Ross Chastain warned us.
His first warning shot came on March 27, when he moved AJ Allmendinger, and by happenstance Alex Bowman, out of the way on the last lap at Circuit of the Americas to win his first NASCAR Cup Series race.
The second, and more relatable, warning came on July 31 at Indianapolis.
Were the rules surrounding the road course’s turn 1 escape route vague enough to potentially take advantage of on an overtime restart?
They were for Chastain.
It didn’t work out, but the move got everyone’s attention.
Then came the last lap of Sunday’s (Oct. 30) playoff elimination race at Martinsville Speedway.
In 10th place, Chastain needed to make up two spots to advance into the Championship 4.
After a summer spent keeping his head down, in hot water following high-profile incidents with Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell and probably someone else I’m forgetting, the Ross Chastain we have come to know over the last five years emerged from hibernation.
Most racing decisions are made in the moment or calculated over the course of the race.
That was still the case Sunday.
At just the right moment, out of contention for the Championship 4 and with Hamlin in by just a few points, Chastain unlocked a core memory as the white flag dropped.
Put the pedal to the floor, ride the outside wall at full speed… and hope for the best.
“Played a lot of NASCAR 2005 on the (Nintendo) Game Cube with (brother) Chad growing up,” Chastain said. “You can get away with it. I never knew if it would actually work. … I mean, I did that when I was 8 years old.”
It didn’t work for Carl Edwards in 2008.
It didn’t work for Kyle Larson in 2021.
On Sunday, in a moment and at a track where no one was expecting, Chastain pulled it off.
‘@RossChastain said he’ll leave it up to the Internet to decide what to call this move.
What do you say, fans? pic.twitter.com/GA0rwW9nim
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 30, 2022
“Asked off of (turn) 2 on the last lap if we needed it, and we did,” Chastain said. “I couldn’t tell who was leading. I made the choice, grabbed fifth gear down the back(stretch). Full committed. Basically let go of the wheel.”
I’d make a “Jesus Take the Wheel” reference, but this column isn’t about Ty Gibbs.
Instead, it’s about Chastain riding Martinsville’s outside wall at an eye-popping speed to go from 10th to fifth in two turns (make that fourth after Brad…
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