He’s No. 1 in your program, has No. 1 on his car, is one of four Cup championship finalists and, after Sunday’s remarkable finish, is No. 1 in last-lap strategy.
And Ross Chastain now is No. 1 in the NBC Sports NASCAR Power Rankings.
Chastain’s last-lap, pell-mell run to glory at Martinsville put him in the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway and added to his history of aggressive behavior. 1.
Ross Chastain (No. 2 last week) , No one else could be in this spot this week.
Chastain amazed practically everyone, including many of his competitors, with his final-lap charge Sunday at Martinsville.
The T-shirts should be flying out of Trackhouse Racing this week. (And, by the way, don’t try that move in your driveway). 2.
Christopher Bell (No. 6 last week) , Bell jumps four spots in the rankings after winning on a must-win Sunday at Martinsville .
Now a winner three times this season, Bell is moving into elite-driver status. 3.
Joey Logano (No. 3 last week) , Logano is in the final four with a shot at a second title.
He was seventh Sunday at Martinsville. 4.
Chase Elliott (No. 4 last week) , Elliott led 54 laps at Martinsville and rides into Phoenix with a solid shot at his second championship. 5.
Kyle Larson (No. 5 last week) , Larson finished second Sunday and was almost unnoticed in the frenzy surrounding Ross Chastain’s wild last lap. 6.
Denny Hamlin (No. 1 last week) , Hamlin will end another year Sunday without a Cup championship, having lost a Championship 4 spot to Chastain. 7.
Ryan Blaney (No. 7 last week) , Blaney finished a strong third at Martinsville but couldn’t score the win and a spot in the championship group.
His season will be one of “almosts”. 8.
William Byron (No. 9 last week) , Byron failed to make the final four Sunday.
His season has been a mix of ups and downs. 9.
Chase Briscoe (No. 8 last week) , Briscoe’s team made the ultimate no-tire-change gamble late in Sunday’s race, as he desperately searched for a win that would advance him into the Championship 4.
The older tires didn’t last, and Briscoe came home ninth. 10.
Daniel Suarez (unranked last week) , Suarez finished 12th Sunday.
What would have happened if he had gotten in the draft of teammate Ross Chastain?
Dropped out: Martin Truex Jr. (No. 10 last week).
Former bank executive Latasha Causey, a Phoenix native and community development executive, has been named track president at Phoenix Raceway.
Causey will become the first female Black track president in NASCAR history and the second woman to hold the position at Phoenix Raceway.
She will replace Julie Giese, who is leading NASCAR’s advance work for next year’s street race in Chicago.
Causey will begin work at the track Nov. 28.
Causey is a founding member of the NASCAR Accelerators host committee established in 2020.
The committee is composed of community and business leaders who serve as Arizona’s ambassadors for NASCAR.
In 2021 she was named one of the Most Influential Women in Arizona by AZ Big Media , and in 2018 the Phoenix Business Journal honored her as part of its Outstanding Women in Business Awards. “Latasha’s track record speaks for itself as a highly experienced executive that prioritizes relationships and giving back to the community , also core values of ours at NASCAR,” said Chip Wile, NASCAR senior vice president and chief track properties officer in a statement released by the speedway. “NASCAR and Phoenix Raceway take pride in making a positive impact on the community through creating a best-in-class experience for fans when they visit the track, as well as through actively giving back and playing a significant role as a community partner.
Because of these ideals, Latasha is the perfect fit to lead Phoenix Raceway into 2023 and beyond.” Causey called NASCAR “a sport that brings people together, and as a result, Phoenix Raceway plays a key role in showcasing our great community to visitors across the country every year.
I cannot wait to help build upon the great work that’s already been done in making this facility one of the true gems in sports and entertainment.” Most recently, Causey served as vice president and community development officer for Bell Bank in Arizona.
She graduated from Arizona State University, where she is now a member of the ASU Alumni Board of Directors.
She went on to receive her Master’s degree with a concentration in organizational management and holds a professional human resources certification.
NASCAR is not inclined to make a rule change that would bar a driver from repeating Ross Chastain’s video game move in this weekend’s championship races at Phoenix Raceway.
Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR chief operating officer officer, was asked Tuesday morning on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio if series officials would follow the advice of some competitors and not allow a driver to run against the wall as Chastain did on the final lap of last weekend’s playoff race at Martinsville Speedway.
The move allowed Chastain to go at least 50 mph faster than his competitors and gain five positions in the final quarter mile.
That was enough to get him into the championship race.
O’Donnell said on “The Morning Drive” that Chastain’s move , which had never been successfully done in NASCAR Cup history , was within the rules. “As with anything you see for a first time, you’ve got to take a look,” O’Donnell said. “We’ve had a number of discussions internally about that move and what-ifs.
That’s within the rules, and believe that is where we’ll be for Phoenix, as well, and then something we can evaluate in the offseason.” O’Donnell went on to say: “At this point in looking at it, it was a move within the bounds of the rule book and really don’t think it’s right to adjust the rules when for 35 points races we’ve been one way and throw a wrinkle in it for the 36th (race).” Some drivers said Sunday that series officials needed to make a rule to prevent Chastain’s maneuver from being tried as soon as this weekend’s title races for the Cup, Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series at Phoenix.
Joey Logano was among those wanting NASCAR to make a rule change this week so Chastain’s move would never be repeated. “As spectacular as it was, as much as it worked, the problem is now the box is open, right?” Logano said after Sunday’s race. “Now every Xfinity race, every Truck race, every Cup race, no matter the track, this wall riding is going to be a play.
That’s not good.
That’s not good. “I mean, it was awesome, it was cool.
It happened for the first time.
There’s no rule against it.
There needs to be a rule against this one because I don’t know if you want the whole field riding the wall coming to the checkered flag.” Asked about if his move should be outlawed, Chastain was non-committal Sunday. “That’s for people that we have appointed, that the sport has put in those positions, to make those decisions,” he said. “I’ve just not been around long enough to even have an opinion on it.
Do I want us all coming to the ends of the races and flooring it?
No.
That’s not what we want. “This is a race.
This is a competition.
Whether you pass somebody on the inside or outside, pass ’em on pit road, pass ’em against the wall, yeah, it’s unorthodox and it wouldn’t work almost every other time. … I don’t know what they should do.
I’m sure that I will talk to them this week.
I’m sure that we will have lots of conversations about it.
I will give my point of view and my opinion.
But I’ll let them decide.” Ross Chastain provided a superb physics lesson at Martinsville.
Here’s how he managed to pass five cars in the last half-lap of the race.
Turning requires turning force Imagine swinging a tennis ball tied to a string above your head.
The ball moves in a circle because of the string.
That string provides a force that makes the ball turn.
This turning force always points toward the center of the turn.
Physicists call it ‘centripetal force’, but I think ‘turning force’ is more descriptive.
Turning at a race track utilizes the exact same physical principle , except without the string.
And these 3,675-pound cars require a lot more turning force than a tennis ball does.
The amount of force necessary to turn is proportional to the mass that’s turning, times the speed, times the speed again, all divided by the turn radius.
Physics tells us that: Let’s figure out how much force you normally need at Martinsville.
The pole speed was 96.078 mph, but each car’s speed varied throughout a lap.
Let’s say a driver takes Martinsville’s 202-foot-radius turns doing an average of 80 mph.
That requires a turning force of 7,775 pounds.
The four tires must generate all of that almost four tons of turning force.
Sir Isaac Newton discovered that force is equal to mass times acceleration.
Chastain is 5’9”.
I’ll guestimate his weight at around 160 pounds.
That makes the total weight of the car and driver 3,675 pounds.
Dividing the force by the mass, the acceleration of a car turning at 80 mph at Martinsville is normally about 2.1 Gs, where G is the acceleration due to Earth’s gravity.
Your head, which weighs around 10 pounds, would feel like it weighed 20 pounds when subjected to a 2G acceleration.
Compare that to astronauts on the Space Shuttle, who experienced about 3Gs during takeoff.
On the final lap, Chastain needed to pass two cars.
But none of the cars he needed to pass were close enough for him to get to them.
Chastain floored it going into Turn 3.
Instead of relying on just the tires for turning force, Chastain used the wall to help him turn.
That gave him enough turning force to turn a lot faster.
