Ross Chastain

NASCAR racer Ross Chastain pulled an epic wall-riding pass during the dying moments of the Xfinity 500 on Sunday, securing his place in the NASCAR Cup ...

That bumped Hamlin down to sixth place at the Xfinity 500, ultimately placing him fifth in the championship on points. In the real world, it In the end, the move paid off, to the adulation of fans unaccustomed to such a glorious spectacle. Bell himself secured his spot in the Championship 4 by winning the Xfinity 500 on Sunday. The move, straight out of a video game, rocketed him from 10th place all the way up to fifth, while wrecking his car in the process. The last-ditch effort was enough to give Chastain a shot at the title, placing him third in the standings on points.

Ross Chastain took a page out of video games to sneak into the Championship Four at Martinsville on Sunday but not all of his NASCAR colleagues were ...

"I mean, I did that when I was 8 years old. "I mean, it was awesome, it was cool. But I was willing to do it." "Oh, played a lot of NASCAR 2005 on the GameCube with (younger brother) Chad growing up," Chastain said. "I guess I’d ask you guys, what makes that not embarrassing? [Championship Four](https://www.foxnews.com/category/auto/nascar) at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday did not sit well with all of his fellow NASCAR colleagues.

Ross Chastain pulled a hail mary on the final lap at Martinsville Speedway. The move will be discussed heavily this week and people will remember it for decades ...

I didn’t know if the physics would work, to make it around the corner. The wiring in my head, I’m an organ donor, so maybe they’ll study it one day.” “I’ve just not been around long enough to even have an opinion on it. “I grabbed 5th gear and everything went blurry. I definitely would not work in a modified but it worked in the Next Gen car.” Every race track has a gate to allow haulers to exit and enter the infield. “It was some hard hits. “I think we’ve been crashing race cars here for, I don’t know how long this place has been opened. I thought, ‘If it wrecks, ok we don’t make it. Chastain went from 10th to 5th and will now race for a championship next week at Phoenix Raceway. Ross Chastain pulled a hail mary on the final lap at Martinsville Speedway. Instead of braking for NASCAR’s tightest corner, he remained in the throttle.

NASCAR driver Ross Chastain advanced to the Championship in the most unlikely of circumstances this weekend, really taking a risk to try and get up the ...

It would have taken something special to overcome the odds and make up the places needed, but Chastain did so in remarkable style. Boy did he find a glitch, he floored the car, but to make sure he didn’t spin when going round a corner, he rode the wall, pushing his car up to it perfectly, charging past the field and up to the back of another car to just about finish in fifth place. He was lingering in 10th place on the final lap of the play offs, needing to carve his way through the field to have any chance of advancing to the Championship 4 when he decided to treat it like a video game and try and find some form of glitch to help him.

Sunday, October 30th was a big day for motorsport racing. On one end, Max Verstappen managed to create a new record with his win in the Mexican GP.

Given the dangers involved in high-speed racing, it is uncommon for drivers to make moves like these. — SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. [October 30, 2022] [test runs](https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.mclaren-confirm-testing-outings-for-indycar-drivers-oward-and-palou-in-2021.zBvXW3MTJWuXclXe1fXfk.html) for McLaren F1 in Barcelona. His team knew that a 10th finish would leave him 2 points behind Denny Hamlin for the final spot in the Championship 4 Race. Up north, in Virginia, there was a more exciting affair at the Martinsville Speedway.

Only the top four drivers in the standings after Martinsville would still be in the running for the championship—and as the final lap began, Chastain wasn't ...

