Ross Chastain reminds Cup Series that he hasn't gone anywhere

Of the 16 drivers who qualified for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, Ross Chastain was not one of them.

That didn't matter on Sunday, when Chastain led 52 laps and held off William Byron to take the win in the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

Chastain's win may come as unexpected, given his points position. He has not often had dominant speed in 2024 the way he did in the previous two years, a major reason why he failed to make the playoffs. Chastain has not had a bad season, though. Far from it, in fact.

Chastain was comfortably inside the top-16 in points throughout the regular season and it was only due to a handful of surprise winners from outside that range that knocked him out of playoff contention. He sat 14th in the full-season points at the start of the playoffs and had climbed to 11th entering Kansas on Sunday.

That isn't exactly championship-caliber performance, but it's worth noting that Chastain's Trackhouse Racing team has been off for most of the year. Though his teammate Daniel Suarez won at Atlanta in February, car speed is far less of a factor on superspeedway tracks, when the cars are bunched up in packs. Both of Trackhouse's drivers have found the front of the field hard to come by on most weeks and have usually needed strategy for a chance at success.

That was the case for Chastain on Sunday, when he had what seemed like about an eighth-place car but pitted under a yellow flag near the end of the second stage. That allowed him to cycle to the front when the rest of the field came in during the ensuing stage caution and he took the lead shortly after the restart.

Chastain's main competitor from that point forward was Kyle Busch, who was on the same strategy, but Busch took himself out of contention when he spun attempting to lap Chase Briscoe. That spin put the driver of the No. 1 car back in the catbird's seat and he held serve.

There have been several other races this year that could have resulted in wins for Chastain. In the Daytona 500, he was battling for the win when he crashed at the white flag. At Texas, he ran second on the final lap and was spun by Byron. At Nashville, he led late and restarted the first overtime period on the front row but was taken out by Kyle Larson.

In all three of those races, Chastain had punched above his weight to climb into contention, just to be undone by bad luck. His resulting finishes -- respectively 21st, 32nd and 33rd -- were the difference between being a dark horse title hopeful, and missing the playoffs.

It was about time for some luck to finally go Chastain's way. It may not move the needle in the championship fight, but in the words of the "Melon Man" himself: "What's the big deal? We won!"