NASCAR's Most Viral Moment became its Biggest Flop 

they interviewed all the drivers and pretty much everyone said the same thing both that they always wondered but were too scared to drive

BECAUSE HE DID LMFAO

Same here!

It was my first race attending myself

I watched this whole race on tv and can confirm

The problem is that it happened in the context of racing “playoffs.” Nothing in sports is dumber than the idea of playoffs for racing. The moment anyone seeing the clip understood it was tied to the dumbest idea in sports, it lost its charm.

I can't imagine how insane that was to see in person. Like, literally, I can't mentally put myself there lol

Absolutely, like you said it would’ve been “the move that won him the championship” but without the title to go with it it has been forgotten in sorts.

Still...he ended up second...and was running Logano down. Just didn't have enough laps left. The Wall Ride will forever by NASCAR legend.

no, its because ppl watch the races on youtube without the delays

No. People liked the clip. The clip wasn't going to get them to like watching races on TV.

No because ratings still went down year-to-year like Slap said. It wouldn't have mattered even if Ross won the championship

At this point, I just watch motorsports to see skilled drivers go fast. Haven't payed attention to points, names, or standings in years

Don't worry about how playoffs works, just see if the one you like is above the cutline hahaha, and try to get more context from the broadcast

THANK YOU!!!!!

the problem is that NASCAR has long forgotten what made them successful and what keeps dirt racing thriving to this day, hardcore fans. they cater to casual fans with their product and they make things so confusing in doing so that casual fans are repelled

I had been a fan, in the UK in 80's and 90's, though TV coverage was minimal back then. Then I moved to the US in 2001, and went to a number of races over the next six years, but totally lost interest soon after the "chase" play-off format was adopted. My interest these days is very low.

Screenshotting this.

He can’t, the move’s banned sadly

he's gonna find a way to jump the wall and take the lead that way

nah it wont work at the roval, its too big. what he'll do is just jump the curb on the last chicane, flying over the field and win in midair

Today, he joins Bubba Wallace, Kyle Busch, and Brad Keslowski as Round of 12 exits

that why i stopped watching nascar. they definitely control the outcome. That why i think that they will NEVER get Ridd of the chase.

Y'alls tinfoil is too tight lol.

@@dirt8822I have also largely stopped. I do watch the truck series here and there, Stewart Friesen is a local guy so I root for him a bit. Just doesn’t hit the same as it used to. Once all the guys from the gen 4-COT era that I cared about as a kid retired that was kind of it for me. I do hope that they eventually win this war to stay relevant, but I just don’t see it happening. It was once the second most-watched sport in America. Now it’s…this. How the mighty have fallen…

that f bomb lol

​@@theoriginalshewat this point it isn't even a conspiracy. The crew chiefs have even said that they get the cars back from pre race inspection for the championship 4 early and get a "we won't look at them again, wink wink nudge nudge" from NASCAR.

No. Just, no. The playoffs are great and egomaniacal elitist gatekeepers is what destroyed the sport. The way this community actively tried to downplay this summer, as it organically became very noteworthy and popular because of a good string of races, shows that it is the dogshit “fans” that make this sport such a chore to watch. Especially serial, eternal malcontents like the dude that makes a living bitching and crying about NASCAR incessantly like Slapshoes. Now, the delusion is so intense that we have to retroactively declare that Ryan Blaney was a part of some nefarious conspiracy to stop him from winning a championship. Despite that making completely no sense and who’s premise requires one to selectively attribute your favorite driver as somehow going “against the grain” and needing to actively ignore that the most popular driver in the last 20 years of their sport has not even been _close_ to winning a championship. And that it is actually _beneficial_ for NASCAR to have this young new driver with an active fanbase win the title than Logano, whom has an active hater base. But don’t let logic get in the way of this I guess.

@@merlotpapi4930 why are the playoffs good, in your opinion?

@@ToumapassarZEZOCA The races are exciting because of the stakes, the format encourages each race to matter, it was objectively necessary for the sanctioning body to entice people to keep watching once football season started, and there has not been a single year where the person who won the title didn't have a strong case for winning the title in other formats. Notice that the best guys in the season always manage to be Top 8 or Champ 4 every single year without fail. Just like this year it probably will be the best four guys: Byron, Hamlin, Larson, and Bell.

@merlotpapi4930 how can you say something like that when Kyle Busch won the championship racing half a season, or when Kevin Harvick didn't win in 2020. And every race matters, because motorsports are unpredictable, and anything can happen

i think points should be strictly based on average position for the entire race. Every lap needs to count so every lap drivers are actually racing. Not parading.

