Posted on 10/31/2022 3:51:55 AM PDT by mabarker1
MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Ross Chastain was trying to comprehend what he had done nearly an hour after his video game move upended the Cup playoffs and thrilled a sold-out Martinsville Speedway while also leaving some drivers uneasy about such a maneuver and NASCAR officials pondering a possible rule change to make sure it never happens again.
“It’s sinking in the we did something that no one else has ever done,” Chastain said of his last-lap, rim-riding run.
But what to call the wall-hugging move was too difficult a question for him to answer.
“I’ll check the Internet,” he said.
It was easier, instead, for him to answer how he drove his car into the wall as fast as he could.
“It was fight or flight,” Chastain explained.
Chastain was two points behind Denny Hamlin for the final transfer spot to next week’s championship race on the last lap. Chastain was too far behind to gain those two positions so he put his car into fifth gear on the backstretch, planted his Chevrolet against the wall, took his hands off the wheel and let the wall guide his vehicle around the final quarter mile while he floored the throttle.
“My brain could not comprehend, my bandwidth was shot when I entered (Turn) 3 and I grabbed fifth gear,” Chastain said. “Everything went blurry. I couldn’t comprehend it.”
It’s understandable why. Data from Chastain’s car reveals that its peak speed through Turns 3 and 4 on the last lap was 50 mph faster than a normal lap.
Cole Custer, who was trailing Chastain, told NBC Sports that he originally thought the No. 1 Chevrolet lost its brakes until he realized what Chastain was doing.
“That was crazy,” Custer said. “He’s got some balls. That was cool.”
Chastain’s car appeared to be going at a cartoonish rate of speed compared to the rest of the field.
He passed five cars between Turn 3 and the finish line to gain enough points to beat Hamlin for a chance to race Joey Logano, Chase Elliott and Martinsville winner Christopher Bell for the championship Nov. 6 at Phoenix Raceway.
“How did that work?” Chastain later said of his move.
However it did, it made for the fastest lap a stock car has ever run at Martinsville Speedway, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary. The track record was 18.954 seconds. Chastain’s final lap was 18.845 seconds.
ROFLMAOPIMP !!!
Well said.
I don't know how to pass this line of thinking to NASCAR, but my career in root cause analysis was triggered by this event.
Not only this event, but by the other drivers' reactions to this event. They are too close to the race to see the bigger picture of harm this move has created. It violated so many safety rules that it overwhelmed everyone's ability to properly process what happened.
Thank you for recognizing the seriousness of what I posted. I just wish that NASCAR, and the drivers, have an opportunity for a sober reflection on that and begin to change their tune.
The saddest part, and the so-called "elephant in the room" that nobody wants to address, is that Ross Chastain is the only person who has a history of being reckless on the track to even think of doing such a thing, let alone actually do it.
The fact that Chastain thought of it, and actually did it in a race, suggests to me that he hasn't really learned anything in the second half of the season about his responsibilities as a driver on a track with 35 of his peers competing against him.
-PJ
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