Scott Fowler: Watermelon win: Ross Chastain is a smash hit in NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600

Scott Fowler, The Charlotte Observer on May 26, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

CONCORD, N.C. — Watermelons often play key roles in Memorial Day picnics all across America, so it was fitting that one took center stage at the Coca-Cola 600 Sunday night.

Before a sold-out crowd at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Ross Chastain reeled in William Byron with six laps to go, then held him off for a fruitful victory.

As is Chastain’s delightful tradition — and you certainly are forgiven if you don’t know this because he doesn’t win that often in the NASCAR Cup Series — he then climbed atop his No. 1 Chevrolet while holding a Florida watermelon. He took that watermelon, jubilantly smashed it into the asphalt and delayed his post-race interview so he could pick up a piece and take a big, juicy bite. Chastain later proclaimed he wanted people watching to smash watermelons on their own, then tag him in their videos on social media.

It was all pretty endearing for Chastain, whose family has farmed watermelons in Georgia and then Florida for eight generations. Their racecar-driving progeny has been a solid driver in the Cup Series for nine years, but this was only his sixth win. Chastain was trying to chase down two more well-known and successful drivers in the last 20 laps in Byron (who is from Charlotte and was trying to win at this hometown track) and Denny Hamlin. As for his extended celebration, which included a long backward victory lap, the watermelon smash, celebrating with fans in the stands and a fair amount of beer, Chastain grinned and said: “I won. No one can tell me what to do.”

Chastain also said of the fact that he offered some battered, half-eaten watermelon to some of his friends and crew members repeatedly and that they kept indulging in it: “If you offered people in a normal setting watermelon that different people had bitten off off of, nobody would do it. But in the moment, I mean, I’m eating it, they’re eating it, I’m eating it again. It doesn’t matter when you win Cup races. Rules go out the window.”

The fact that Chastain was even into the top three was unusual. He went from worst to first in this race, beginning in dead last (40th) after being sent to the rear of the field due to having to use a backup car following his wreck in practice Saturday. The backup car used for the win Sunday night was built in the frantic final 24 hours before the race by a crew of 30. Chastain became the first Coke 600 driver to start dead last and still win the race.

“Eight or 10 of us left at 2:30 last night,” said Phil Surgen, who is Chastain’s crew chief. “And the first guys got back there at 5:30.”

So the Trackhouse Racing folks built a car in a day (it had been partially assembled already, but still — impressive). The average build cycle for a Trackhouse car, Surgen said, is 3-4 weeks.

Then Chastain made all that work pay off on Sunday, steadily moving up through the field until suddenly he was a contender.

Hamlin became a non-factor after a pit road error meant that he was about to run out of fuel with a dozen laps to go. He had to make a green-flag pit stop.

“Unfortunately, just didn’t get enough gas in it and had to come back in,” said Hamlin, who wound up 16th after trading the lead with Byron numerous times.

Byron, who had won the Xfinity race Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway and leads the NASCAR Cup point standings, was a harder out. His No. 24 Chevy had been the race’s dominant car, winning all three stages and leading 283 of a possible 400 laps.

Chastain, by comparison, only led eight laps. But he picked the right ones, chasing down Byron late and winning the 66th running of the Coca-Cola 600, NASCAR’s longest race. “It took all 600 miles,” Chastain said. “(If it was) a 400-mile race here, we don’t get there.”

This race was far better than last year’s Coke 600, which only got to 373.5 miles didn’t even get to 400 miles before it got red-flagged due to lightning. Then came a two-hour delay, followed by the decision to call the race and give the win to Christopher Bell, who had been leading at the time of the storm.

So 2024 was all rather wet and anticlimactic. The 2025 version, by comparison, stayed dry and ended under a green flag, with the fans screaming and on their feet — just the way you want it to be.

And to top it all off, like so many good Memorial Day parties, there was watermelon.

____