Ross Chastain returned to Martinsville Speedway in March 2023 to help remove a section of the wall he destroyed during the most famous lap in modern NASCAR history. Four months after riding the outside wall to pass five cars on the final lap, Chastain climbed into a Kubota forklift and lifted out a 20 foot section of SAFER barrier from Turns 3 and 4 that still showed every scrape and mark from his No. 1 Chevrolet.

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Ross Chastain Hail Melon at Martinsville: The Video Game Move That Changed Everything

Running 10th on the final lap of the 2022 Xfinity 500 at Martinsville, Chastain needed two more points to make the Championship 4. Instead of braking into Turn 3 like every other driver, he pinned the throttle in fifth gear and slammed his car against the outside wall at over 130 mph. The wall ride passed Denny Hamlin and four others, rocketing him to a fifth place finish that knocked Hamlin out of the playoffs by two points.

Chastain admitted he learned the move from playing NASCAR 2005 on GameCube with his brother Chad as a kid. The final lap shattered Martinsville’s track record at 18.845 seconds, running nearly a full second faster than Kyle Larson’s pole time. The video went viral with over 100 million views across social media. Even Formula 1 icon Fernando Alonso called it “the best thing of 2022 in motor racing.”

Standing next to the removed wall section months later, reality finally hit Chastain about what he accomplished. Eating at a Waffle House after the race, the magnitude hadn’t sunk in yet. Removing the wall with Martinsville president Clay Campbell made everything real. NASCAR banned the move before the 2023 season, and Chastain agreed with the decision, saying he doesn’t want to beat anyone that way again.

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