Why Ross Chastain’s Win in the Coca-Cola 600 is Also a Big Win for Agriculture

In a remarkable story of resilience, NASCAR driver Ross Chastain won his first race of the season on Sunday, marking his sixth win of his career.

What made the win at the Coca Cola 600 so impressive is he actually started the race in last position after a crash during practice on Saturday meant he was unable to set a lap time in qualifying. But what makes the win even more remarkable is he was in a backup car.

The first win of the season meant he also got to smash a watermelon in victory lane to celebrate, which is a tradition he started to toast to his farming ties. Chastain, who’s known as The Watermelon Man, because of his family’s background in watermelon farming.

“This thing is fresh from Florida,” Chastain said with a laugh after his win. “It just came up from our family farm. Man, for the Florida watermelon industry, that’s your watermelons you’re getting right now, so y’all better go buy a dang watermelon to celebrate. I want to see videos of smashed watermelons flood the socials. I want to see it. Florida watermelons are in season.”

As a Kid, Chastain Just Wanted to Farm

Behind the wheel of this No. 1 Chevrolet ZL1 race car is exactly where you’ll find Ross Chastain today, but growing up on a farm in southern Florida, NASCAR wasn’t his original dream. As a kid, all Chastain wanted to do was farm.

“I wanted to be like my dad and like my granddaddy and my uncle and be like those guys that told me stories of our ancestors and generations before us growing up in south Georgia during the hard times, but seeing we were living through good times,” says Chastain.

Chastain’s father, a seventh-generation watermelon farmer, raced as a hobby. Chastain and his brother, Chad, are the eighth generation. His family got their start in south Georgia before moving to southern Florida in the 1950s. It’s a place his brother and the rest of his family still farm today.

“Even as I started in NASCAR I thought it was just still a hobby, and I going to school, even started college to get a business education to try to be a little better well versed in what the farm was going to be tasked with in the next couple decades,” says Chastain. “But I never went back. I moved to North Carolina in 2012 and decided to make this a career.”

How He Got His Start in Racing

While his dad raced as a hobby, Chastain is a first-generation NASCAR driver. With a natural love to be behind the wheel, Chastain says he was infatuated with driving anything he could as a kid.

“I just remember driving stuff,” he says. “My dad would have me drive things on the farm as a kid. And then when I first raced, it was late 2005, and my dad asked if I wanted to try driving a race truck. So, he let me drive it around our packing house first. We had a metal building that we packed the watermelons in. It had a shell with dirt driveway around it, and he let me drive until I got going too fast.”

After a couple of laps, his dad stopped him and said, “Let’s go to the track.”

“So, we packed up that Friday night, went over to the track I remember the first time on the track, then that Saturday night racing,” Chastain says. “I crashed, but I fell in love with it. And it didn’t scare me. It was something I liked. I wasn’t good at it by any means, but I fell in love early on.”

Chastain says he was hooked, not only to the adrenaline rush of racing, but also hooked to the wrecker after he crashed.

“But they pulled the bumper bar back out, my dad did, it was still hooked to the wrecker,” he says. “He hooked the chain to the four-wheeler and jerked the bumper out and sent me back out. He asked, ‘Do you want to go back out?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I want to finish the race.’”

Chastain Wants to Share the Story of Agriculture

The Ross Chastain on the track is a fierce competitor whose goal is to win, but off the track he wants to share the story of ag.

“A lot of what I want to do now is tell the stories,” says Chastain. “I want to tell our family’s story. I think I’ve done a decent job of that, but also other farmers.”

Through a series called “Ag to Asphalt,” Chastain is shining a light on agriculture and bringing those stories to a national stage.

“To grow our food here in the us is only getting harder, and there are less people and less families involved all the time,” he says. “I like hanging out with farmers. So, if i get to go and hang out with them for the afternoon, see their operation, let them tell their story, show off their family, let him brag a little, and then sit around on the tailgate when we’re all done and have a Busch Light. I mean, I am the Busch Light guy, I’m a beer drinker, and we get to sit around and then just, once the cameras are off, just hang out and actually get to know them. One, selfishly, that’s cool. I like that, and i have this unique platform to share it.”

Social Media Amplifies His Love for Ag

With nearly 140,000 followers on Instagram and 130,000 followers on X, Chastain is making an impact both on and off the track

“I have a social media platform, and I have the NASCAR platform to amplify it,” says Chastain. “The main job is to go race on Sundays, but if on a Thursday afternoon I can travel in early to a race weekend like here and go out to a farm, that’s cool for me, and I like that. No one is making me do it, but I like it, and it’s rewarding to see these operations and see how they’re adapting, what the new technology is and how they are continuing to survive .. and it can be scary at times to think about American ag and agriculture in general, but there’s families out here doing it.

At just 32 years old, Chastain hopes he gets to continue his dream of racing for years to come. But what does he want his legacy to be? Well, it’s twofold.

“Winning on Sundays is the ultimate goal, and then agriculture gets to come along with that; all the extra stuff gets to come along with that, but my life’s goal is to win more in Cup,” he says.

Chastain’s main sponsor partners include Busch Light, Kubota, Chevrolet, Trackhouse and more, but he is also sponsored by several agricultural companies, including New Leaf Symbiotics.

Watch the U.S. Farm Report segment featuring Ross Chastain’s journey to NASCAR and life on the farm.