Ross Chastain will officially have his current crew chief, Phil Surgen, returning atop the pit box next season as Chastain transitions from Chip Ganassi Racing to Trackhouse Racing in 2022.
Surgen made the news official in an interview on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio’s Late Shift on Monday night.
“I’ll be working with Ross again next year at Trackhouse on the No. 1 car,” Surgen said. “Everything is kind of starting to come together and gel up for next year, now, and we’re really looking forward to the future.”
Here is audio of Surgen making the announcement on Sirius XM:
NEWS: Crew Chief Phil Surgen tells @BradGillie & @HollywoodJeff his 2022 plans. #LateShift@TeamTrackhouse | @RossChastain | @TeamChevy pic.twitter.com/BJqUfIHCHh
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) October 26, 2021
Surgen has 51 starts as a NASCAR Cup Series crew chief. While he has never tasted the spoils of victory lane as a crew chief, yet, Surgen has guided Kyle Larson to a third place finish (in 2016 at Michigan) and he has scored a second, third and fourth-place finish with Chastain in 2021.
Trackhouse Racing shocked the world on June 30th, when they announced that they had bought out Chip Ganassi Racing’s NASCAR Cup Series operation for the 2022 season, charters, equipment, shop and all.
The team owned by Justin Marks and Pitbull will boast a driver lineup of Daniel Suarez and Chastain in their No. 99 and No. 1 cars next year.
Chastain, 28, has put together a phenomenal effort for Chip Ganassi Racing this season. He has three top-five finishes and eight top-10s through 34 races. The young driver, who hails from Florida, sits 20th in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings.
2021 is the first season that Chastain has been scored in the NASCAR Cup Series driver standings.
He’ll look to take another leap forward in 2022 with a bit of continuity on the pitbox.
