Driver Ross Chastain supplied one of the memorable moments of final 12 months’s NASCAR season.
Do not count on to see it replicated anytime quickly.
Needing to maneuver up a few locations within the closing lap of the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway to qualify for the ultimate 4 within the final race of the season, Chastain put his Chevrolet into the wall, and rode it across the monitor, rocketing into fifth place. That end was ok to place him within the ultimate 4 for the season finale.
The transfer has usually been known as a “Hail Melon,” NASCAR’s model of the Hail Mary you see on the gridiron.
However, the transfer got here with some criticism, and now NASCAR is stepping in. Ahead of the 2023 season, the game introduced that comparable strikes would now be a penalty.
Citing an present rule, NASCAR introduced that such a transfer would now end in a penalty. The rule in query — 10.5.2.6.A — states that “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.”
In announcing the emphasis on the prevailing rule Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vp of competitors, stated this in regards to the ending at Martinsville: “Basically, if there’s an act that we feel that compromises the safety of our competitors, officials, spectators,” Sawyer stated, “we’re going to take that seriously. And we will penalize for that act going forward. Basically, what it would be is a lap or time penalty at the end of the race, so that move at Martinsville would be a penalty.”
However, it was unlikely that Chastain would duplicate his Martinsville Hail Melon anytime quickly. While it labored, it was not probably the most satisfying expertise. “Why it worked? I don’t know, but I have no ideas or plans to ever do that again because it was not pleasant,” Chastain stated earlier than the season’s ultimate race.