NASCAR will penalize drivers that attempt wall-riding, also called the "video game move" from the 2023 season and beyond. Ross Chastain's wall-riding antics to secure his position in last year's Championship 4 finale race became one of NASCAR's most viral clips of 2022.
In 2022, NASCAR was thrust into the viral spotlight as Ross Chastain, driver of the Number 1 car for Trackhouse Racing, made an unbelievable move that saw him speed along the wall at Martinsville Speedway to pass the cars he needed to get enough points to advance to the next round of the NASCAR Playoffs. Immediately after the race, Chastian attributed the idea to his memories of playing NASCAR Thunder 2005: Chase for the Cup as a kid, trying to pass as many cars in the final turns for a better finishing position. In the NASCAR 2023 Season, any other drivers that attempt this will be penalized.
NASCAR announced a slew of rule changes before the start of the 2023 Season, one of which will outlaw what NASCAR fans call the "Hail Melon," a combination of the Hail Mary desperation play in football and Chastain's alternate profession as a watermelon farmer. NASCAR cites safety risks to other drivers, track equipment, and fans in its decision to amend a current rule to include other wall riding attempts under safety violations. NASCAR will issue a Formula 1-style 5-second time penalty to any driver that tries a similar move in the future. Time penalties at certain tracks can send a driver from the Top 10 to mired in 20th or below in a field of 36-40 cars.
Trackhouse Racing co-owner Justin Marks has accepted that NASCAR has added this infraction to the rulebook but also said that his team will preserve the car for its historical value since it will be the first and last car to successfully pull off this desperation move in a race. Die casts replicas were made of the car in its damaged state for Lionel Racing's "Checkers or Wreckers" collection, and it became the best-selling collectible in 2022 even though the "Hail Melon" occurred in the penultimate race of the season. Historical preservation of cars is not new in NASCAR, ranging from showroom cars in team race shops and cars worthy of placement in the NASCAR Hall of Fame to Dale Earnhardt Jr's race car graveyard for cars that were involved in significant accidents.
Reaction to the ruling is split; while some fans and drivers praise the fun factor of wall-riding, there is an understanding of the safety implications. Fans are also quick to use NASCAR precedent for talking down incidents it deems detrimental but will use the Hail Melon clip in its race marketing throughout the season, as it did with Chastain's dust-ups with rival Denny Hamlin and the incident between Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson last year. With the development of NASCAR video games currently hampered by controversy, this may be the closest NASCAR and video games may be getting for a little while.