Back in October, NASCAR driver Ross Chastain made headlines all over the world when he used a wall-riding technique to gain five positions in one set of corners and advance to Championship 4.
At the time Chastain attributed the move to playing a lot of NASCAR 2005 on the GameCube, which had some individuals even testing the technique out to confirm that yes, it actually works if you have the skill and opportunity to pull it off.
Now, though, as NASCAR.com reports, it appears that NASCAR is trying to dissuade drivers from repeating the stunt. It has banned the use of the move (as recently spotted by Kotaku), citing safety concerns.
NASCAR did not add any new language to its official guidelines regarding the use of this move but instead pointed to rule 10.5.2.6.A, which states:
"Safety is a top priority for NASCAR and NEM (NASCAR Event Management). Therefore, any violations deemed to compromise the safety of an Event or otherwise pose a dangerous risk to the safety of Competitors, Officials, spectators, or others are treated with the highest degree of seriousness. Safety violations will be handled on a case-by-case basis."
Officials have suggested that they will issue time penalties should anyone else try the stunt.
Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, told NASCAR.com:
“Basically, if there’s an act that we feel that compromises the safety of our competitors, officials, spectators, we’re going to take that seriously. And we will penalize for that act going forward. Basically, what it would be is a lap or time penalty at the end of the race, so that move at Martinsville would be a penalty.”
Because of this time penalty, it's unlikely we'll be seeing anyone repeating the move anytime soon. Instead, it looks like competitors will have to invest in their own copy of the game if you want to try and repeat the technique for themselves.