In June at Gateway, Chastain began a feud with Hamlin. Early in the race, Chastain ran into Hamlin's back bumper, causing Hamlin to spin and sustain damage to his car. Fifteen laps later, Hamlin attempted to slow Chastain by blocking him at a slower-than-normal rate of speed. NASCAR intervened and told Hamlin that he "had made his point." Later in the same race, Chastain ran into Chase Elliott, causing him to spin. At the restart, Elliott pushed Chastain towards the wall while Hamlin made a tight pass to once again express his frustration. Chastain accepted fault for the incidents saying, "I just drove over my head so many times". Weeks later at Atlanta, Chastain spun Hamlin with 14 laps to go. This caused Hamlin, who was running in the top-five, to fall to the back of the pack. Hamlin said that he had "reached his peak" when referring to dealing with Chastain. "GameCube" wall-ride maneuver / "The Hail Melon" In October, Chastain qualified for the Championship 4 by a thin margin at Martinsville, where he, in tenth place on the last lap of the race, drove his car into the outside wall of the track in Turns 3 and 4 to pick up the unprecedented speed of up to , overtaking Hamlin and four other drivers to finish in fifth place. Chastain set a record for the fastest lap during a NASCAR Cup Series race for the track. He was retroactively credited with a fourth-place finish after Brad Keselowski was disqualified. The "wall-riding" move was widely commented upon in the media. Chastain said that the move was inspired by the video game NASCAR 2005 on the GameCube. Overtaken rival Hamlin described it as a "great move", adding that "when you have no other choice, it certainly is easy to do that." Although NASCAR ruled the maneuver legal, some race competitors and commentators criticized the move's safety and called on NASCAR to prohibit the move from setting a precedent at future races. A rule change on January 31, 2023 officially made such moves illegal and subject to a time penalty. Within days, footage of the move received more than 100 million views on Twitter and other social media. At Phoenix, Chastain finished third in the Cup Championship race to finish a career-best second in the points standings. Personal life A native of Alva, Florida, Chastain was a watermelon farmer on his