Tag: NASCAR playoffs

Why Ross Chastain probably won’t attempt his Martinsville move any time soon: ‘It was not pleasant’

Ross Chastain stunned with his video game move at Martinsville, but he’s not trying to repeat it.

PHOENIX — Even though Ross Chastain’s video game-inspired move at Martinsville Speedway last Sunday was a jaw-dropping feat, there’s a good chance he’ll never attempt it again.

It would not only require a repeat of the perfect scenario to pull that off successfully again, but he said the move — now dubbed the “Hail Melon” as a nod to his watermelon farming roots — was fairly uncomfortable for him in the cockpit of the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet.

“Why it worked, I don’t know,” Chastain said Thursday at NASCAR Media Day ahead of the Cup Series championship race Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, where he’ll race against Chase Elliott, Joey Logano and Christopher Bell for the title.

“I have no ideas or plans to ever do that again because it was not pleasant.”

For The Win spoke with physicist Dr. Diandra Leslie-Pelecky, who explained why and how the centripetal force worked in Chastain’s favor. She noted that because of the weight and speed of the car, it required a tremendous amount of turning force, which she estimated would be about 18,079 pounds and an acceleration of around five gs.

“I’m telling you, man, like, you can lay it into that wall as easy as you want to,” Chastain added. “You’re still driving a 3,500-pound race car into a steel wall at a high rate of speed. It is not pleasant and not something I want to do just in general.”

And to be sure, Chastain’s successful Martinsville was unprecedented in NASCAR and outside of a video game. With a spot in the Championship 4 on the line, the No. 1 team said on the radio that Chastain needed to gain two spots to contend for the title.

So he shifted into fifth gear, floored it and rode the outside wall of the 0.526-mile track to the finish line, passing drivers at a ridiculous rate while driving more than 50 miles an hour faster than a typical run through Turns 3 and 4.

Amazingly, it worked — though it destroyed his car, surely adding to his discomfort behind the wheel.

“I look back at it, I look at the physics of it, I have people explain to me what happened, what I felt, why that car did not slow down, why it kept air in the tires,” Chastain said. “The right front suspension broke, the right front upper control arm is broken, but I was able to get across the line before I could feel it. Down into one, I kept it pinned on the wall because it was broken.”

Not every driver was a fan of it, however. Although Chastain captured global attention from the racing world with Formula 1 and IndyCar drivers sharing their wowed reactions, Kyle Larson described it as “embarrassing” and “a bad look” for the sport — noting he’s also embarrassed for attempting something similar last year at Darlington Raceway.

And some think NASCAR should implement a rule outlawing it.

But regardless of who thinks it was cool and who thinks it should be barred, Chastain said pretty much no one believes he didn’t practice it on a simulator and didn’t plan to do it before the last-lap white flag came out.

“Why doesn’t anybody believe me?” he said.

That includes fellow title contender Joey Logano, who told NASCAR even he’s thought for years about trying to pull off a similar move before.

Chastain also said Thursday that although his Trackhouse teammate, Daniel Suárez, tried it this week on a simulator, the No. 1 driver didn’t.

And even if he thought he could somehow pull off the “Hail Melon” again, he’s not sure it could work outside of Martinsville, NASCAR’s shortest track. That’s a sentiment Leslie-Pelecky agreed with, noting that “it won’t work at most race tracks.”

So if the move turns out to be a one-time thing or an extremely seldom-used trick, it was still unbelievable and understandably captivated motor sports fans everywhere.

“Sometimes I watch the clip, and it doesn’t seem like it’s me in the car or even my car, probably because it’s like a blur,” Chastain added. “It just flies by everybody.”

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NASCAR championship: Predicting the winner of the 2022 Cup Series title

For The Win’s NASCAR experts attempt to predict the 2022 champ.

When the checkered flag flies Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, NASCAR will have either a first-time champ or another two-time winner.

Joey Logano was the 2018 champion and Chase Elliott won it in 2020, so one of them could join Kyle Busch as the only active two-time champions. Or Ross Chastain or Christopher Bell could end up winning their first title.

NASCAR’s Championship 4 drivers will compete against each other and the field at Phoenix, but to win the title, they don’t necessarily have to win the race — though the last seven champions did, in fact, win the season finale checkered flag. The 2022 champion will be the driver with the highest finish of the final four.

Here are our picks for NASCAR’s 2022 Cup Series champion.

