Remember that awesome-as-hell, straight-out-of-the-basement, Nintendo GameCube transfer a NASCAR racer whipped out on the finish of a wild race in Virginia again in October? Yeah, properly, the fun-killing schoolmarms who management stock-car guidelines have mentioned, “Nope, no more of that.”
Recap: Ross Chastain, on the wheel for the Trackhouse Racing No. 1 Chevy Camaro, was in tenth place at Martinsville, the shortest observe in NASCAR, and wanted a top-four end or he was out of the playoffs.
Chastain deployed a transfer he (and plenty of others of his era) used solely in video video games 20 years in the past — the wall journey, the place he motored into the nook at prime pace and used the wall to brake and nook his automobile. It labored: Chastain surged from tenth to 4th within the remaining flip of a half-mile observe to remain alive in NASCAR’s playoff format, and completed second total the following weekend at Phoenix. It’s actually the stuff of legend.
And legend is the place it can stay, apparently. Per NASCAR reporter Zack Albert, Chastain’s “wall-ride” maneuver is now thought of a violation of rule 10.5.2.6.A, which encompasses “any violations deemed to compromise the safety of an Event” or pose a danger to anybody collaborating 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,” mentioned Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s chief competitors govt. “And we will penalize for that act going forward.”
So NASCAR’s administration has laid down the regulation: There might be no extra wall-riding. Any try to take action goes to incur a lap or time penalty that thwarts no matter intent the motive force had going 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 reporter that the transfer was inspired by NASCAR 2005 on GameCube, which he and his brother Chad performed obsessively.
Given that the game actually traces its heritage to bootleggers operating whiskey within the Nineteen Fifties, Chastain’s buccaneering spirit have to be applauded. But yeah, if drivers are busting out a wall journey on the finish of each race, the novelty would put on off — and somebody could be prone to get damage.
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