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Why Ross Chastain's final lap miracle move along wall was only possible because of his brother

ben white
·5 min read
6

The white flag was in the air to mark the final lap of the Xfinity 500 NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday and Ross Chastain was struggling. He desperately needed track position and had only seconds to make up a half lap or lose his championship hopes.

In that moment, he was that quarterback deep downfield with everything resting on a Hail Mary pass, the baseball player that had to connect at the plate with a ninth-inning homer, the basketball player that threw the ball up from half-court and needed a swish of the net at the buzzer.

Chastain gunned his No. 1 Trackside Racing Chevy and used the outside retaining wall like a marble in a bowl, rode the wall with smoke billowing from the right side of his car and turned the fastest speed ever recorded in the history of the 75-year-old .526-mile short track. He made up five positions, catching fellow Playoff driver Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and nipped him by a half-car length to finish fourth.

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Spotters talking with their drivers by two-way radios during that final lap had no words to describe what happened. The move was seemingly unthinkable and had never been successfully pulled off in Cup Series history.

It was amazing to watch.

Fans, media members, and TV and radio announcers broadcasting the race were left stunned by what they had just witnessed. Even more amazing was the fact it worked, and Chastain was the new hero who defied all logic to get a Final Four spot in the NASCAR Cup Series championship this weekend at Phoenix Raceway.

As he drove his battered Chevy to pit road and exited his car, his jubilant and stunned team met him, disciples of a new master. They had seen a miracle right before their eyes with a move that would no doubt be talked about for decades to come. The roar of the crowd was overwhelming. A new superstar in NASCAR had just been established.

So how did Chastain come up with such an amazing and crazy idea?

“I think the first time I ever saw a race car do that was on a video game, the GameCube 2005 console,” Chastain said after the race. “I don’t know if anybody else in the world had those. My brother Chad beat me doing it at the fictitious, I think it was Dodge Raceway somewhere in a fake city, somewhere in Florida.

“I never thought about it. (During) our prep this week, it never crosses my mind. I’ve done a lot of (simulator) work this week, a lot of iRacing, a lot of stuff, laps here virtually. Never once did it cross my mind or ever try it. I want to make that clear. The last time would have been a long time ago before I was even thinking about being a NASCAR driver. It flashed back in my head on the white flag, and I double-checked off of two. Like, through one and two I thought, I think we need two spots. They said, Yes. If it wrecks, OK, we don’t it make it. It might not work, but I’ll try it.”

Christopher Bell, driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, pulled off a miraculous charge to the front by picking off positions and led 150 of the race’s 500 laps. The Norman, Oklahoma, native faced having to win the race to gain his invitation into the Final Four. The victory almost went unnoticed after Chastain’s move and even Bell himself acknowledged what Chastain had done as he stood in victory lane watching the replay on the track's large video screen.

Crew members on pit road at Martinsville were impressed. Some people aren’t sure how to take him, but they do respect him. Chastain has ruffled feathers during his career but has also proven he has talent as an up-and-coming race driver with a bright future.

“Whether they were congratulating me for the wildness of it or they were genuinely happy, I’m not sure,” Chastain said. “I’m going to take it that I had more people make it a point to walk out of their pit boxes to physically acknowledge me. That means as much to me as anything.

“This garage, you know what ... we are a traveling circus. I’m proud to be in this circus. I’m proud of my brothers and sisters that I go to battle with. They might get mad at me. Some of the stuff I talked about earlier in the year, it’s been wild to race against my heroes. They’re left, right, forward, back. The craziest thing is when they’ve been mad at me. I’ve had crew members be mad at me this year. That’s the most humbling experience that I’ve ever experienced.”

Chastain comes from humble beginnings and now finds himself going for NASCAR’s prestigious Cup Series championship against Bell with JGR, Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Racing Ford and Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Chastain has a one-in-four chance of becoming the best stock car driver in the world.

“I needed time,” Chastain said, “Those team owners through Trucks, Xfinity and Cup that gave me the time, I owe so much to. That's through the middle part of what I call my career here in NASCAR.”

“If you go back two calendar years, I was the guy five laps down, seven laps down, something like that. Those were good nights. Those were wins in our book. Those moments, those nights, and those races, those laps, are a big reason why I feel like I'm able to do what I can do now.”

NASCAR CUP CHAMPIONSHIP ON TV

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This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Ross Chastain: Final lap along wall one of NASCAR's craziest moves