Q&A: We asked a physicist to explain how Ross Chastain’s video game move at Martinsville actually worked

For The Win asked Dr. Diandra Leslie-Pelecky, a physicist, to explain how in the world Ross Chastain pulled off that wild move.

Ross Chastain pulled off the unthinkable at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday when he hugged the wall and slingshot his car around the top lane of the 0.526-mile short track to pass five cars in a handful of seconds.

Sports fans everywhere were in absolute awe by Chastain’s video game move, which advanced him to NASCAR’s championship race Sunday at Phoenix Raceway.

“My brain could not comprehend, my bandwidth was shot,” Chastain said in his post-race press conference. “When I entered Turn 3 and I grabbed fifth gear, everything went blurry.”

Not only was Chastain’s last lap faster than the Kyle Larson’s top qualifying time, but it also broke the 75-year-old track’s record for the fastest lap in a stock car at 18.845 seconds. And, as the Associated Press noted, “he was hurtling at between 50 and 70 mph faster than the cars he was sailing past as the wall guided him.”

To be honest, we still can’t really comprehend how he did it either, and perhaps the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet driver feels similarly, even if he executed the move perfectly.

“I have questions; how did that work?” Chastain joked in his post-race press conference.

Same. So we asked a physicist to break it down.

Dr. Diandra Leslie-Pelecky is a former physics professor with a bachelor’s degree and Ph.D on the subject. She also has a penchant for motor sports — using NASCAR to promote science education and working as a contributor for NBC Sports — and wrote the 2008 book, The Physics of NASCAR.

And she explained how and why Chastain’s move worked with a perfect analogy.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

NASCAR championship: Detailed breakdown, odds of the final 4 drivers competing for a title at Phoenix

NASCAR’s 2022 season all comes down to Sunday at Phoenix Raceway. Who will win the Cup Series title?

First there were 16 NASCAR Cup Series playoff drivers, then 12, then eight and now we’re down to the final four.

Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain and Christopher Bell will compete against each other (and the rest of the field) in Sunday’s championship race at Phoenix Raceway (3 p.m. ET, NBC).

Since 2020, the one-mile desert track has hosted NASCAR’s championship weekend, but to win the title, these drivers don’t actually have to win the race — although that often happens anyway. A non-playoff driver could take the checkered flag, but the champion will be the driver with the highest finish of the Championship 4. So one of them just has to beat the other three for the crown.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of how the Championship 4 drivers got here and how they’ve previously performed at Phoenix, along with their season stats and title odds, per Tipico Sportsbook as of Tuesday.

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NASCAR drivers’ and spotters’ real-time reactions to Ross Chastain’s wild Martinsville move are pure gold

Pretty much everyone had the same stunned reaction: “Holy [expletive]! Did you see that?!”

Ross Chastain didn’t hold back Sunday at Martinsville Speedway on the last lap of the race. He did everything he could think of to get himself and team into NASCAR’s Championship 4 and delivered a truly jaw-dropping move that had the racing world in awe.

Seriously though, so many people — the broadcasters, fellow drivers, team members, fans, pretty much everybody — said they had never seen anything like what Chastain on the last lap.

After realizing he still needed to gain a couple spots to make the championship race, the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet driver shifted into fifth gear, rode the wall and shot around the 0.526-mile track, advancing from 10th to fifth in a matter of seconds.

It was actually unreal, and it was enough to get Chastain into the championship.

There have been some amazing moments since Chastain’s wild Martinsville move, including him saying it was actually inspired by a video game.

But unquestionably one of the best is NASCAR compiling the radio audio from different teams at the end of the race as they reacted to Chastain’s gutsy call.

With spotters talking to their drivers and guiding them through the final lap, they were all in disbelief, and their reactions were priceless.

Christopher Bell won the Martinsville race, Joey Logano previously won and Chase Elliott joined Chastain in making the title race based on points in the standings.

Joey Logano and the No. 22 Ford team:
“Holy cow, I guess it does work.”

“Holy [expletive]! Did you see that?! Hahahaha.”

Chase Briscoe and the No. 14 Ford team:
“Oh my god — coming to the checkered flag — I can’t believe what I just saw.”

“That’s literally the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Bubba Wallace and the No. 45 Toyota team
“Watch it, the 1 ripping this outside wall in the fence. Holy [expletive]! Unbelievable.”

“WOOOWWWW!”

“That’s the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen the 1 done.”

Erik Jones and the No. 45 Chevrolet team
“The [expletive] was the 1 doing?! … He really passed people doing that?”

