Chip Ganassi Racing driver Ross Chastain won't be eligible for this year's Rookie of the Year competition in the Cup Series.
"Isn't that crazy?" Chastain told The Charlotte Observer. Chastain said he had stopped in Orlando, Fla., to do some media calls Tuesday morning while driving to Daytona Beach from his family's watermelon farm in Fort Myers, Fla.
"I've never collected a single point in the Cup Series and I've never run all the races," Chastain said.
NASCAR’s Rookie of the Year eligibility maintains that a driver must be competing for driver championship points and that the driver must not have started in more than seven events in any prior season in that series, although it is not officially written in the NASCAR rulebook.
Chastain has started in 79 Cup events since 2017, but he’s never run the full 36-race schedule nor declared for driver points in Cup prior to this season. He said he wanted to run for rookie-of-the-year honors in Cup this year, but there will only be two drivers competing for that title: Front Row Motorsports’ No. 38 Ford driver Anthony Alfredo and Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 Ford driver Chase Briscoe.
According to NASCAR, drivers who started more than seven Cup races “may be eligible for an exemption in the sole discretion of the Rookie Panel based on an evaluation of the driver’s resume, provided such driver meets all other eligibility criteria.” NASCAR said that its Rookie Panel will typically grant a waiver to drivers who slightly exceed the seven-race mark, but by the panel’s determination, Chastain far exceeded the threshold with his 79 Cup starts.
“I wanted to go fight Anthony and Chase and have that fun battle,” Chastain said. “But I wouldn’t trade my experience for it and I understand that 70-something races is pretty valuable.”
Chastain said he feels like a rookie because of the step up in equipment this year with CGR and the fact that he’s slated to run a full season. He completed three Cup races for Roush Fenway Racing, substituting for Ryan Newman in the No. 6 Ford while Newman recovered from his Daytona 500 crash, and ran five Cup races for Spire Motorsports last year.
“I’ve been there,” Chastain, 28, said. “But it’s been an average of 32nd place and so that’s a different level than where we’re shooting for with this 42 car.”
In essence, Chastain recently realized he won’t have an official Cup rookie season. He said his team loaded the car into the hauler without any rookie stripes before heading to Daytona.
“I feel like legitimately, I am (a rookie),” Chastain said. “But by the numbers, I’m not. It’s gotta be fair for everybody. It needs to be the same for everybody and it seems to be. I still have a lot to learn, though.”
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NASCAR’S ROOKIE OF THE YEAR ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
— Possess a valid current NASCAR Cup Series driver’s license; and
— Elect on their NASCAR Competition Membership and License Application to accumulate NCS driver championship points; and
— Have not have started in more than seven NCS championship events in any prior season; and
— not have registered for the NCS Sunoco Rookie of the Year program in the past, unless the applicant registered only once, and that application was properly withdrawn. Under no circumstances can a rookie applicant have previously registered in the series two times.
Drivers who started more than seven NCS Championship events may be eligible for an exemption in the sole discretion of the Rookie Panel based on an evaluation of the driver’s resume, provided such driver meets all other eligibility criteria.*
*ROY eligibility requirements provided by NASCAR upon request