Chastain’s lap time on Lap 499 was 20.758 seconds.
His lap time on lap 500 was 18.845 seconds.
As my colleague Dustin Long noted, that’s the fastest lap ever by a stock car at Martinsville Speedway.
Chastain did the first half of the lap normally.
It would take him about half the time of lap 499: 10.379 seconds.
That means he completed the last half of the lap in 8.466 seconds.
He had to run an average of 112 mph from the midpoint of the backstretch to the start/finish line.
He didn’t run 112 mph the whole way.
Let’s assume he entered the turn at 122 mph, which would be 37-47 mph faster than anyone else did.
We’re talking about a turning force of 18,079 pounds, and an acceleration of almost 5Gs.
A human being can tolerate 5Gs for a short time.
A 10-pound head would feel like it was 50 pounds under a 5 G acceleration.
But that’s not the primary problem.
The human body is optimized for the 1 G acceleration the Earth’s mass provides.
When your body accelerates faster, it has to work harder to circulate blood.
Without sufficient blood flow, organs don’t get enough oxygen.
A warning sign of excessive G’s is losing peripheral vision and the ability to see colors.
When the brain senses a lack of oxygen, it shuts down the least important functions first.
But if the high acceleration persists, the person who is accelerating eventually blacks out.
Fighter pilots wear pressurized suits to ensure their circulation remains normal.
Much of what we know about how the human body tolerates high accelerations is thanks to Air Force Colonel John Stapp .
He experimented on himself in the 1950s, surviving 25Gs for a little over a second and a peak force of 46.2Gs.
Unfortunately, his experiments permanently damaged his vision.
However he lived another 45 years, dying at age 89 in 1999.
Ross Chastain not only made it into the Championship Four, he provided a great answer for every student who asks their math and science teacher: When am I ever going to use this?
Tyler Reddick , who pulled out of Sunday’s Cup race at Martinsville Speedway after not feeling well, said Monday that he is taking the “necessary steps to make sure that I am 100% before I am cleared to return to racing.
I’m feeling better and working hard following the instructions of the medical team.” Reddick finished 35th at Martinsville after pulling off course on Lap 189 of 500.
He was evaluated and released from the infield care center.
Monday, Reddick spoke on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and detailed what happened to him at Martinsville. “We had a pretty wild checkup on that restart,” Reddick said. “I ran into the back of Noah (Gragson) and my head went forward a bit.
Someone ran into the back of me and my head went flying back into the headrest.
Something didn’t really seem right.
Felt like I needed to get out of the car.
It was definitely the right call.
I wasn’t feeling my best. “Went to the infield care center and got everything checked out.
In their opinion, everything seemed OK.
I’m OK.
Just being really safe and making sure that we’re taking the right steps and I’m 100% and I’m not doing anything I shouldn’t be.” Reddick was involved in a crash the previous week at Homestead.
He slid down the track and had a significant frontal impact.
He was asked on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio if he felt that accident the week before affected him leading up to Martinsville or if the incident contributed to how he felt at Martinsville. “What happened at Martinsville, that was just Martinsville,” Reddick said. “Homestead, I obviously crashed into the inside wall, frontal impact.
It was a surprisingly large impact, in my opinion, but I felt fine after the race.
I felt fine in the days after the race. … Homestead and Martinsville, as far as I know, had nothing to do with each other.” As for the rest of this week, Reddick said he would “just going to pay attention to everything, make sure I feel fine this week.
Go through the process and, hopefully, I have smooth days ahead of me and no issues.
If issues arrive, I’m going to do the right thing. … If I’m not feeling right I shouldn’t get back in the car.
We’ll see what lies ahead, we’ll figure it out and take it one day at a time.” Reddick is scheduled to make his last start in the No. 8 car for Richard Childress Racing in this weekend’s season finale at Phoenix Raceway before moving to 23XI Racing next year .
Reddick has won three races this season.
Only Chase Elliott has won more Cup races this season with five.
Reddick is 13th in the points and is seven points out of 11th, which is held by teammate Austin Dillon . pic.twitter.com/ZILwtx2ycZ , Tyler Reddick (@TylerReddick) October 31, 2022 source