“Yeah, he got in the final four doing that.”

“Holy [expletive].”

Chase Elliott and the No. 9 Chevrolet team
“Coming to the checkered, gap of one. Cover your bottom up off… what in the hell?”

Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 Toyota team
Hamlin and his team were battling with Chastain and co. for the final championship spot, and you can hear the dejection in Hamlin’s voice when he realizes he got beat.

“I guess we just lost on that?”

“Well, I’ve never seen anything like it. But Bell wins, he’s in. And the 1 Hail Mary’d the fence in [Turns] 3 and 4 and got it.”

“I did all I could do, Chris,” Hamlin said to Chris Gabehart, his crew chief.

Ross Chastain and the No. 1 Chevrolet team
After the race, Chastain said he was told he needed two spots in the race to make the championship, and that’s when he decided to just go for it.

“Need two spots here.”

“Gotta get them?” Chastain asks.

“Yeah, gotta get them, need two.”

“Keep coming. Hang on, man.”

“Talk to me, boys.”

“You made the transfer! YOU MADE THE TRANSFER, MAN! That was [expletive] ridiculous, dude!”

“I don’t know how long you’ve been sitting on that move, but that was [expletive] incredible.”

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Ross Chastain’s epic Martinsville move was actually out of a video game: I ‘played a lot of NASCAR 2005’

Turns out, Ross Chastain’s video game move at Martinsville was inspired by a video game.

Ross Chastain pulled off the seemingly impossible Sunday at Martinsville Speedway when he rode the outside wall hard on the last lap to steal the final Championship 4 spot. Even he admitted he didn’t know if it would work.

But it did, and the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet driver had NASCAR fans absolutely stunned by it.

Sunday’s Martinsville race was the last one in the Round of 8 and the penultimate race of the season before next weekend’s championship at Phoenix Raceway. The playoff field was about to be cut from eight to four drivers, and Chastain clearly didn’t want to take any chances in not making it.

So on the last lap at the 0.526-mile short track, Chastain shot around the outside wall, avoiding traffic and barely edging out Denny Hamlin, another playoff driver, for the last remaining Championship 4 spot, behind Martinsville winner Christopher Bell, Joey Logano and Chase Elliott.

Just a legendary move to advance to the title race, and, as the broadcast repeatedly noted, that video is in real time and not sped up.

It looked like something out of a video game, and, as it turns out, it kind of was.

Chastain said he previously thought about the plausibility of that move, and when NBC Sports asked him afterward how he came up with it and made it work, the driver said:

“Oh, played a lot of NASCAR 2005 on the GameCube with Chad [his brother] growing up, and you can get away with it. I never knew if it would actually work. I mean, I did that when I was eight years old.

“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. And I just made the choice, grabbed fifth gear down the back and full committed. Once I got against the wall, I basically let go of the wheel, just hoping I didn’t catch the Turn 4 access gate or something crazy. But I was willing to do it.”

Here’s another look at Chastain’s video game move from his perspective. It’s just as incredible:

Chastain will now compete against Bell, Logano and Elliott for the NASCAR Cup Series championship next Sunday at Phoenix Raceway in the season finale.

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Ross Chastain pulled off a brilliant video game move to advance to NASCAR’s title race, and fans were stunned

OH MY GOD WHAT.

In the final race before NASCAR’s championship weekend, Christopher Bell in a must-win situation stormed to the front of the field at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, took the checkered flag and locked himself into the Championship 4.

But the late-race jaw-dropper came from Ross Chastain, another playoff driver who pulled off a stunning last-lap move to edge Denny Hamlin to the finish line and advance to the Championship 4 as well.

Late in the Martinsville race, Bell had the lead with only a couple laps left. As the point standings updated throughout the race, Chastain and Hamlin were battling for the final championship transfer spot.

And just when it looked like Hamlin would hold onto his slight advantage, Chastain shot around the 0.526-mile track, barely beat Hamlin in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to the finish line and stole the last remaining Championship 4 spot.

It was a wild video game kind of move. Just legendary stuff.

Instead of muddling through traffic in the inside lanes, Chastain in the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet took the empty outside lane and flew around the track on the last lap, scraping the wall for much of it.

“No one’s ever gone through [Turns] 3 and 4 that fast ever!” NBC Sports’ Rick Allen said on the broadcast, which also noted Chastain went from 10th place to fifth on the last lap.

Chastain’s in-car view of his last-lap move is even crazier:

In fact, Chastain’s last lap was slightly less than two seconds faster than Bell’s last lap and faster than Kyle Larson’s pole-winning speeds ahead of Sunday’s race.

