NASCAR to penalize wall-riding move inspired by video games in the future
A real-life wall-riding move by NASCAR driver Ross Chastain stunned both the racing and video game world last year – while sliding along a wall is a common trick in racing games, it’s quite unheard of in the actual sport. Chastain, who said he’d learned the move playing NASCAR 2005 on Nintendo GameCube, used the maneuver at the Xfinity 500 in 2022 to jump ahead five places and set a new lap record on Martinsville Speedway’s final turn.
While fans celebrated the move, NASCAR was a bit less thrilled. The racing series’ ruleset for 2023, which was revealed this week, clarifies that any future moves like Chastain’s will be penalized in the name of safety (thanks, Kotaku).
“While the move was thrilling and largely lauded for its creativity, it also came with an increased safety risk”, a NASCAR statement reads. For this reason, the rule keepers are planning to invoke rule 10.5.2.6.A in case any attempts at repeating Chastain’s brilliant maneuver are made.
This is what the rule states:
“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.”
The officials plan to issue time penalties to punish any violations.
NASCAR’s stance on this is very understandable, after all the real-life risks of such maneuvers are not to be underestimated and could lead to someone’s life being at stake in the worst case.
Even Chastain is not eager to repeat his trick, saying “I have no ideas or plans to do that again because it was not pleasant” a few days after the race.
What’s more surprising is that NASCAR needed a few months to come to this decision and did not penalize Chastain for the move after he made it. Perhaps the officials were just as stunned by the move as the viewers and other competitors had been and needed time to gather their wits about them again.
In any case, Chastain’s move will be a mainstay on highlight reels for ages to come – and thanks to NASCAR’s rule clarification it may well remain a unique real-life wall-riding moment in professional racing. Thanks, video games.