Richmond could make it work, partially because the S/F line is way closer to the T4 exit there then nearly any other circuit. I'm like 99% sure that Larson did a move like that earlier this year, but because he was fighting way outside the top ten and it only got one spot no one noticed or cared.

@@FallingPicturesProductionsif it’s of any relevance, Richmond entirely works in nascar heat. 1&2 and 3&4. Not sure how well that translates but the physics seem to give you an extra second at Richmond or so

It wasn't even grey area. Just no one had both thought to do it AND gained advantage of doing so.

it takes a very specific set of circumstances to even make this possible. First of all the next gen cars are built like tanks on wheels so it was strong enough to take that punishment. Any of the older cars would have had the right side ripped off and grinded to a halt. Also it needed to be on the last lap AND be at Martinsville because of the 180 degree corner radius and slow speeds.

Stupid, unsafe move made out of desperation. Cool to watch, but stupid. He was lucky wall gate wasn't open or give in to the force.

@@johnh3476 cope more

Yah, lucky to not clip the wall at the gate area… very very lucky.

Made a lot of fans very quickly. Heck I found him likable enough that I pull for him as well as the guy I previously supported: Denny Hamlin

I'm sorry but Ross Chastain straight up wrecked into the playoffs. He only got that #1 car because of Ganassi shutting down. He wouldnt be that good if Kurt Busch and Ganassi stayed. Chastain's career after 2022 has been a fluke. Come back and tell me otherwise when he earns a win without wrecking someone. Let alone a top 5.

He's also out of the playoffs after only the round of 12. He sure doesn't seem that great this year.

@@michaeldevault-edmondson1037all while you type this from the comfort of your couch or bed. Lmaooo hes obviously a great driver because he’s in the NASCAR Cup series

His 2023 season was hardly a top 10 contender most of the year.

Our family remains casual fans, however the playoffs especially the 1 race title, I can't name the last 10 champions, but I can name champions before that, the championship has felt completely pointless since it moved to a 1 race coin flip

Yeah. Playoffs in motorsport are STUPID.

I used to watch every race. I grew up watching with my dad in the '90s. I hated the Chase when it was implemented, but stuck around because at least the races were still fun to watch. They kept adding gimmicks over the years, moving away from the traditional tracks for cookie cutters, and eventually even ruined Bristol. The last straw for me was stage racing. Nowadays the only races I tune in for are the Daytona 500 and the Coca-Cola 600.

Feelings on BSB also having a playoff format? I feel it's almost inevitable with how absurdly long certain racing seasons are

​@@DanArnets1492Just as fuckinng stupid. For me it's also even more frustrating, not only because, for a while there, I thought NASCAR's management were _uniquely_ dumb, but because NASCAR *proved* how stupid both the Chase and Playoffs are as formats for a motorsports title race. Yet here we are in 2023, where British Superbikes and the NHRA have playoff/chase formats, and there are likely other series out there at least considering the idea. This might seem like a dumb bet to make, but if Red Bull Racing keeps bringing game-breaker cars to F1 grand prix long enough for people to forget about 2021, I wouldn't be shocked if F1 tried the same shit. I will be elated if I forever remain wrong, but motorsport, like all sport, isn't a sport anymore. It's a business, and businessmen are like fucking lemmings.

That doesn't have anything to do with being from FL.

@@michaelgomez3044. I know, but it’s a joke based on the Florida Man trope.

@@TotoDG exactly everything I’ve heard about people from Florida are batshit insane people and batshit insanely careless people who’d risk their own health

His reply to you is funny. 🤣

@@TotoDG Well that trope is stupid and I am tired of it.

MAKE SURE TO SLAP ON THAT NOTIFICATION!

SLAP THAT LIKE BUTTON TOO, BABY!

SLAP !!

Slap is fire 🔥🔥🔥

He did?

But luckily the turn wasn't too sharp that the car would lose momentum and come to a stop. It was the perfect radius for this to happen.

It could probably happen at NHMS or through 1-2 at Darlington. That is if NASCAR never banned it.

thanks einstein

talladega doesn't require you to slow down in the first place lol... the 'corners' have such a large radius and steep banking you don't even need all the available steering angle, so nothing to be gained by trying to use the wall to turn sharper

At this point it isn't a theory. Everyone knows those final 4 cars are cheated up to oblivion and nascar only lets a final 4 driver win the finale

Nobody cares who won the championship last year because the "playoff" format is a joke.

​@xxxYYZxxx I remember the last half dozen races of the season being snooze fests back in the 90s because the title was already virtually locked up every year. The playoffs are the best thing to ever happen to nascar excitement wise.

