Watch Alva’s Ross Chastain make one of the wildest moves in NASCAR history to reach final race

Ross Chastain reacts to ‘video-game move’ and advancing to Phoenix

Ross Chastain was going to be on the outside looking for next week’s final round of the NASCAR playoffs unless he made a move on the final lap Sunday in Martinsville.

The move he came up with will live in NASCAR lore.

Needing to make up two points on Denny Hamlin to advance to the Championship Four for the first time in his career, he went full throttle up against the outside wall, rode it around the entirety of turns 3 and 4 to pass Hamlin as well as four other cars to place fifth overall and earn the last of the four spots.

Previous coverage: Alva’s Ross Chastain takes Talladega, puts NASCAR field on notice with second win of 2022

The watermelon farmer from Alva’s season went from over to now facing Christopher Bell, Sunday’s winner, Joey Logano and Chase Elliott next week at Phoenix Raceway for the NASCAR championship.

“I mean, I did that when I was eight years old,” Chastain told NBS Sports after the race. “I grabbed fifth gear, asked off of (Turn) 2 on the last lap if we needed it, and we did. I couldn’t tell who was leading. I made the choice, grabbed fifth gear down the back. Fully committed.

“Basically, I let go of the wheel, hoping I didn’t catch the Turn 4 access gate or something crazy. But I was willing to do it.”

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It was just last June that Trackhouse announced its purchase of the NASCAR operations of Chip Ganassi Racing and along with it, its two cars including Chastain’s No. 1. Trackhouse is owned by former NASCAR driver Justin Marks and entertainer Pitbull and is in its second season of competition.

“I hope everybody remembers that two years ago, in the fall of 2020 I went down to the southern 500 with Spire Motorsports and it was a big deal for us to put sticker tires on and we had a podcast sponsoring the car,” Chastain said. “It was a big deal to beat one car. We were trying to go single-digit labs down. And that was two years ago.

“And to be here fighting for a championship now it’s just so surreal. So when I stumble on my words, when I make mistakes on track, I just, I hope everybody remembers like two years ago, I was out here, seven laps down.”

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: See the move Alva’s Ross Chastain made that has all NASCAR talking