NASCAR formally prohibits chauffeur’s GameCube-inspired ‘wall ride’ stunt

Photo: Stacy Revere/Getty Images

Remember that awesome-as-hell, straight-out-of-the-basement, Nintendo GameCube move a NASCAR racer whipped out at the end of a wild race in Virginia at the end of October? Yeah, well, the fun-killing schoolmarms who manage stock-car guidelines have actually stated, “Nope, no more of that.”

Recap: Ross Chastain, at the wheel for the Trackhouse Racing No. 1 Chevy Camaro, remained in 10th location at Martinsville, the fastest track in NASCAR, and required a top-four surface or he ran out the playoffs.

Chastain released a relocation he (and numerous others of his generation) utilized just in video games twenty years back — the wall trip, where he motored into the corner at leading speed and utilized the wall to brake and corner his car. It worked: Chastain rose from 10th to fourth in the last corner of a half-mile track to survive in NASCAR’s playoff format, and ended up second general the next weekend at Phoenix. It’s really the things of legend.

Ross Chastain flights the wall around the last corners to surpass 5 automobiles and reach the Nascar playoffs pic.twitter.com/kMEFQRrHLw

— James Dart (@James_Dart) October 31, 2022

And legend is where it will stay, obviously. Per NASCAR reporter Zack Albert, Chastain’s “wall-ride” maneuver is now thought about an infraction of guideline 10.5.2.6.A, which includes “any violations deemed to compromise the safety of an Event” or position a danger to anybody taking part in or attending it.

“Basically if there’s an act that we feel that compromises the safety of our competitors, officials, spectators, we’re going to take that seriously,” stated Elton Swayer, NASCAR’s primary competitors executive. “And we will penalize for that act going forward.”

So NASCAR’s administration has actually laid down the law: There will disappear wall-riding. Any effort to do so is going to sustain a lap or time charge that prevents whatever intent the chauffeur had entering into the concrete.

Chastain, in October, acknowledged it was a high-risk gamble. “But I was willing to do it,” he informed NBC. He informed a trackside press reporter that the relocation was motivated by NASCAR 2005 on GameCube, which he and his bro Chad played fanatically.

Given that the sport actually traces its heritage to bootleggers running scotch in the 1950s, Chastain’s buccaneering spirit needs to be praised. But yeah, if chauffeurs are breaking out a wall trip at the end of every race, the novelty would wear away — and somebody would be most likely to get injured.

 

Source: Polygon