“If you aren’t cheating, you aren’t winning”

@@UntitledNerdNetwork There's a better way but you're not going to figure it out.

this relatable for me. i had stopped watching around ‘17 or ‘18 and decided to start watching races again last season. same as you I now watch all 3 series every race

I loved Nascar when Rusty, Dale, Martin and those other greats were running. It just sucks now. Moto GP or World Super Bikes is where the action is, but maybe that's just a me thing.

Rick Allen is a human trombone. When he speaks, I don't hear words, I hear horn sounds that come straight from broadcasting school.

"Happy birthday Trevor Bayne!!!" (Turned out not to be the coming-of-age story of NASCARs next superstar, but that line will always live in my head.)

lol, "F1 Drivers saw it!" Sad times for the NASCAR.

And Kyle Petty, so the '92 championship saga is finished.

@@tangydiesel1886 Yep

​@@tangydiesel1886 And You can add his father Richard Petty in that conversation as well

Bubba Wallace ended racism in NASCAR. He deserves a documentary more than anyone.

Used to be a lot more aggressive racing. NASCAR should be a contact sport.

That's probably accurate. back in the 90's when i liked nascar they diced it up and tangled a lot more. We still had Earnhardt. Which in my opinion drove like a liability and dirty. But everyone loved him for it. They were much more exciting races with tougher drivers. I quit watching when America's race circuit started racing Toyota's. And with all the stupid rules,stages, and bubba wallace's disgusting fake racism hoax with zero consequences. That just made me sick and I'll watch replays on RU-vid but I'll never spend a dime on anything nascar related.

That doesn't sound dumb at all. I was thinking the same thing. Imagine Ross makes that play to stay in the title hunt, gains more from it than he needed to and ends up in the catbird seat as all three rival teams have engine failures. It would be a psychotic scenario, but it would've been POSSIBLE. The only 6-way title decider in NASCAR history was the product of the Winston Cup points system, so who the hell knows what would've happened.

Anyone could do that if they were in 2nd and close enough to the lead with no traffic in front of them.

Glad to see you join the spot 👍

fun police stryke back

Why would it be related to attention span? You need more reliable material than a one-time highlight to retain viewership, no matter how crazy it is

In my case - a european - I already spent enough time watching F1 and WEC

Eh. I bet you would watch a video of a plane making a crazy landing, but it probably wouldn't inspire you to start showing up outside your local airport to spend a few hours watching planes land. Or you would watch a video of a Tesla jumping a roundabout and not be inspired to take your camp chair and binoculars out to a local intersection. If anything this video confirmed for me that nothing interesting is going to happen in most of these races and on the odd occasion when it does I can get the video online.

That may be true, but your point is pointless because that was NOT the case when Ross did the wall ride because there was no way for him to know it was unnecessary when he did it. Because he DID do it, whether it was ultimately pointless in the end or not doesn't really matter. It's still the coolest and most hilarious move I've ever seen a race car driver make.

Stage points aren't affected by DQs though so no it wouldn't have had an effect

​@@Nascarfan1896Wrong. It was reported by NASCAR media (I think it was Packrass.) that Chastain would've advanced anyway due to the penalty. When a driver/car is D.Q.'d they are put in last place as if they didn't complete a lap.

@fortnite-fusion11 Yeah I know how DQs work. The stage points however are locked in. The points for the finishing position are affected, But the stage points earned earlier are not(It's what happened with Harvick's dq at dega and Busch who finished 11th in stage 2 specifically that I know.) Unless they changed it before this season, Brad's dq only would have got Ross a max of 1 more point

@@Nascarfan1896 There's no need in debating it when it's a clear cut answer and can be found in a Google search. Just search "kevin harvick talladega disqualification stage points" and one of the first things that should come up is the paragraph from several articles, including an Associated Press article, that says what the penalty was and how he was also stripped of all of his stage points earned.

Beautiful way of putting it.

Formula Drift more so

What's the gimmicky bullshit? I don't have a TV, or watch sports of any kind, but car racing always sounded the most interesting to me.

@@MansakeLabsOfficial In most forms of motor racing, you accrue points throughout the season and the most points at the end wins. This is still the case in Formula 1 (save for one season where they tried a double points race finale, but that got benched the following year) In NASCAR, they have this playoffs system that makes no sense to me, doesn't reward any of the momentum built up throughout the season and ultimately just produces and rewards chaos rather than rewarding solid consistent driving. In F1, the rubbish seeping in is this same sort of thinking turning F1 into a WWE style spectacle and I hate it.

He looks baked or cross-eyed in almost all of his promo photos. That was the least bad one.

Hail melon didn't go viral on youtube it went viral on tiktok. i hadn't thought about nascar in the 2 years since i moved out of my parents until then, but then it was inescapable on tiktok

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

The whole thing is D-U-M-B, no other sport lets other teams compete once eliminated. European Football has no playoffs to crown it's league champion, except in the good ol USA of course, and it's the most popular sport in the world.

