“I’m glad we don’t have to do it because we were already looking at the (Busch Light) Clash,” Chastain said.

When asked if he thought it would’ve worked a couple of weeks ago at the quarter-mile short track in the Coliseum in Los Angeles?

“We’ll never know,” he said with a smile. “That’s the beauty of it. I’m the only guy that gets to say they did it successfully.

“I hope in 25 years I can get the video cleaned up so it doesn’t look like a bad edit. It looks like I got edited in and everyone else is (photoshopped). I watch it and it still doesn’t seem real.”

Rooting against Kevin Harvick from the beginning

One of the hot topics of discussion at media day was Kevin Harvick and his retirement effective at the end of the 2023 season.

Like most, Chastain expressed respect for the 60-time winner and 2014 Cup Series champion.

Yet, despite being 17 years his younger, Chastain has been there since the beginning. Even at Harvick’s first win at Atlanta in 2001.

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“I was in the grandstands,” Chastain recalled. “That’s a cool memory. I was actually a (Jeff) Gordon fan, so I was rooting for the Rainbow Warrior car. My young eyes thought the 24 won but Kevin won and so, now to be competitors with him, to go to battle with him, to fight for wins in the different series — we’ve been side-by-side at a lot of different tracks in a lot of different racecars

“But it doesn’t make it any easier that I want to beat him. Nobody is going to take it easy on him this year and we want to beat him worse now than ever.”

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Ross Chastain signs extension with Trackhouse ahead of Daytona 500