Yahoo Autos Ross Chastain Will Not Ride the Wall Again
Ross Chastain's wild, last-gasp pass to secure his spot in NASCAR's Championship Four has crossed over from racing spectacle to genuine cultural phenomenon. You can see the move nearly anywhere right now, from SportsCenter recaps, to video game blogs, to group chats with Grandma.
It was a once-in-a-lifetime maneuver from Chastain, a star-making moment. The Wall Ride has its own section on Wikipedia now (fans of Chastain, from a Florida watermelon-farming family, dubbed it "The Hail Melon"); it's taken on an inertia of its own, and even with a championship to win, Chastain is left clinging the reins of a moment that has become something else entirely.
"I mean, it's bigger than me. It's bigger than NASCAR in a way," Chastain said. "I don't know that I'll ever totally grasp how far it went and the reach it's had, but what's so great about the sport is we're putting these race cars on the limit and every now and then you get something truly spectacular."
Racing against the limits of humanity and physics will always produce the spectacular. But this was something else. Perhaps something that reached beyond physics by demolishing our expectations about how the sport should operate. I mean, this wasn't a move born in physics at all. Chastain had initially admitted he got the idea from playing NASCAR 2005 on GameCube as a child. Race cars just never do that, I argued.
"All I know is that the last time I can remember doing [the wall ride] would've been back then. Yeah, I don't, I just know. I haven't done it in simulators, haven't done it purposely on iRacing in this way. So that would be it. I was a casual NASCAR fan and played the [video] games... and just never thought about it attacking the corner like this. And yeah, that's why it worked."
Chastain paused to consider it all for a second and our Zoom call went quiet. I thought maybe the line had disconnected, but his voice perked back up from the silence.
"I'm not sure I'm how I'll view it in the future, but I think it will outlive me for sure," he said.
It's worth considering the context here too, as my colleague Fred Smith noted. The Wall Ride, however spectacular, is only the cherry on top of an already miraculous season for Chastain. Over the course of 2022, he's taken his first opportunity in a truly competitive car and seized it, going from a middle-of-the-road competitor to a title challenger at an absolute sprint.
"It's been wild. I just thought I'd found my niche in the mid-pack Xfinity, back of the pack Cup, and maybe some good trucks one day. Yeah. I thought that was my career. And it's been a learning process to learn to accept what we're doing and learn to embrace the opportunities we have in front of us. I still get nervous on race day, and I hope I never lose that," he said.
Chastain said those nerves, those emotions, that desire to keep improving, all come naturally, they're tools he uses to sharpen his skill set. It's a modesty you wouldn't expect to hear from one of racing's elite drivers, especially not one who just made the most EEEHAWWW pass of the century.
"I hope I never lose that because the day I feel like I've made it, I think it might be the end of my career," he said.
It can be tough to keep that holistic and saintly perspective, I offered, when you've executed on a dangerous idea in a critical moment. The world loves to lift up danger and genius. Surely, you have to revel in that moment.
"I took some time for sure mainly Monday, and I did look at some of the stuff, but no, I can't focus on it too long. We've got a long time in the future. It'll be on social media and out there and we'll enjoy the moment more in the off-season. But for right now, it's a little bit of enjoyment Sunday night and part of Monday, and then full speed ahead to Phoenix. But I do realize it was a big moment for the sport," Chastain said.
Will the move work at Phoenix this weekend, if it comes down to it? One wonders. Chastain said it's situational, not something you can plan for or even conceive until you're behind the wheel, a get-this-done-or-die moment in your crosshairs.
"I don't know [if it will happen in Pheonix], but I did not think it would work at Martinsville until the last lap of the race. The thought popped in my mind for the first time in my professional career on the front stretch, taking the white flag," Chastain said. "I confirmed we needed two spots... And from that moment on, it was never even an option to not do it. I don't know why, and I don't know why it popped in my head in the first place, but down the back stretch, I grabbed fourth gear and then I grabbed fifth and never even thought about running the normal line was fully committed all of it, and it worked out."
As euphoric as the team's attitude was after the race, and as smooth as it all looked from the grandstands and YouTube playbacks, it wasn't a joyous experience from the driver's seat, Chastain said.
"It was not pleasant, to be honest," he said. "I mean, I was scraping along and bouncing into a wall. I just wrecked successfully; It was the longest wreck I've probably ever, but it was really close to being a silly, stupid move. So I don't know. It was a wild ride in the car though, and I don't have any plans of doing that again."
Chastain's fellow racers capitulated from the startled disbelief to almost downplaying The Wall Ride in the week following the maneuver. Many said they'd considered the move before, or even tried it before Chastain's attempt.
Kyle Larson voiced perhaps the strongest take among current drivers. In a pit-lane interview, Larson was asked if his own driving had inspired The Wall Ride. Larson said his own attempt at the maneuver from last season probably did inspire Chastain, and that both moves were a bad look for NASCAR.
"I don’t know what you guys think, probably think it’s cool, but it was pretty embarrassing," Larson said.
Chastain had little to add to the pit-lane drama. He's focused on winning a title this weekend. Nothing else matters, not even one of the greatest passes in motorsports history.
"I really can't speak for [the other drivers]. I don't know. I just know that I didn't practice the move or prepare for it, and I wish I would've thought about it and been more prepared. But nope, just glad it worked and don't really care to do it anymore," Chastain said.
Whatever The Wall Ride all means down the line, Chastain has poured gas on a championship fight that ends in Phoenix this weekend. We'll be tuned in as excited as we've been in years, eager to watch Chastain cap off this tremendous season.
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