Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain Pulls Off Wild Finish To Advance To Championship Race

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Ross Chastain. Photo: Courtesy of Trackhouse Racing

Nashville-based Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain finished Sunday’s (Oct. 30) Martinsville race in fourth, punching his ticket to the NASCAR Playoff Championship race after pulling off one of the craziest finishes in recent NASCAR history.

Denny Hamlin was a two-point favorite to enter the final four for next week’s championship at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 6, but on the final turn of the race, Chastain did something not many NASCAR fans have ever seen.

Chastain put his No. 1 Chevrolet Camaro in fifth gear, slid into the wall and flew past the rest of the field to beat out Hamlin for fourth place by half a car length. The stunt was a truly remarkable finish that has found its way all over social media.

“I played a lot of NASCAR 2005 on the GameCube growing up and you get away with it. I never knew if it would actually work,” Chastain shared cheekily in a post-race interview on NBC. “I grabbed fifth gear and asked Alpha two on the last lap if we needed it and we did. I couldn’t tell who was leading so I just made the choice. I grabbed fifth gear on the back and fully committed. Once I hit the wall, I basically let go of the wheel, just hoping I wouldn’t catch the turn four access gate or something crazy, but I was willing to do it.”

In his first season, he finished the NASCAR Cup Series regular season in third place with two wins and 14 top 10 finishes. His performance in the playoffs has been solid thus far, getting into the final eight spots last month. In the final races of the top eight, Chastain finished second at Las Vegas, second at Homestead-Miami and fourth at Sunday’s race in Martinsville.

Chastain is joined alongside Joey Logano, Christopher Bell, and Chase Elliott in the final four to race at Phoenix Raceway to compete for a NASCAR Cup Series Championship. The race is set for 2 p.m. CT on Nov. 6 and will be aired on NBC.

Steven Boero
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