Ross Chastain’s epic Martinsville move to make NASCAR title race really did come from video game

Ross Chastain pulled off the seemingly impossible Sunday at Martinsville Speedway when he rode the outside wall hard on the last lap to steal the final Championship 4 spot in NASCAR's penultimate race.

Even he admitted he didn’t know if it would work.

But it did, and the Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet driver had NASCAR fans absolutely stunned by it.

Sunday’s Martinsville race was the Cup Series final one in the Round of 8 before next weekend’s championship at Phoenix Raceway. The playoff field was about to be cut from eight to four drivers, and Chastain clearly didn’t want to take any chances in not making it.

So he made a stunning, jaw-dropping move on the final lap at the 0.526-mile short track.

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Late in the Martinsville race, Christopher Bell had the lead with only a couple laps left. As the point standings updated throughout the race, Chastain and Denny 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 outside of the paperclip-shaped track, barely beat Hamlin in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to the finish line and stole the last remaining Championship 4 spot  — where he joined winner Bell and former champions Joey Logano and Chase Elliott.

Just a legendary move to advance to the title race. It looked like something out of a video game, and, as it turns out, it kind of was.

Chastain said he previously thought about the plausibility of that move, and he told NBC Sports after the race, "“Oh, played a lot of NASCAR 2005 on the GameCube with (my brother) Chad growing up, and you can get away with it."

"I never knew if it would actually work," Chastain continued. "I mean, I did that when I was eight years old.

“I grabbed fifth gear, asked off of (Turn) 2 on the last lap if we needed it, and we did. I couldn’t tell who was leading. And I just made the choice, grabbed fifth gear down the back and full committed. Once I got against the wall, I basically let go of the wheel, just hoping I didn’t catch the turn four access gate or something crazy. But I was willing to do it.”

Here’s another look at Chastain’s video game move from his perspective. It’s just as nuts.

“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.

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.

And now, Chastain has a chance to race for his first NASCAR Cup Series championship next Sunday in Arizona.