[to officiate the same NBA game](https://www.si.com/nba/2021/01/26/natalie-sago-jenna-schroeder-two-woman-nba-referee-crew). [injured his knee](https://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/02/04/Houston-Rockets-star-Ralph-Sampson-suffered-a-large-cartilage/5197539413200/) and was never the same. [after the brawl inside the tunnel after Saturday’s game against Michigan](https://www.si.com/college/2022/10/31/michigan-state-suspends-four-players-in-wake-of-tunnel-altercation-michigan). Moore’s costly penalty yesterday](https://www.si.com/nfl/2022/10/30/dj-moore-nfl-change-celebration-penalties). There has never been a female umpire in MLB and only nine in the history of the minors, although two (Jen Pawol and Isabella Robb) [worked games this year](https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/02/female-umpire-minor-league-baseball/). This season, the NBA added two more women to its roster of full-time officials (Cheryl Flores and Dannica Mosher), bringing the total number of female refs [to eight](https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2022/10/13/nba-adds-4-new-full-time-referees-including-2-more-women/50831441/), an all-time high. … Christian McCaffrey joined a small group of players [to run for, catch and throw a touchdown in one game](https://www.si.com/nfl/2022/10/31/christian-mccaffrey-niners-makes-history-with-touchdowns). Brown said he was “kind of upset” [with how he played yesterday even though he scored three touchdowns](https://www.si.com/nfl/2022/10/30/eagles-aj-brown-upset-with-performance-after-three-td-game-steelers). … Rams receiver Cooper Kupp went down with [an injury late in the team’s loss to the 49ers](https://www.si.com/nfl/2022/10/30/rams-cooper-kupp-evaluated-by-training-staff-on-field-vs-49ers). … Pat Forde wrote about [the shameful scene inside the tunnel after Michigan beat Michigan State](https://www.si.com/college/2022/10/30/michigan-michigan-state-tunnel-fight-punishment-big-ten-reckoning). … Game 3 in Philadelphia will be [a homecoming for Pennsylvania native Chas McCormick, Stephanie Apstein writes](https://www.si.com/mlb/2022/10/30/chas-mccormick-astros-phillies-world-series). [previous game].) He has undoubtedly provided some of the biggest highlights on that field this month.

There was no shortage of unhinged sports happenings on Halloween weekend. Michigan State goons jumped Michigan players after another blowout loss.

The vehicular hail mary, which took Chastain from 10th to 5th in a matter of seconds, booked his place in the top four heading into next week’s winner-take-all NASCAR Cup Series finale at Phoenix. The Phillies came back from five runs down to win Game 1, [Paulina got festive](https://www.instagram.com/p/CkWgpu6vyMj/), and [Russ rode](https://twitter.com/espn/status/1586759925958553601). But of all the spooky, spectacular highlights from an elite-tier sports weekend, hands-down the most unforgettable belonged to Ross Chastain, who jumped not one, not two (not three, not four) but FIVE drivers in the final turn at Martinsville on Sunday to qualify next week’s NASCAR’s finale.

Chastain's epic move to make the Championship 4 gives him the top spot in the Power Rankings on principle.

While Austin Cindric's Daytona 500 win eclipsed everything his Rookie of the Year rivals did, Harrison Burton has now managed to finish inside the top 20 in a third of the races in his rookie year. It's been quite uncharacteristic of Dillon, as getting to the finish has been one of his strengths as a driver. Ware had the same car he had a strong run with at Bristol, but it was only good for 28th this weekend. It's been so long since Corey LaJoie won a NASCAR Modified Tour race that it had to be noted that his win at Martinsville on Thursday night wasn't his first. On Sunday at Martinsville, Chris Buescher ran a throwback scheme to the very first Fifth Third Bank Ford that was driven by Matt Kenseth in 2012. A brake failure and subsequent crash at Martinsville left Austin Dillon with his eighth DNF of the year, by far his career high in that category. If the final corner at Martinsville had unfolded the way it was supposed to, Denny Hamlin would have made the Championship 4 for the fifth year in a row. Even after making the playoffs this season, Kevin Harvick is set to finish outside the top 10 in the championship standings for just the fifth time in his career. The last time Blaney failed to win a Cup race was in 2016, his first full-time season. Next Sunday at Phoenix will be his fifth appearance in the championship match race. Chase Elliott has the potential to exceed his father by becoming a multi-time Cup Series champion. It was always apparent that Ross Chastain had the talent necessary to become a successful, winning Cup driver.

