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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Michelle R. Martinelli

Ross Chastain pulled off a brilliant video game move to advance to NASCAR’s title race, and fans were stunned

Ross Chastain NASCAR Denny Hamlin Christopher Bell Kyle Larson Video Game Joey Logano Justin Marks TrackHouse Racing NBC Sports

In the final race before NASCAR’s championship weekend, Christopher Bell in a must-win situation stormed to the front of the field at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, took the checkered flag and locked himself into the Championship 4.

But the late-race jaw-dropper came from Ross Chastain, another playoff driver who pulled off a stunning last-lap move to edge Denny Hamlin to the finish line and advance to the Championship 4 as well.

Late in the Martinsville race, Bell had the lead with only a couple laps left. As the point standings updated throughout the race, Chastain and Hamlin were battling for the final championship transfer spot.

And just when it looked like Hamlin would hold onto his slight advantage, Chastain shot around the 0.526-mile track, barely beat Hamlin in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to the finish line and stole the last remaining Championship 4 spot.

It was a wild video game kind of move. Just legendary stuff.

Instead of muddling through traffic in the inside lanes, Chastain in the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet took the empty outside lane and flew around the track on the last lap, scraping the wall for much of it.

“No one’s ever gone through [Turns] 3 and 4 that fast ever!” NBC Sports’ Rick Allen said on the broadcast, which also noted Chastain went from 10th place to fifth on the last lap.

Chastain’s in-car view of his last-lap move is even crazier:

In fact, Chastain’s last lap was slightly less than two seconds faster than Bell’s last lap and faster than Kyle Larson’s pole-winning speeds ahead of Sunday’s race.

Obviously destroying the right side of your race car isn’t ideal, but in a now-or-never situation, Chastain floored it around the short track and it paid off.

“Great move, brilliant,” Hamlin later told NBC Sports. “Certainly a great move. When you have no other choice, it certainly is easy to do that. But well executed.”

In addition to Bell and Chastain, Chase Elliott and Joey Logano round out the final four — though Logano was previously guaranteed a spot thanks to a win in the Round of 8.

The racing world COULD NOT BELIEVE Chastain managed to pull off that all-time great move.

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