Trackhouse Racing's Ross Chastain finished ninth, and teammates Shane van Gisbergen and Daniel Suárez finished 32nd and 36th in Sunday's 301-lap NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.
The New Hampshire race marked the fourth of NASCAR's 10 playoff races and served as the first race in the second round.
With his ninth-place finish Sunday, Chastain is ninth of the 12 remaining playoff drivers but only 12 points below the eighth-place cutoff line with this Sunday's race at Kansas Speedway and the Oct. 5 race on the Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway remaining in the second round.
Four drivers will be eliminated every three races, with the four remaining drivers competing in a winner-take-all Championship race at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 2.
On Sunday, Chastain saved his best for last, running well in the final stage to secure his 11th top-10 of the season.
Van Gisbergen and Suárez saw their days ruined on lap 118 when both were collected in an eight-car accident on a restart in Stage 2. Van Gisbergen returned to the race many laps down to move to 32nd. It was Suárez's third consecutive early ending due to another driver's error.
Van Gisbergen's seventh-place finish in the first stage was one of his best on an oval. Chastain raced in the top-10 before finishing 12th, while Suárez drove from the back of the pack to 26th. Chastain finished 13th in the second stage.
ROSS CHASTAIN
“I thought we had a respectable race. Our No. 1 Kubota Chevrolet was too tight for most of the race. We spent most of the race trying to get it to turn better. But once we got that better, we went back forward. When we were too tight, we went backwards. I think we just started the day overall too tight and needed to get some wedge out throughout the race, but it just took us a little while. We’ll take a top-10 finish and go back to work to get ready for Kansas (Speedway)."
SHANE VAN GISBERGEN
“It’s a real shame how our race ended today. My 88 team brought a really good Jockey Chevy that had a lot of potential. It was fun battling in the top 5 during the first two stages. We’ll give it another try next weekend in Kansas.”
DANIEL SUAREZ
"Just disappointing. We get caught in everyone else's wrecks lately. We'll go to Kansas next weekend and get this turned round."