Chastain pinned his Chevrolet against the outside wall of the 0.526-mile Martinsville Speedway and was sailing at some 70 mph faster than the rest of the ...

It was Bell who was caught in Bubba Wallace’s retaliation of Kyle Larson at Las Vegas and Bell being collected in that crash dropped him to last of the eight drivers. “The reason why this car won today is because it was the best car on the racetrack. “Man, I say it all the time, but the driver is just a small piece of the puzzle for these races,” Bell said. “As spectacular as it was, now the box is open. Bell also won on the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course in the final race of the second round of the playoffs, so has now twice advanced with victories. “Oh, played a lot of NASCAR 2005 on the GameCube with (younger brother) Chad growing up,” he said.

Yesterday, Joe Gibbs Racing's Christopher Bell won the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Raceway to seal his place into the Championship 4 field at NASCAR's ...

Kyle Larson said that the move was embarrassing and I grabbed fifth gear, and I asked off of [turn] two on the last lap if we needed it, and we did.” Chastain finished ahead of Hamlin with the desperation move to clinch his place in the finale. With Chastain in tenth place and Hamlin in fifth, it seemed like the Trackhouse driver’s pursuit for the championship was about to end. “I played a lot of NASCAR 2005 on the GameCube with Chad [Chastain, his brother] growing up and you could get away with it. The spectators, the broadcasters and even the other drivers were in disbelief over what happened behind Gibbs.

The magic of the moment was the urgency. If riding the wall at Martinsville becomes a strategy, NASCAR will suffer.

A huge part of the sport is figuring something out before your competitors and using that unfair advantage while that particular iron is hot. This is a heroic moment in the history of stock car racing, one that deserves celebration even if it merits new rules from the series itself. When that happens, and when teams establish a list of tracks where the strategy works, it will slowly go from a late race desperation option to a field-wide must. A significant part of auto racing is finding those unfair advantages, the things that give a driver or team a significant and repeatable boost. Sure, he successfully destroyed the right side of his car, but just by riding the wall in those final two corners he set a lap time of 18.8, a full second faster than the weekend's pole time and about two seconds up on race pace the lap before. It also opened up a can of worms that will be difficult to close back up.

Ty Gibbs discusses what happened during the final lap of the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Martinsville. NASCAR could have opted to send Gibbs to the tail end ...

[ NASCAR Cup Series](/stories/nascar/nascar-cup-series-championship-outlook-what-each-driver-faces-in-phoenix) Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!](https://www.foxsports.com/newsletter) [Justin Allgaier](https://www.foxsports.com/nascar/justin-allgaier-driver) to advance. [Chase Briscoe](https://www.foxsports.com/nascar/chase-briscoe-driver), the first driver Chastain passed. [Sheldon Creed](https://www.foxsports.com/nascar/sheldon-creed-driver) the win. Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. "Hopefully we've got one more to add on top of it next week." Racing in the finale will help ease any of those thoughts. NASCAR likely will be on the lookout for any driver trying to eliminate Gibbs, who has had disputes with several of his competitors, by wrecking him at Phoenix. ... You anticipate a little bit that you're going to get touched, but he carried so much speed in there that I wasn't going to get out of that without getting wrecked." Some would likely be skeptical of that explanation, and regardless of intent, a driver at the Xfinity level shouldn't be making those mistakes. A win is significant but not exactly in a way of what a team owner, even one named Gibbs, wants to see.

The driver of the No. 1 Chevrolet used a move straight out of a video game to pass five cars in the final corner, securing him a spot in the final playoff ...

Chastain was well aware that the move could have wrecked his car, saying, "I didn't know if the physics would work to make it around the corner." On the final lap of the 2022 Xfinity 500, the penultimate race in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, Ross Chastain knew he needed to overtake Denny Hamlin to advance to the final round. The move looked like something straight out of a video game, and Chastain readily admitted to drawing inspiration from the gaming world.