Chastain wall-rides into NASCAR final
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Ross Chastain skyrocketed to motorsports infamy for wall-riding his way into NASCAR’s championship race with a video-game style move that has overshadowed the finale and his fellow title contenders.
With that comes a ton of pressure on the eighth-generation Florida watermelon farmer and journeyman NASCAR driver who once took a side gig driving a motorhome just to earn extra cash.
This year, his first with secondyear team Trackhouse Racing, has been the breakout the 29-year-old has long been chasing. Chastain’s decision to slam his Chevrolet into the Martinsville Speedway wall and ride it into the fourth and final playoff spot just might have made him the fan favorite in Sunday’s winner-take-all finale at Phoenix Raceway.
In his 151st career Cup start, Chastain will race for his first championship.
“There are nerves and there’s anxiety and there is fear of failure. How cool is it that I’m getting to experience this?” he said. “In the moment, it’s not pleasant, the nerves. I wish they would go away.”
The field is stacked. Christopher Bell has been redhot with two walkoff wins in a pair of playoff elimination races to advance to his first championship. Bell is the only Toyota driver in the field.
Joey Logano is Ford’s only representative but will try to give Roger Penske both the NASCAR and IndyCar championships in the same season. Will Power won the IndyCar title for Team Penske in September and the organization has never won both championships in the same season.
Then there’s Chase Elliott, the 2020 champion who began a run of two consecutive Cup championships for Hendrick Motorsports. Defending champion Kyle Larson was eliminated in the first round, so Elliott, in his Chevrolet, is Hendrick’s only shot at winning three straight Cup titles.
NASCAR’s most popular driver won the regular-season crown and led the Cup standings most of the year. But he’s had a mediocre playoffs and only won at Talladega — his career-high fifth victory of the season.
The top finisher among the four contenders wins the title. Only Elliott and Logano have raced in the championship finale before. Chastain had never before made the playoffs, and Bell made it to the second round in last year’s playoff debut.