HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. -- Ross Chastain is very comfortable at Waffle House.
That is where he is seated on a Tuesday morning, two days after finishing dead last at Talladega, which happened one week after finishing second at Texas, and only five days ahead of Sunday's NASCAR playoff 12-teams-to-eight cutoff event on the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, where he will start the race sitting three positions and nine points on the wrong side of that elimination line. So close, but so much work to do.
Yet here the three-time Cup Series racer winner is, the maestro behind the Hail Melon maneuver at Martinsville Speedway one year ago that became a crossover social media sensation, calmly knocking down coffee, over-easy eggs, grits and a peanut-butter-smeared waffle.