Icon Sportswire – Getty Images NASCAR's pack races may typically be a mess of huge wrecks and nearly random winners, but that doesn't mean these events don't involve some level of strategy. Much of the decision-making that drivers make in a modern pack is about how to help manufacturer partners, and few moves have ever helped a manufacturer partner more than what Ross Chastain pulled off in the final stint of Sunday's race at Talladega. First, a bit of background: Pack racing is about momentum, which large drafting groups build by getting a series of relatively fast race cars in line together without much movement inside that group.
To preserve that momentum during a cycle of green flag pit stops, groups of allied cars generally coordinate a lap to stop on together. Usually, these groups are generally aligned with manufacturer groups. Those groups, like the bundle of Toyotas that pitted together late in Sunday's race, need to line up and build momentum over laps so that they can either pass or hold off another group that stopped together on a different lap.
On paper, the Toyotas got this right. The group, actually led by a Chevrolet of Carson Hocevar, had spent a lap building momentum in a well-coordinated line and was set to pass a larger group of Chevrolets and Fords on the outside, effectively putting the Toyota-heavy group in position to decide the race among itself. Unless, of course, the group being passed found a way to break up the Toyota group's momentum.
Enter Chastain, who was on the end of the line about to get swept by on the outside. Typically, Chastain's job here would be to disrupt the momentum of the Toyota group and protect the interests of the Chevrolets in the larger group ahead. He would normally do so by simply occupying the second groove in the Hocevar-led line before it arrived, forcing the group to slide up even higher and potentially threaten their coordination.
Rather than clog up the track in a natural motion, Chastain simply threw a massive block. Since Cody Ware's slower car stayed on the low lane, that forced Hocevar to split the middle. Chastain then closed the door behind Hocevar, sliding down the track and completely breaking up the momentum of everyone behind the line leader.
Hocevar, a Chevrolet driver anyway, continued to pass cars. The Toyotas did not. If the Toyota group led by Hocevar had stayed in line, the entire group would probably have slotted in front of the entire rest of the field.
After Chastain's block, Hocevar was able to continue his run into the top 10; the next-best car from the group, Chase Briscoe, slotted in around 20th. In one move, Chastain effectively cost every single Toyota left in the race nearly 20 spots. It was not enough to guarantee a Chevrolet win, but the move still ensured that another rival OEM did not.
