S1apsh0es is back with another video this one about the most viral and mainstream controversy in NASCAR to happen in the last 10 years: the Hail Melon. That’s right, in this video S1ap recalls Ross Chastain’s improbable videogame move, the Hail Melon, that he somehow was able to pull off successfully and advance to the Championship Round of 4 at Phoenix. Let’s Watch:
S1ap starts the video with a short introduction to the incident, recalling how it was NASCAR’s most viral moment in ages, polluting TikTok feeds, news broadcasts, and all social media sites. He even describes how insane the move was, describing the fans there in attendance as having just experienced a mass hallucination, comparing it to a glitch in the Matrix. It was a move that would see Ross Chastain advance to the 2022 Championship 4 but despite this, it had no lasting impact on NASCAR’s viewership or its fans going forward.
After playing a video package of Dale Jr. calling the Hail Melon a “video game move”, S1ap gives us a quick rundown of Ross Chastain’s origins and how he got to where he is today. To start, Chastain used his funding from being a watermelon farmer to score some backmarker rides in NASCAR’s two lower nationally touring series, Xfinity and Craftsman Trucks. Able to keep his nose clean by avoiding incidents and racing to see the checkered flag, he was able to get a part-time ride driving the number 19 Ford for Brad Keselowski racing.
In the races he ran that season, he had the second-highest finish. This was able to propel him into the NASCAR Xfinity Series where he scored a ride with Chip Ganassi Racing. Even with the team’s sponsor, DC Solar, getting raided by the FBI, Chastain was still able to bounce back to score a Cup ride replacing Kyle Larson and Matt Kenseth in their McDonald’s sponsored No. 42. When Ganassi sold to Trackhouse just before the 2022 season, Chastain remained with the team in a rebranded No. 1 car. This opened the door for the perfect storm.
Chastain was able to score two victories earlier in the year to secure a playoff spot. However, as S1ap goes over in the video, his finishes once in the playoffs were subpar and just good enough to squeak by in the Round of 8. If he really wanted to be a contender rather than a pretender, he’d have to start showing up at the end of races. And, in the 2022 Round of 8, that was exactly what he did. He was able to score 3 top-5s which includes the fateful 4th-place finish where Ross pulled off the unthinkable Hail Melon move.
With only two laps to go at Martinsville Speedway, NASCAR’s oldest and smallest bullring, Ross Chastain is running 10th, 2 points behind the cutline for the final 4. If he is able to catch and pass two lead lap cars, he would be able to tie for 4th in the standings with season-long rival, Denny Hamlin and he would win the tiebreaker for having more wins on the year. But now, with only half a lap to go, the next car for position is still a half of a straightaway ahead. So, he throws the NextGen car into 5th gear and slams down the throttle heading into turn 3. This results in a U-shaped wall ride of the century.
In those two corners, he went from 10th to 4th to beat Denny Hamlin to the line, advancing himself to the Round of 4 while bitterly eliminating his rival. The move was so incredible that it left many fans wondering why it had never been attempted before. S1ap then reminds us that it has been tried before. Twice, as a matter of fact.
In 2008 at Kansas Speedway, Carl Edwards was in a very heated battle with Jimmie Johnson not only for the race win but for the Cup title. With a lap to go in turn 4, Edwards throttled hard down in the corner and never lifted. He thought that it worked in video games and he’d like to at least try it. It didn’t work. The No. 99 Office Depot Ford ran up the track into the wall and Jimmie Johnson won the race and eventually the Cup. The next time it happened was in 2021 at Darlington where Kyle Larson refused to lift and wall ride in an attempt to beat Hamlin to the line. Hamlin stood his ground, though, and won the race.
After both of these incidents, the cars were destroyed, not meant to take such abuse. They were designed with large crush zones to help energy escape after a hit to protect the driver. S1ap then breaks down the NextGen which was designed with a harder body meant to last and cut down cost for the teams. This resulted in drivers taking the brunt of the force when involved in an incident.
S1ap recalls that Kurt Busch suffered a career-ending injury in the Gen7 while Alex Bowman also missed some seat time due to concussion-like symptoms that year. The hard body of the Gen7 meant that Chastain could ride the wall without the car crumbling to pieces of debris. His official lap time that day was the fastest lap that was ever and will ever be turned at the Paperclip. He did this experiencing more G’s than an astronaut experiences during takeoff and the move has been dubbed The Hail Melon.
