So what’s it like to go viral? Just ask Ross Chastain

November 3, 2022 Greg Engle 2022 Playoffs, Featured 0

(Greg Engle)

 

Trackhouse Racing driver Ross Chastain became an viral sports figure last Sunday with his video game type move on the last lap of the NASCAR Cup race at Martinsville Speedway that saw him ride the wall full speed and pick up five places to secure his spot in NASCAR’s Championship 4.

Thursday as one of the 4 drivers, Chastain was part of the Championship 4 Media Day in downtown Phoenix. Chastain was able to reflect on being one of the most famous people in the sports around the world, even though his newfound fame still seemed surreal to him.

“Say that one more time,” he said laughing.

“It’s wild, it really is. I’ve just tried to even grasp how far it’s went. Hearing from different people that are literally around the world, they’re like people that have never talked about NASCAR are talking to them about it. That’s Asia, Mexico, like everywhere. It’s wild.

“What has it been like? It’s been odd. It doesn’t seem like it’s me in the car. Like, it’s not my car when I watch the video.”

Chastain said he is enjoying all the attention.

“I am. It’s wild because in, like, the same breath I can get excited for what we’ve accomplished and scared to death about what we’ve accomplished,” he said. “It’s so cool that I’m getting to experience this. I’m so lucky and blessed to get to feel this for a race. It’s all for a race on Sunday, one afternoon.”

And it all started with him in the car, pulling off a move that looked almost cartoonish.

“It doesn’t seem real,” he said. “Sometimes I watch the clip and it doesn’t seem like it’s me in the car or even my car, probably because it’s like a blur. It just flies by everybody. It’s been good, though. Man, in the same breath I can get excited for what we’ve accomplished, and I can also be scared to death about what we’ve accomplished.

“There are nerves and there’s anxiety and there is fear of failure. How cool is it that I’m getting to experience this? It’s so, so cool that I get to feel this.”

In some ways that final last-ditch bottom of the ninth two out swing for the fence move reflects Chastain’s entire, young, Cup series career and what it took to get him to being one of the 4 drivers who will race for a Cup title on Sunday.

“I think it does because I didn’t plan that, to run the wall,” Chastain said. “It popped into my head at the white flag. Why it did, I don’t know that I’ll ever know the reason. Like, believe me when I say it, I did not practice this, I did not know I was going to go to fifth gear instead of fourth. It was all a reaction.

“Why am I wired that way? I don’t know. In some aspects of my life, I think that it hurts me the way that I am. But in driving a race car, it helps me. It makes other parts of life a little more difficult, but it makes driving the race car that much better.

“Yeah, I mean, why would I ever hold it wide open and pin it against the wall at Martinsville? Never would I have ever thought I would do that, and we did it. I don’t know why.”

Chastain was nothing more than a RV driver not that long ago. He drove an RV for Spire Sports and Entertainment part time that towed his pickup truck while looking for team to race for. That eventually led to driving a Xfinity car for former team Chip Ganassi Racing, which led to where he is today: a viral media sensation racing for the biggest prize in all of stock car racing. It’s something he never expected when driving that RV around.

“No, not at all,” Chastain said laughing. “We were just hoping that my pickup truck didn’t come disconnected going down the highway.”

 

Greg Engle
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