Back in November, NASCAR driver Ross Chastain made a last-ditch effort at Martinsville Speedway that brought heaps of attention to the sport. On the final turn of the final lap of the race, he floored it and rode the wall in 5th gear, going from 10th to 4th place in a single corner and advancing to the next round of the playoffs.
At the time, this was deemed legal by NASCAR’s vice president, but now, as part of the 2023 rules update, it has been decided that moves like that won’t be allowed anymore from the new season onwards. There won’t be any new regulation added to the rule book to stop this, but NASCAR will be clamping down harder on an existing one: rule 10.5.2.6.A.
The rule states that “Safety is a top priority for NASCAR and NEM (NASCAR Event Management). Therefore, any violations deemed to compromise the safety of an Event or otherwise pose a dangerous risk to the safety of Competitors, Officials, spectators, or others are treated with the highest degree of seriousness. Safety violations will be handled on a case-by-case basis.”
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According to officials, if someone attempts to try Chastain’s wall ride again in the future, they will be met with a penalty.
“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,” said Elton Sawyer, NASCAR‘s senior vice president of competition. “And we will penalize for that act going forward. Basically, what it would be is a lap or time penalty at the end of the race, so that move at Martinsville would be a penalty.”
As cool as the video game-like move was, we can understand the reasoning behind its banning, as it was outright dangerous. Not just for Chastain, who himself even claimed it felt like “the longest wreck”, but also his fellow competitors, who would have almost certainly felt the consequences if the move went awry.