The fallout after the Hail Melon was that many people who did not follow NASCAR were talking about Chastain’s move at Martinsville. He was all over TikTok and even the morning shows picked it up for segments. S1ap points out that this could not have come at a better time. It was the penultimate race heading into the Championship race at Phoenix and everybody and their grandmother was talking about NASCAR. Seemingly overnight, Ross Chastain was the hottest name in the sport.
TV ratings had been plummeting over the last couple of years and everyone was expecting a big bump after the move. And yet, when the ratings came in for Phoenix, they were down. Not by a whole lot but there was still a drop which didn’t make any sense. The wallride did not translate in ratings the next week and S1ap considers this to be just where we are as a society: the move was tailor-made to be a TikTok trend but those trends live short life spans. At most, a trend might last a week while trends from a month ago are ancient history. The attention span is just not there anymore. Things happen, they’re consumed, and very quickly forgotten about. It is what it is.
In early 2023 just before the beginning of the new season, NASCAR outlawed the wall ride. Interestingly enough, they didn’t outlaw it for the championship race at Phoenix, maybe hoping that lightning could be trapped in a bottle twice. It never happened. S1ap considers the move to be purely a product of the NASCAR post-season knockout format. It was the added pressure that made Chastain floor it into the wall as if he wasn’t faced with immediate elimination, he never would have entertained the idea.
He then makes the argument that if the Hail Melon proved anything, it was that NASCAR is not rigged. Despite being accused of rigging the end of its races for two decades and the constant comparisons to WWE, S1ap lays out some sound evidence that NASCAR does not rig its races.
Take a look at the 2022 Championship 4: Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, Ross Chastain, and Joey Logano. Elliott is NASCAR’s golden boy, the undisputed Most Popular Driver and even fans who hate him do not hate him that much. Then there’s Ross Chastain, the man responsible for that viral moment and making NASCAR relevant once again in the mainstream. Next, there’s Christopher Bell, the young hotshot who wins in the clutch. Finally, there’s Joey Logano, probably the most hated driver in NASCAR amongst all fan bases. And who won the 2022 Cup? Logano, the worst possible outcome for NASCAR.
NASCAR could have easily tipped the scales and awarded the title to one of those other three but they didn’t. The most disliked driver in NASCAR won and he won in convincing fashion with his teammate running second. Perhaps the last race of the season was unintentionally rigged after all?
So, what did we learn from all of this? Well, S1ap doesn’t know and I’m not sure I do either. What I do know is that you can keep it right here at dailydownforce.com for all your latest hot topics and news stories in the world of NASCAR.
Corey Day’s run-in with Connor Zilisch at Circuit of the Americas became one of the most discussed incidents from Saturday’s race, even drawing a response from Denny Hamlin as well, who this week talked about his support for Zilisch.
During the race, Zilisch dealt with brake trouble on his No. 1 Chevrolet but worked his way forward from the rear of the field, advancing from P29 to P4 in the closing laps. With five laps remaining, he engaged in a battle with Hendrick Motorsports driver Corey Day as they exited Turn 2, holding the outside line. But as they contested the position, Day moved up behind him, contact occurred, and Zilisch spun off course to finish the race in P21.
After the contact, frustrated, Connor Zilisch initially referred to Day as an “absolute hack” on his radio, describing the clash as part of the latter’s racing pattern. But the JR Motorsports driver later tempered his comments, simply saying he expects an apology from the young Hendrick Motorsports driver.
Given that Zilisch declined to escalate the situation, on the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin credited him for calmly managing his response after the race, saying,
“Zillich was smart about this. He in his interview, he’s like, “I looked over at him thinking, come on over here. Come apologize.” And he said he just looked at him with a stare like, I don’t know what it is with these guys. Why, Why can’t they… youth?”
However, he questioned Day’s failure to issue an immediate apology. In fact, he said he was “floored” by Corey Day’s reaction, which involved staring at a frustrated Zilisch rather than apologizing.
The No. 11 JGR driver also raised questions about how Hendrick Motorsports evaluates developing drivers. Organizations invest with the expectation of returns measured in wins and titles, but when a driver continues to make visible mistakes, fans and especially other drivers will start to scrutinize. Hamlin pointed to the balance between development and production, asking how long it would hold.
The COTA incident was not the first time Day’s racing antics were questioned. Last week, during the Atlanta race, Day was involved in a multi-car crash on lap five after attempting a three-wide move that resulted in contact with Ryan Sieg. The move triggered a chain reaction that collected several cars.
Sieg responded over team radio, questioning both the decision and Day’s presence in the series.
