NASCAR driver Ross Chastain pulls off an impressive move to pass enough cars to get the points required to get into the Championship race at Phoenix Raceway. He credits NASCAR 2005 which he played as a kid for the bold move that got him into a Championship 4 appearance.
The NASCAR Playoffs have one of the more unique points systems in auto racing. To spice up the final 10 races of the season, the top 16 drivers in points are entered into the playoffs, with every 3 races after that eliminating the lowest 4 drivers in points. The Xfinity 500 at Martinsville was the final race in the Round of 8, with the next race at Phoenix Raceway being the Championship decider.
After a restart with 20 laps to go, Trackhouse Racing driver Ross Chastain sat in 10th place, 2 points below the cut-line and behind his season-long rival Denny Hamlin, who was in 5th and 2 points above the cut-line. On the final lap, Chastain took the white flag when his spotter (the crew member that provides track information directly to the driver) emphasized that Ross needed 2 positions to get into the Championship 4 as he drove into turns 1 and 2. With the other cars still he needed to pass somewhat close, rather than follow the conventional racing line, he stays on the gas, rides the outside wall like a Rocket League player, and passed 5 cars in the process including Hamlin.
Speaking with reporters after the race, he credited the idea to NASCAR 2005, full name NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup, made by sports simulation studio EA Sports Tiburon in 2004 for the Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. Players in a last-ditch effort rode the wall and kept in the gas to make up as many spots as possible. It was a move that theoretically could be done if the car stayed at the right angle so as not to get caught on the wall and spin out. But no real-life driver ever pulled it off.
The move set the auto racing world on fire and the act is certain to go down in NASCAR history as one of the all-time greatest moves. The clip posted by the NASCAR on NBC Twitter account has 9 million views. Drivers from Formula One, Indycar, Super GT, and others were all amazed by the move and reminisced about doing similar things on other games like Forza, iRacing, and Gran Turismo. Chastain's NASCAR Cup series competitor Chase Briscoe, who was also eliminated in this Round of 8 Race, attempted to recreate the move in NASCAR HEAT 5 but spun out, a punishment implemented to deter the practice in online games.
As impressive as it was, it's a move that may have only worked at this particular track. This move has been attempted at least twice in the last 20 years at larger tracks, but failed. NASCAR officials are also deliberating a rules change to discourage this. The memes produced afterward overlay Mario Kart Super Star music, Leroy Jenkins, and many other reactions. For once, a NASCAR clip is going viral for a fun reason.