Obviously destroying the right side of your race car isn’t ideal, but in a now-or-never situation, Chastain floored it around the short track and it paid off.

“Great move, brilliant,” Hamlin later told NBC Sports. “Certainly a great move. When you have no other choice, it certainly is easy to do that. But well executed.”

In addition to Bell and Chastain, Chase Elliott and Joey Logano round out the final four — though Logano was previously guaranteed a spot thanks to a win in the Round of 8.

NASCAR driver Ty Gibbs compared himself to Jesus after controversial Martinsville bump, fans absolutely roast him

Our latest NASCAR Feud of the Week is basically Ty Gibbs vs. everybody.

Welcome to FTW’s NASCAR Feud of the Week, where we provide a detailed breakdown of the latest absurd, funny and sometimes legitimate controversies and issues within the racing world.

It’s Ty Gibbs versus everybody in this latest edition of Feud of the Week. And we actually mean everybody — his teammate, his competitors, the fans in the grandstands at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday night, as well as those on the internet. Everybody.

And he got roasted by pretty much everybody.

The 20-year-old Xfinity Series driver has quickly gained a reputation for being a super aggressive driver who has no problem knocking other cars out of his way. Gibbs — who drives the No. 54 Toyota for his grandfather’s team, Joe Gibbs Racing — also got into an actual fist fight with another driver earlier this season.

Here’s a breakdown of how Gibbs won at Martinsville, how he and others reacted to his controversial bump of his teammate and all the ways the NASCAR world roasted him for his behavior.

Updated NASCAR title odds with 1 race left before championship weekend at Phoenix

Joey Logano is the only driver locked into the Championship 4, but he’s not the title favorite.

With just one race left in the NASCAR playoffs’ Round of 8, Joey Logano is currently the only playoff driver locked into the final Championship 4. That’s in part because he’s the only remaining championship contender to win a race this round, which he did a couple weeks ago, taking the checkered flag at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

But he’s not quite the favorite to win it all come Phoenix Raceway during the first weekend in November. Chase Elliott still occupies that spot, according to Tipico Sportsbook as of Saturday.

Going into the penultimate race of the season — the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC) is the last Round of 8 race and the final elimination event before championship weekend at Phoenix — Logano is at the top of the playoff standings.

He’s guaranteed a spot in the Championship 4, and he’s followed by Ross Chastain, Elliott and William Byron, respectively. If the Championship 4 were determined today, those four drivers would race for the title.

Denny Hamlin is the first driver below the current cutline, and he’s five points behind, followed by Ryan Blaney (-18 points), Christopher Bell (-33 points) and Chase Briscoe (-44 points). But as we’ve seen before, anything can happen in these races to shake up the standings and impact who transfers into the final playoff round.

So ahead of the last race before the final four are determined, here’s a look at the latest NASCAR Cup Series championship odds, per Tipico, and they’ve changed a bit since the beginning of this playoff round. We’ve also included how their odds have changed since Tuesday, a look at how each driver has handled the Round of 8 races so far and how they finished at Martinsville back in April.

NASCAR playoffs guide 2022: Everything you need to know about the postseason format

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Latest NASCAR championship odds for the remaining 8 drivers in the 2022 playoffs

Eight drivers and four races left in the 2022 NASCAR season. See their latest championship odds going into the Round of 8.

The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs are now down to just eight remaining drivers competing for the 2022 championship at Phoenix Raceway in November.

The playoffs began with 16 drivers, and after three races, the bottom four (Kevin Harvick, Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch and Tyler Reddick) were eliminated. And after the Round of 12 ended last weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Roval with Christopher Bell taking the checkered flag, four more drivers (Kyle Larson, Daniel Suárez, Austin Cindric and Alex Bowman) were cut from the playoff field.

So now, we’ve got eight left: Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Ross Chastain, William Byron, Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe, along with Bell.

NASCAR playoffs guide 2022: Everything you need to know about the postseason format

They’ll compete in the next three races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway and Martinsville Speedway. And after the third race, the Championship 4 drivers will be determined, and they’ll compete one last time in 2022 to win it all.

So ahead of the start of the Round of 8 in the NASCAR playoffs, here’s a look at the latest odds for each of them to win the championship in November, according to Tipico Sportsbook as of Friday, as well as their previous 2022 finishes at Las Vegas and Martinsville (Homestead is only in the playoffs).

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