Ross Chastain wallrides to Championship Four as Christopher Bell wins Martinsville

As Christopher Bell took the checkered flag to win Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Round of 8 closer at Martinsville Speedway, Denny Hamlin was cruising to a fifth-place finish that would have placed two Joe Gibbs Racing cars in the Championship Round.

That was when Ross Chastain decided to pretend he’s a superman. Instead of simply braking for the sharp final two corners and settling for tenth to miss out on the final round, Chastain continued at full speed and brushed the outside wall. Despite sacrificing his #1 car’s right side, he rode the wall and blew by five other cars before stealing fifth and the final Championship Four slot from Hamlin.

The move, which shaved off so many seconds that the lap time of 18.845 was the Martinsville track record, quickly set the racing world on fire as many compared it to a video game strategy. Indeed, Chastain recalled in his post-race press conference that his younger brother Chad won a round of NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup on the Nintendo GameCube with the tactic at the fictional Dodge Raceway Stadium.

“I never thought about [the move]. Our prep this week, it never crossed my mind,” said Chastain. “I’ve done a lot of sim work this week, a lot of iRacing, a lot of stuff, laps here virtually. Never once did it cross my mind or ever try it. I want to make that clear. The last time would have been a long time ago before I was even thinking about being a NASCAR driver.

“It flashed back in my head on the white flag, and I double-checked off of (turn) two. Through one and two, I thought, ‘I think we need two spots.’ They said, ‘Yes. If it wrecks, okay, we don’t make it. It might not work, but I’ll try it.’ That’s a motto that some buddies and I have back home. We live by ‘Why not?’ To apply that to the Cup Series in this scenario, there are rules. There are a lot of rules out here.

“I didn’t know how it would all work out. I didn’t know if the physics would work to make it around the corner, but it did. I’m sure glad it did.”

Others were not as impressed, expressing worry that it would lead to others attempting it despite the obvious risks from hitting the wall. Pole winner Kyle Larson, while acknowledging he had done the same before, called it “not a good look for our sport at all. I don’t know what you guys think, you probably think it’s cool, but I think it’s embarrassing.”

Joey Logano, who locked himself into the Championship Round via his Las Vegas win, quipped that everyone “did it in the video game” and pondered “how many races I could have won here by doing that,” but added “wall riding is going to be a play” regardless of track. Although NASCAR stated the move is legal under the rulebook, Logano proposed detering future copypcats by penalising drivers who gain a position while against the wall.

“There needs to be a rule against this one because I don’t know if you want the whole field riding the wall coming to the checkered flag,” Logano continued. “I don’t know if it’s the safest thing for the driver or the fans when you have a car right up at the wall hauling the mail like that. What if that fence, gate, wasn’t closed all the way? What if it was bent and caught his car? That’s a big risk that Ross was willing to take. God bless him, that’s awesome.”

Somewhat lost in the Chastain hoopla was Bell’s victory after passing Chase Briscoe with five laps remaining. It is Bell’s third win of 2022 and first on a short track. He had entered Martinsville below the cut line and needed to win to advance; incidentally, he faced the same situation at the Round of 12 but won its finale at the Charlotte Roval to advance.

“It’s just been a roller coaster of emotions for sure. I think I’ve been praying offseason for two out of the last four weeks, now I’m ready to race again,” Bell remarked. “The Round of 12 was extremely disheartening because I felt like the Round of 8 was going to be really good for us, and that would have led to a possible championship run. But then when we got out of Texas with a DNF, Talladega sucked, just being so down.

“The team behind me, everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing, they still performed to their highest level. I feel like whenever I get in the car, put my helmet on, I try and do as good of a job as I can of not letting anything bother me.

“No matter what’s going on behind the scenes, whenever you get in the car, you can’t let that bother you. They gave me a great race car today, the fastest car today. At the Charlotte road course when we needed to win, it worked out for us.”

Chase Elliott finished tenth to also qualify for the final round on points. Elliott and Logano are both seeking their second Cup championships.

Chastain’s run after getting off the wall was slightly hindered by Brad Keselowski in front of him, forcing him to slow down and end up in a closer drag race to the finish with Hamlin. Ironically, Keselowski failed post-race inspection as his car did not meet the minimum weight requirement and was disqualified, respectively promoting Chastain and Hamlin to fourth and fifth.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	20	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	500	Running
2	1	5	Kyle Larson^	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	500	Running
3	4	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	500	Running
4	9	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	500	Running
5	11	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	500	Running
6	12	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	500	Running
7	25	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	500	Running
8	24	45	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	500	Running
9	3	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	500	Running
10	2	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	500	Running
11	10	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	500	Running
12	7	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	500	Running
13	19	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	500	Running
14	5	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	500	Running
15	15	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	500	Running
16	8	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	500	Running
17	13	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	500	Running
18	23	43	Erik Jones	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet	498	Running
19	26	23	Ty Gibbs*	23XI Racing	Toyota	498	Running
20	27	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	498	Running
21	14	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	498	Running
22	31	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	498	Running
23	21	16	A.J. Allmendinger*	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	498	Running
24	22	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	497	Running
25	17	48	Noah Gragson*	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	497	Running
26	30	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	497	Running
27	29	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	497	Running
28	36	51	Cody Ware	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	495	Running
29	18	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	494	Running
30	35	15	J.J. Yeley*	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	488	Running
31	32	42	Ty Dillon	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet	466	Brakes
32	33	77	Landon Cassill*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	460	Accident
33	16	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	316	Accident
34	34	78	B.J. McLeod*	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford	225	Fire
35	28	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	188	Accident
36	6	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	500	Running (DSQ)

Bold – Currently in playoffs
^ – Competing in owner playoffs
Underline – Eliminated from playoffs
Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points