NASCAR ain’t boring I will swear on it I will breathe it and it will be my last words if need be.

Somebody built a Racing Facility, is why i went.

We know why he has that ride

I believe he said he "grayed out", which is like blacking out while still conscious. It happened to me on a rollercoaster once. It happens with excessive g-forces at high speed

Yup

It was an amazing last lap, all or nothing, go or go home, and brass balls move that amazingly actually worked just like the way it looked when we all tried it while playing the game a decade ago aa kids. Now, as far as the popularity it received and massive amounts of people who have never even watched an entire race that loved what they saw as it went viral, it just was nothing more than when people only ever become interested for a very brief moment in something like baseball and the world series because the team from their town or state had a rare year of winning everything. After the big match our game is over for the year, you'll never hear them talk about or so any interest in that sport unless it becomes the popular thing to do again. As far what you said about logano and Chase Elliott, I used to feel the same way about Joey and couldn't stand the guy for the longest amount of time until very recently when it hit me that he's actually a veteran now and older wiser man. So sometime in 2022 I completely changed my mind and started to actually pull for Joey to win races and be up front as the opposite happened with Chase Elliott. When he hit the scene and was driving for Dale Jr in the Xfinity series, I immediately started to light and pull for him mainly because I'm a fan of Bill Elliott. Then sometime around the year Chase went on to win the championship in cup, it's like I just started to see his attitude change where he acted like he was just the hot shot coolest guy in town and I really can't stand it when people change and become that way, therefore I actively root against Chase and thats sad to me

My theory is non final 4 teams and drivers just does not want to be the guy who wreck a championship contender. Like imagine instead of Ross wrecking chase last year it was harvick or Brad the out cry will be huge. Or in 2016 if Carl spun him self in front of Denny or MTJ there will be more outrage

I suspected that way back in 2014. Newman had the 14th best driver rating all year, and then at Homestead he happens to conveniently have top five speed for the first time all year? Yeah right.

@@seannolan9857 correct me if I am wrong but up to the Glen race Newman was top 5 in points before he wrecked out. After that he had like 4 or 5 bad races which brought him down to 14

@@idkIamBORED I said driver rating, which is based on loop data and average running position, not points. Newman had more top 20 finishes than anyone else, which kept him relatively high in points despite usually being irrelevant during the race.

Oh yup. Dude is a disgrace not driving for the team he owns.??? How is THAT allowed? Should make a video on that. Ruins the integrity of the sport imo.

​​@@FantasySportsZenyou know who Dale Earnhardt Sr is right? He didn't drive for the team he owned either. So by your logic Dale Sr ruined the integrity of the sport a long time ago

iirc, they had three screens going, but Bell's pass was televised. I even have that footage from a RU-vid video in a video of mine. I do notice tho, that multiple screen segments usually don't reappear in replays. So maybe that's the issue?

@@andrewmeyer4124 that highlight from this video was the first time I ever saw that. Mandela effect?

That's funny, because Ross gets compared to Irvan a lot

Realistically it's both. Could be that blaney tried to ignore nascar and penske stepped in, that explains why blaney was LIVID after the race. He's never more than annoyed.

@@IrishmanGFS I have a feeling Pennzoil's performance bonus for a 1st place finish is higher then Menard's.

​@ZontarDow I dont really buy that, Blaney passing Logano was just an unnecessary risk. They could run side by side for long enough for Chastain to catch up, they could both wreck, a caution could come out, Chastain would have to pass Blaney rather than joey first if he did catch up. It just didn't make any sense to let them battle.

@@Nascarfan1896 Then Penske should've been fined for breaking the 100% rule. Team orders are not welcome in nascar

You think Nascar became popular for the sporting elements? It’s because it was such a spectacle for the time, but now it’s outdated. To be honest, it’s because they were willing to go faster than safety technology could keep up with. If NASCAR drivers want to be safer (as is their right), they shouldn’t be surprised when less people want to watch them. This was a sport built on pushing the limits, now they’re just trying to maintain the status quo.

@@Fractured_Unity There's a balance to be struck. Ever since 2007 NASCAR has been struggling to return to that balance. The NFL has also become victim to this. It doesn't matter if someone creates an amazing feat if a new rule is created the ban it right afterwards, or the governing body specifically manufactured the moment openly and blatantly. People will watch that one moment and then disregard the rest because it won't be seen as a legitimate effort with such moments as a payoff.

Even if it wasn't said out loud, the biggest unwritten rule in motorsport is "Don't punt your teammate off"

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