Christopher Bell won his way into the Championship 4, and Ross Chastain did something you’d have to see to believe to earn his spot.
Bell beat Kyle Larson to the checkered flag at the Xfinity 500 Martinsville Speedway by .869 seconds.
Chastain, running 10th and facing elimination from the playoffs, pinned his No. 1 Chevrolet to the outside wall entering Turn 3, kept his throttle open and rocketed around the fence.
The move carried Chastain past Denny Hamlin into fourth place and into the Championship 4.
UNBELIEVABLE!@RossChastain floors it along the wall to go from 10th to 5th and advance to the CHAMPIONSHIP! #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/9qX3eq7T6h
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 30, 2022
Chastain completed the final lap in 18.845 seconds, .864 seconds faster than Larson’s pole-winning time.
“I made the choice, grabbed fifth gear down the back,” Chastain said. “Fully committed. Basically let go of the wheel, hoping I didn’t catch the Turn 4 access gate or something crazy. But I was willing to do it.
“I just cannot believe that we have a chance to go fight for a championship. All we ask for is a chance. We kept our world small this year so far. We’ll do the same thing going to Phoenix.”
The victory for Bell was his third of the season and his second in a must-win situation. On Oct. 9, he won the Bank of America ROVAL 500 at Charlotte to stave off elimination from the Playoffs.
“Mom and dad, we did it—wow,” an emotional Bell said after the race. “I can’t believe it, man. To come here in Martinsville, this place has always been so tough on me. Just pre-race looking up, seeing all the fans, this place is packed… I don’t even know what to say.
Regular-season champ Chase Elliott came home 10th and secured a Championship 4 berth by four points over Hamlin.
Elliott, Chastain, Bell and Las Vegas winner Joey Logano will race for the series championship at Phoenix.
Ninth-place finisher Chase Briscoe was eliminated from the Playoffs, but not for lack of effort. Briscoe stayed out on old tires during the final caution and restarted in the lead with 24 laps left. But Briscoe gave up the top spot to Bell, who had pitted for four fresh tires, on Lap 496 of 500.
“Yeah, we were obviously on a lot older tires there,” Briscoe said. “Thought there for a little bit I was going to be OK. I just fell off a cliff pretty hard. I should have used the wall. Pretty good deal to use there.”
Also ousted from the Playoffs were William Byron, who couldn’t overcome a 25th-place starting position, and Ryan Blaney, who finished third but couldn’t overcome a deep points deficit entering the race.
Hamlin, who had started 11th, drove through the top 10 and took the lead on Lap 121, with nine laps left in the first stage. Hamlin stayed at the point for 203 laps, winning the first two stages. He didn’t relinquish the lead until Bell won the race off pit road on Lap 276, under caution for Austin Dillon’s hard crash into the Turn 4 wall three laps earlier.
Hamlin lost positions on three consecutive pit stops in the final stage of the race. He restarted 13th, one spot behind Chastain, after a 14.5-second stop under caution on Lap 470.
Hamlin advanced to fifth and had the final Championship 4 spot in hand until Chastain rocketed around the wall through the final corners.
“You got to execute all day,” Hamlin said. “We just didn’t control the race when we had control of it. Each caution we just kept losing some spots. That’s the way it is.”
Brad Keselowski crossed the finish line just ahead of Chastain and Hamlin in fourth but failed post-race inspection and is now credited with a 36th-place finish. As a result, Chastain finished the day in fourth, followed by Hamlin, Logano, Byron, Bubba Wallace, Briscoe and Elliott rounding out the top 10.
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Chris Graham
