Trick or treat.
On Monday night, we had to choose. Something sweet to consume or something clever that someone comes up with, maybe even something we’ve never seen before?
On Sunday evening at Martinsville Speedway, we weren’t forced to pick one or the other. We got it all at once. And that led to a rush that not even the biggest bag of sugar and chocolate could possibly supply. A surge of WTH adrenaline that felt so good it managed to accomplish what most believe to be impossible. For a couple of hours on an autumn Sunday, NASCAR enjoyed more buzz than the NFL. All thanks to Ross Chastain, who topped the field with the most reality-defying move seen from a Cup Series machine at NASCAR’s oldest racetrack.
In case you’ve been asleep or have had all your social media feeds muted, here’s what happened. Chastain, running behind Denny Hamlin on the final lap of the final race before the NASCAR Championship Four will fight for the title at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, knew that he had to beat Hamlin if he wanted to be included in that season finale quartet. So, the 29-year-old dropped the hammer like Cole Trickle, only it was for real. In a tactic that he later admitted was taken from EA Sports NASCAR Chase for the Cup 2005 on his Nintendo GameCube, he ran his No. 1 Chevy so high that the racecar rode the wall like one of those mechanical rabbits running on a rail at the dog track.
He pulled off what has since been recognized as perhaps the fastest race lap ever recorded at Martinsville, dot-dot-dotting his way around that wall a full two seconds faster than race winner Christopher Bell. He rocketed from 10th to fifth, edged Hamlin at the line and made the cut to be among the title contenders — alongside Bell, Joey Logano and Chase Elliott — one week from now.
Hamlin was stunned. Chastain was stoked. The internet was on fire.
If I’m being completely honest, though, it was a slightly different fire than I expected. Not from everyone. Judging by the texts and phone calls that I received from friends who never pay any attention to motorsports, especially in the fall, the awesomeness of Chastain’s move struck a chord and a funny bone with many.
That chorus of wows and WTHs from those who wouldn’t know a sparkplug from a wall plug is perhaps why I was a little taken aback by the comments that came from those who live with high-octane fuel in their bloodstream year-round.
Woke up this morning and my brain was still all… pic.twitter.com/sdF1k88nWw
— Ryan McGee…
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