Ross Chastain uses late restart to win Truck Series race at Darlington

A full-time competitor in the NASCAR Cup Series, Chastain was only racing in his second Truck Series start of 2024 on Friday. But he didn't seem to show any rust, executing the final restart to perfection.

"It takes (crew chief) Phil Gould, it takes Niece Motorsports," Chastain said when asked what it takes to win at a track as tough as Darlington. "We've been trying to win at Darlington. This is where my life and career changed forever."

The win is Chastain's fifth career victory in the Craftsman Truck Series. 

Majeski, who led 36 laps, finished fifth, a small consolation on a night that his first win of 2024 seemed inevitable.

"Obviously, we should've taken the bottom lane," Majeski said when asked about his lane choice on the final restart. "I got the lead on the bottom and got beat, it's just harder to fire off on the top and you need help to do it. His (Chastain) help formulated before mine did and I didn't get a great launch."

Chastain's quest for victory was greatly helped in part by two accidents that greatly changed the race. The first was Kyle Busch's lap two crash, which occurred on the exit of turn two while Busch was battling Corey Heim for the race lead. The second was the 'Big One', which occurred on the backstretch on lap 98.

The lap-98 crash took out contenders such as Rajah Caruth, Matt Crafton, Tyler Ankrum and Layne Riggs. The crash was triggered when Dean Thompson got loose under Corey Heim on the exit of turn two, with Thompson over-correcting his truck into Heim's Toyota Tundra, taking both trucks out of contention. 

After starting at the rear of the field, Nick Sanchez clawed his way through the pack to finish second, while defending Truck Series champion Ben Rhodes nabbed his second top-10 finish of the season in third. 2023 Darlington winner Christian Eckes finished fourth, while Taylor Gray finished sixth. 

Chase Purdy grabbed a much-needed sixth-place finish while Ty Dillon was able to finish ninth despite water temperature issues late in the race. Grant Enfinger's overheating issues set the No. 9 team back to a 16th-place finish. 

The Truck Series' next race is next Saturday as the field will take on the historic North Wilkesboro Speedway. The race will air at 1:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.