MARTINSVILLE, Va: Ross Chastain’s Hail Mary in Sunday afternoon’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway will likely go down as one of the most unbelievable moves in NASCAR Cup Series Playoff history.
Seeing his opportunity to be a part of the Championship 4 flashing before his eyes when he took the white flag lap, a gutsy “send it” move worked in his favor that propelled the Trackhouse Racing driver five positions in the final two corners of the race and assured him one of the four coveted Championship 4 spots heading to Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway on November 6.
Chastain’s daring move came on the heels of a subpar performance throughout the 500-lap race which saw the No. 1 Moose Fraternity Chevrolet Camaro lack the grip he needed to earn crucial stage points in the opening two stages when he finished ninth and 10th respectively.
Hoping a well-executed pit stop and a better handling machine would work to his advantage in Stage 3, restarting third and hoping track position would work to his benefit.
The stage got off to a rocky start for Chastain who made contact with Brad Keselowski on the restart sending Keselowski around in Turn 4 and triggering the race’s third caution.
Chastain brought his Chevrolet Camaro to the attention of his Trackhouse team to be assured that they did not receive any damage that would force them to pit under green and wipe them from contention.
A late race caution allowed the opportunity for Chastain to gain four new tires and have at least one final opportunity to propel him forward over the final 25 laps of the race.
With Chase Briscoe electing to stay out and Christopher Bell on his heels, Chastain knew that the final position would likely come down to he and Denny Hamlin.
It’s no secret that throughout the season the two drivers have had their fair share of run-ins with Hamlin vowing to retaliate at some point.
The two drivers battled neck-and-neck on the final restart of the race. After banging fenders, Hamlin was able to eventually escape the scene of the short track battle with Chastain watching his Championship 4 chances slip away.
That was until the last lap.
Executing a move that left everyone speechless, Chastain soared his race car wide open through Turns 3 and 4 and rode the wall to the checkered flag.
The move vaulted Chastain five spots with the final spot being the coveted fifth-place spot which at the time was claimed by Hamlin.
At the checkered flag, Chastain edged the Joe Gibbs Racing driver by 0.073 seconds but more importantly came out on the positive side of the point standings – beating Hamlin by four points.
“Oh, played a lot of NASCAR 2005 on the game cube with (brother) Chad growing up,” said Chastain of the move. “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 two 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(stretch).”
The moment Chastain made his decision, he knew there was no turning back.
“Full committed,” offered Chastain. “Basically, let go of the wheel, hoping I didn’t catch the turn four access gate or something crazy. But I was willing to do it. “
Chastain’s 18.8-second lap was faster than Kyle Larson pole-winning speed Saturday afternoon at Martinsville and also eclipsed the previous track record speed.
His efforts though propelled Trackhouse Racing to the Championship 4 in their sophomore season of Cup Series competition.
“For this Trackhouse group, we’ve done everything,” added Chastain. “We did so much right this year, for Advent Health, the Moose, Jockey, to lose Rob this year, we got a rose riding with us, right, an angel overhead. I thought about that for a long time.
Reflecting on his last two years of racing put a huge exclamation point on what he accomplished this season and culminating in the Xfinity 500.
“Well, I hope everybody remembers that two years ago in the fall of 2020, I went down to the Southern 500 with Spire Motorsports,” he recalled. “It was a big deal for us to race with sticker tires on. We had a podcast sponsoring the car. It was a big deal to beat one car.
“Single-digit laps down. That was two years ago at the Southern 500. To be here fighting for a championship now, it’s so surreal.
“I just can’t not believe that we have a chance to go fight for a championship. All we ask for is a chance. We kept our world small this year so far. We’ll do the same thing going to Phoenix.”
The NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race is set for Sunday, November 6th, 2022 at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway live on NBC, Peacock, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM Channel 90.
Follow Grace Krenrich on Twitter @grace3140.
NOTE: Senior editor Chris Knight contributed to this feature.
