NASCAR driver once overtook five other cars using physics trick he saw in a videogame
- A NASCAR driver beat five other racers to the finish line using a move inspired by a video game
- He went from tenth to fifth place
- And while the wall assist wrecked his car – it’s a pretty incredible watch
Published on Apr 12, 2024 at 1:31 PM (UTC+4)
by Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
Last updated on Apr 15, 2024 at 7:02 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
In a scene that looks straight out of Mario Kart, a NASCAR driver beat five other racers to the finish line.
And he claims to have been inspired by – you guessed it – a videogame.
He even used a wall assist to get ahead.
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NASCAR driver, Ross Chastain, was able to go from tenth to fifth place, which allowed him to qualify for the championship.
He drove the car along the wall in what was a hell of a show for the audience.
“I played a lot of NASCAR 2005 on the GameCube with my younger brother Chad growing up,” he said in a post-race interview.
“You can get away with it. I never knew if it would actually work.”
He continued: “I mean, I did that when I was eight years old.
“I grabbed fifth gear, asked off of two on the last lap if we needed it, and we did.
“I couldn’t tell who was leading.
“I made the choice, grabbed fifth gear down the back. Full committed.
“Basically let go of the wheel, hoping I didn’t catch the turn four access gate or something crazy. But I was willing to do it.”
So it turns out that the trick works in video games and real life – but it will wreck your car.
And it’s not the first time NASCAR got extreme – this driver threw his bumper mid-race and gained a new sponsor that sells bumpers.
If combining gaming with driving is your thing you’ll love this Xbox-enabled dream car that’s a gaming paradise on wheels.
So how does the physics behind it work?
As you race on the track, the friction between your tires and the road creates what is called ‘centripetal force’ which turns the car.
The force required to keep you moving in a circular motion is equal to your mass times your velocity squared, divided by the radius of the imaginary circle you are making.
If your force is too low, you will spiral out of the circle.
The result will be making a much larger circle or crashing into a wall.
Ultimately, you don’t need to understand why – just know that it looks rad.
But if, like Chastain, you want to take a corner at the speed required in this video, there are several ways to make centripetal force – and turn – without flying off the track.
First, you can decrease your acceleration like most of the drivers in the race did.
Alternatively, you can start losing mass – throwing out car seats will help, for example.
Lastly, you can take the corner wider.
Chastain chose the wildcard by adding more turning force that wasn’t coming from the friction between the tires and the track – it used the force of the wall to turn the car.
Sure, the friction of the wall will have slowed the car, but not enough to cancel out the benefit that came from taking the corner at such a velocity compared to conventional race driving.
Thankfully the damage to his car wasn’t enough to put him out of the final lap of the race.
Want to hear more racing news? This ultra-rare new Ferrari 499P Modificata is an ode to the Le Mans winner and costs a whopping seven figures.
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All Supercar Blondie contributors undergo editorial review and fact-checking to ensure accuracy and authority in automotive journalism. After gaining her BA Hons in French and English at the University of Nottingham, Amelia embarked on a vocational diploma from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). This led to numerous opportunities, from interning at Vogue to being on the small team that launched Women’s Health magazine in the UK, which was named the PPA Consumer magazine of the year for three years running. As Health, Beauty and Fitness editor, Amelia personally received a Johnson & Johnson Award and was shortlisted for both PPA and BSME titles. Since then, Amelia has created content for numerous titles and brands, including the Telegraph, 111 Skin, Waitrose, Red magazine, Stylist, and Elle, as well as being Head of Content at Vitality and Editor in Chief at INLondon magazine. “My superpower is translating technical jargon about the mechanical workings of a supercar into a relatable story you’ll want to share with your friends after you’ve read it.” After joining the SB Media family as a senior journalist in September of 2023, Amelia’s role has evolved to see her heading up the SEO output of the editorial team. From researching the most ‘Google-able’ key terms to producing evergreen content - it’s been a time of hard work, growth, and success for the editorial team and the Supercar Blondie website. “I like to think of myself as a ‘method journalist’. In other words: I live and breathe whatever I am writing about. When writing about fitness, I trained as a personal trainer, and as a beauty editor, I completed an ‘expert’ in scent diploma with the Fragrance Foundation. “During my tenure at Supercar Blondie, however, I did something I never thought possible: I passed my driving test at the age of 36. One day I’d love to train as a mechanic to better understand what happens under the hood, too. “My sweet spot is providing readers with a ‘takeaway’ (read: something new they didn’t know before) after reading every one of my stories. While I don’t claim to be an expert in the automotive world, I know the experts and bodies in the field to rely on to provide our readers with an informative and thought-provoking story every time they visit the site.”
