One week after his teammate, Daniel Suarez, was eliminated from the playoffs, Chastain and Suarez both showed early they would be contenders in Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Chastain, who led four times for a race-high 68 laps, took the lead for the final time on a restart with 16 of 267 laps remaining, using a three-wide move to get around Chase Briscoe and Justin Haley.
Joey Logano, however, was among a group of drivers who had pit for new tires under the previous caution and was quickly advancing through the field.
He finally caught Chastain with two laps to go and despite a desperate attempt by Chastain to block his advance, Logano was able to complete the pass for the lead and held on for the win.
Chastain still finished second and remains second in the playoff standings with two races remaining in the semifinal round of the playoffs.
“That was all we had. There was a clear difference in tires there, so we fully believed that we could hold him off and win the race on the tires we had, and Joey did a good job of getting through the field,” Chastain said.
“At the end there, I hope I’m racing that guy for a really long time. Like we’ve been saying all year, this is the arrival of Trackhouse, and I wouldn’t want to be doing it with anybody else.”
As Logano advanced to third and then to the runner-up position in the final laps, Chastain said he kept a close eye on the No. 22 Ford’s advance.
Chastain said he did everything he could to ward off Logano’s charge but the newer tires just proved too much.
“Just instinct takes over and it’s all camera-based (trying to hold up Logano),” Chastain said. “Mike Reynolds (Chastain’s spotter) is up in my ear from the top and just giving me information and coaching me, but I’m the one making my decisions and my moves.
“You know, I’m sure I can go back and find a few things, and to run the top there and let him get inside of me. I thought I had one more corner to do that, and he just got positioned on me there on the frontstretch, and we were just really tight.”
With races left at Homestead, Fla., and Martinsville, Va., Chastain sits 18 points above the cutline to advance to the Championship 4 on points.
