Phil Surgen, crew chief of No. 42 Chevrolet at Chip Ganassi Racing praised his new driver Ross Chastain.
Chastain was entrusted with the seat of the No. 42 after Matt Kenseth’s tenure came to an end. Chastain will be looking to lead the charge of bringing some better results for the team along with Kurt Busch.
It seems that his crew chief already likes him and his aggressive driving style. Speaking about his new driver, Surgen said:
“It’s huge for me and the guys to know that you know, there’s a guy out there that just it’s gonna give us a hundred percent of his effort.
“And he’s gonna stand up for himself and stand up for the team in situations that some guys just kinda lay over. Obviously there’s a little give and take with it all, we’ve got to use our head and be aggressive when we need to be.
“And not do anything that might jeopardize us later in the race or getting wrecked later on or something like that.”
What the crew chief admires about Chastain is his ability to fight back and show enthusiasm in the races.
“But at the same point, if we’re getting roughed up, then the guy doing the roughing needs to get a little bit back. And we know that Ross isn’t going to be bashful when it comes to doing that.
“And a lot of the guys really respect that.”
Chastain comes at the back of a career-best 7h place finish in the Xfinity Series last season. While driving in the Cup Series brings about added responsibilities, there is no doubt that Chastain has every trait to be a good driver.
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