Ross Chastain’s Martinsville move is now against the rules.
NASCAR announced Tuesday that the wall-riding maneuver Chastain successfully pulled off to qualify for the championship race would not be allowed going forward. Chastain kept his foot on the gas and drove against the wall on the final lap of the race to pass enough cars and be one of the four drivers racing for the title in the final race of the season.
And now according to NASCAR’s rule book, “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 handed on a case-by-case basis.”
Chastain’s move presented a conundrum for NASCAR because of how successful it was. Chastain posted the fastest Cup Series lap time ever at Martinsville by riding the wall. In essence, it was too good to continue to be legal. If a driver attempts to do what Chastain did he or she will be assessed a time penalty.
Other NASCAR rule changes for 2023
A welcome rule change for the upcoming season is the elimination of stage breaks at road courses. Since it was implemented in 2017, NASCAR’s stage racing format has destroyed the strategy aspect of road course racing because of its planned cautions. While road course races will still include three stages and the top 10 drivers will earn points at the conclusion of the first two stages, the races won’t have stage cautions.
It would have been great had NASCAR eliminated stage breaks at all tracks where drivers can make a green-flag pit stop without losing a lap like at Pocono and even Daytona and Talladega to help with strategy at those tracks. But the simple elimination of stage cautions should make Cup Series road course racing much more fun to watch.
Crew chiefs will also no longer be suspended for four races if their cars have a wheel come loose during a race. If a wheel comes off a car while on track, that team will be penalized two laps and two crew members will get a two-race suspension. The introduction of a single wheel hub on the cars in 2022 led to a rash of loose wheels, especially at the beginning of the season.
If the wheel comes loose on pit road, the team will either be assessed a pass-through penalty or a end-of-the-field penalty.