WATCH: Ross Chastain pulls off unreal wall ride in final corner at Martinsville to make the Championship 4
Ross Chastain #RossChastain
With one of the most spectacular last lap moves in the history of NASCAR and one of the most unbelievable highlights ever seen in a stock car race, Ross Chastain made the Championship 4 in the NASCAR playoffs by putting his foot to the floorboard and riding the outside wall the entire length of the final corner at Martinsville Speedway, passing five cars and playoff rival Denny Hamlin to advance to the championship round by just one point.
Running 10th going down the backstretch on the final lap, Chastain went full send into Turn 3, putting his car right up on the outside wall and running his car at full throttle. Even as his car slid along the wall, the massive discrepancy in speed between Chastain and the cars well in front of him led to Chastain darting all the way up to fifth at the finish line, edging Hamlin — who looked to be safely in the Championship 4 coming off the final corner — by a carlength.
The sight of Chastain’s car riding the wall at warp speed was so spectacular that it almost didn’t look real, instead looking like something out of a modded and glitched video game. And speaking on pit road afterwards, Chastain confirmed that was exactly where it came from.
“Well, I played a lot of NASCAR 2005 on the Gamecube with (brother) Chad growing up, and you could get away with it,” Chastain told NBC Sports. “I never knew if it would actually work, and I did that when I was eight years old.
“I grabbed fifth gear. I asked off of (Turn) 2 on the last lap if we needed it, and we did. I couldn’t tell who was leading. And I just made the choice, I grabbed fifth gear down the back and full committed. Once I got against the wall I basically let go of the wheel, just hoped I didn’t catch the Turn 4 access gate or something crazy. But I was willing to do it.”
Chastain going for it all in the final corner was fitting given the season it has been for the Alva, Fla. driver, as Chastain and his Trackhouse Racing team have enjoyed a massive leap forward in their first season together. Chastain earned the team’s first-ever win in a dramatic finish at Circuit of the Americas in March, and then got his second win with a last lap pass coming to the checkered flag at Talladega in April.
Chastain will now race against Chase Elliott, Joey Logano and Christopher Bell — who scored a walk-off win at Martinsville to make the Championship 4 himself — for the Cup Series title next week at Phoenix Raceway.