Hamlin argued that drivers are allowed to make mistakes as part of growth. At teams with front-running equipment and title ambitions, time frames are shorter. But he questioned whether Day faces a deadline by season’s end or whether the assessment extends into the following year.
In Day’s case, results have not offset the incidents that have drawn attention. Hamlin referenced Kyle Larson as an example, noting that aggressive driving can lead to contact as well as wins.
Do you agree with Hamlin’s take? Let us know your opinion on Discord or X. Don’t forget that you can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
Bubba Wallace shared a message on X following the death of a close friend, writing about the weight of the news over the weekend.
“Makes you think about life and how precious it is… That tune… Nutshell- Alice In Chains Love yall,” he continued.
While Wallace did not name the friend in his post, one day before, reports confirmed that Chase Pistone, 42, had died. Pistone competed on short tracks and in NASCAR’s national ranks and later owned a Legends car. His family asked media outlets to share the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline number, 988. His brothers, Nick and Tom Pistone, confirmed the news to LegendsNation.com.
Pistone, who was the grandson of NASCAR driver “Tiger” Tom Pistone, built his racing career in Legends cars and Late Models before stepping into NASCAR competition.
Apparently, Wallace and Pistone raced each other in Legends cars around 2005. Pistone won four Summer Shootout Championships at Charlotte Motor Speedway, with two titles in the Semi-Pro and two in the Pro divisions. Wallace competed in both Bandolero and Legends categories during that period, winning 35 of 48 Bandolero races in one season.
Both drivers were regulars at the Charlotte Summer Shootout. From there, their paths moved toward the national touring series.
Pistone made starts in ARCA and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2005 and 2006, including an appearance with Green Light Racing at Martinsville Speedway. Meanwhile, Wallace moved into the K&N Pro Series East by 2010.
In 2006, Pistone made a start in the Nationwide Series at Martinsville, finishing 37th. After failing to qualify for the ARCA Menards Series race at Daytona in 2007, he stepped away from NASCAR competition until 2014.
He returned that year for eight combined starts in the Truck and Nationwide Series. In his final season at the national level, Pistone recorded a P9-place finish in the Truck Series race at Gateway, the best of his NASACR Truck career.
Beyond driving, Pistone owned CP Inc., building Legends and Late Model stock cars and offering leasing programs that included equipment, crew, and transport.
Magic Johnson, who faced Michael Jordan 18 times on the NBA court, including 13 regular-season games and 5 games in the 1991 NBA Finals, recently offered public praise for 23XI Racing’s rise in the 2026 NASCAR season.
The two former NBA players built their rivalry on NBA courts before competing together on the 1992 U.S. Men’s Olympic Basketball Team, known as the “Dream Team,” where the pair were known as both friends and fierce competitors. In fact, Magic Johnson played a central role in recruiting Michael Jordan and Larry Bird to join the 1992 U.S. Olympic squad.
The defining clash between Johnson and Jordan came in the 1991 NBA Finals, a season that was the shift from the Los Angeles Lakers’ “Showtime” run to the rise of the Chicago Bulls. And now, years later, Johnson turned to social media to compliment MJ’s stock car venture.
The presence of Michael Jordan in the garage has not only drawn fresh eyes to NASCAR, but also widened the sport’s reach beyond its base and placed it on platforms fans haven’t seen in years, like ESPN. The network has not held NASCAR broadcast rights since 2014, and since then, its focus has centered on properties under its umbrella, including the NBA, NFL, and WNBA. But now, even without rights, NASCAR headlines tied to MJ and 23XI Racing’s run have found space throughout their coverage.
MJ’s 23XI Racing team has opened the season with three straight wins with their No. 45 driver, Tyler Reddick. The run began with a win in the Daytona 500, the organization’s first success in that event since its launch in 2021.
Reddick followed with a win at Atlanta and then completed the sweep at the Circuit of the Americas, becoming the first driver in Cup Series history to win the opening three races of a season.
The accomplishment also placed the 23XI Racing team alongside one of the most successful organizations in NASCAR, Petty Enterprises, which last won the first three Cup races of a season in 1963.
When Reddick’s Toyota crossed the start/finish line at COTA, MJ was seen celebrating on pit road with the crew. In post-race remarks, Jordan acknowledged the pressure Reddick carried entering COTA with a chance to sweep the opening stretch. He praised the No. 45 crew and crew chief Billy Scott, and credited co-owner Denny Hamlin as the “mastermind” behind the roster build, citing Hamlin’s role in identifying Reddick’s talent and bringing him into the team.
