Ross Chastain floored it, on the last lap, and pushed a slingshot move around the outside of everyone on the track, by full throttle accelerating against the wall.... around 1/2 the track!
With the final caution and Briscoe staying out, Chastain was now in a hard battle with Hamlin for that fourth and final spot to Phoenix.
Inside of 10 to go, it was Briscoe and Bell running 1-2. Hamlin was charging and now in a great spot to advance over Chastain again. Chastain was without little hope. He was playing more defense than offense because his car just didn’t have the speed to close back up to gain another spot or two.Until the last lap.
“Look, yeah, it’s sinking in that we did something that no one else has ever done,” said Chastain. “That’s hard to do in just the world that we live in in 2022, but definitely our sport.
That lap he turned was a track record at that. He went 18.845-seconds which beat Joey Logano’s pole record from 2014 (18.898-seconds).
Until he zoomed past Hamlin. Chastain took fifth in the race at the last moment, keeping his championship dreams alive in the most astonishing unpredictable move no one ever has tried before, and Maritnsville now has a historic moment that will be retold and rewatched, forever.
Bell and Chastain join Joey Logano and Chase Elliott in the final playoff race field, two championship newbies against a pair of past winners.
https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nascar/news/nascar-martinsville-live-updates-results-xfinity-500/dlzzwt45tpeta37traoklc7t
here is a fan's video of the event, without the professional choppy camera work, one long single take of the event. Awesome
this one is pretty good too, skip the first 90 seconds:
A video game move alright. Heh.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is they'll change the rules to prevent a repeat. Was fun to watch, though, and I like the 'thinking out of the box' attitude.
ReplyDeleteYeah, "video game" move. I thought somehow it was a gamer youtube channel and had to double check.
ReplyDelete