• Thursday, October 31st, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer

Race for the final two NASCAR Cup Championship 4 spots is wide open

In a tripleheader weekend that will decide the Championship 4 contenders in each of NASCAR’s top three national series, the marquee event is Sunday’s Xfinity 500 NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway (2 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Two-time champion Joey Logano and this season’s Regular Season Champion Tyler Reddick already have qualified for the Nov. 10 Championship 4 event at Phoenix Raceway by virtue of their respective victories at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway in the first two races of the Round of 8.

That leaves Christopher Bell, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, defending series champion Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott vying for the final two title-eligible positions.

Bell is 29 points above the elimination line for the Championship Four and likely can earn a berth on points. For the other five hopefuls, victory is the surest—and perhaps only—path to success.

Bell is one of three drivers among the six who have advanced to the Championship 4 Round by winning an elimination race at Martinsville, a feat he accomplished in 2022. But Bell knows that each one of the aspirants has the talent to triumph there.

“Martinsville is a driver’s race track, and you aren’t going to be good there unless you are a good race car driver,” he asserted. “It’s pretty hard to fake your way around it.

“The race is extremely long, so you have to be good at all the parts of the sport. You have to execute pit road, you have to be able to get in and out of your pit box, you have to run your pit road lights through the corners at Martinsville—it tests every ability that you have as a driver.”

Bell is seeking his first championship in NASCAR’s premier division. Both Elliott (2020) and Blaney (last year) went on to claim the Cup championship after winning the Round of 8 event at Martinsville.

Larson comes to the historic 0.526-mile short track having won the elimination races in the previous two rounds—and decisively so. The spring race winner at Martinsville in 2023, Larson is seven points below the current cut line.

“We’ve got a win and a couple second-place finishes I think at Martinsville since I joined Hendrick Motorsports,” said Larson, who has posted an average finish of 2.75 in his last four starts at the track.

“It’s not always been a great track for me, but I think that Hendrick Motorsports has a great package for the track, and it has definitely helped me. Hopefully, we can battle for stage wins and the victory on Sunday.”

Elliott is 43 points below the current cutoff, almost certainly needing a victory to advance.

“I try hard not to overthink the situation,” Elliott said. “To be candid, we’ve been in this spot before, so it’s not like this is the first time I’ve been through this or had to experience this.

“Having done that before and been in this spot, I think that it gives you a little bit of a sense of peace and just kind of knowing how to handle it and knowing that your team can get it done.”

Byron (+7 versus the elimination line) is the most recent winner at Martinsville, and Hamlin (-18 points below the current cutoff) leads all full-time active Cup drivers with five victories at the track.

Clearly, it would be a mistake to underestimate the chances of any of the six contenders for the final two berths in the title race.

• Saturday, November 2nd, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer

Martin Truex Jr. upstages Playoff drivers with pole-winning run at Martinsville

Martin Truex Jr. may be out of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, but the veteran driver still has compelling goals, as he proved with a pole-winning run on Saturday at Martinsville Speedway.

After a final-round lap at 96.190 mph (19.686 seconds), Truex will start from the top spot in Sunday’s Xfinity 500 (2 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Behind him and next to him, six Playoff drivers, led by second-place starter Chase Elliott, will begin their battle for the final two positions in the Nov. 10 Championship 4 Race at Phoenix Raceway. 

And at the opposite end of the spectrum, Playoff driver Denny Hamlin, Truex’s teammate, will start from the rear after a bizarre wreck in practice damaged his No. 11 Toyota, preventing him from making a qualifying run.

“I feel great about our car on stickers (new tires),” said Truex, who was 0.049 seconds faster than third-place starter William Byron, who posted a lap at 95.931 mph in the final round. “You never want to get too optimistic, but I fired off really good in practice, especially that second run with the track rubbered-in.

“I was like ‘If we can just hit the balance here for qualifying, it should be really fast.’”

Earlier this season, Truex announced he will retire from full-time racing at season’s end.

“We’ve got two more chances to win,” said Truex, who earned his third pole at Martinsville, his first of the season and the 24th of his career. “We want it bad, we’re working hard, we’re not giving up, and hopefully we can get it for everyone.”

Though he was fifth fastest in the final round, Elliott starts second because he was the fastest of the five qualifiers in Group A. That left Byron third, Chase Briscoe fourth and Ty Gibbs fifth.

Harrison Burton, Alex Bowman, Ryan Preece, Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon will start from positions six through 10 respectively. The three Hendrick Motorsports drivers—Elliott, Byron and Larson—are the only Playoff drivers in the top 10 on the grid.

Other Playoff drivers qualified as follows: Joey Logano 12th, Ryan Blaney 14th, Christopher Bell 16th, and Tyler Reddick 31st. Logano and Reddick already have qualified for the Championship 4 with respective victories at Las Vegas and Homestead-Miami.

As qualifying progressed, Hamlin’s crew was trying to repair his primary car, which backed into the Turn 3 wall when the throttle stuck during practice, thanks to a chunk of rubber that found its way into the throttle body.

“We had just come back out, we had just made an adjustment to the car, and it was doing everything it needed to do,” Hamlin said. “It was maneuvering through the pack pretty well. I went into Turn 3, and the car just didn’t slow down, and the throttle hung on us. The throttle had no chance to come backwards.

“That certainly caught me off guard, but it happens. We just got unlucky.”

Truex was sympathetic to his teammate’s misfortune but wasn’t worried about a similar circumstance on his car.

“About as much as I’m concerned about getting hit by lightning,” Truex quipped. “One-in-a-million. I don’t know how—his number just came up.”

• XFINITY 500
• Busch Pole Award Pole Winner: Martin Truex Jr
• Age: 44
• Team : No 19 - Auto-Owners Insurance/Thank You Martin Toyota
• Owner: Joe Gibbs
• Crew Chief: James Small
• Martin Truex Jr won the Pole Award for the XFINITY 500 with a lap of 19686 seconds, 96190 mph
• This is his 24th pole in 692 NASCAR Cup Series races
• This is his first pole and 16th top-10 start in 2024
• This is his third pole in 38 races at Martinsville Speedway
• Chase Elliott (second) posted his 20th top-10 start of 2024 and his 13th in 19 races at Martinsville Speedway
• William Byron (third) posted his fourth top-10 start at Martinsville Speedway It is his 23rd in 35 races this season
• Josh Berry (11th) was the fastest qualifying rookie

• Drivers Entered: 37
• Laps Scheduled: 500
• Margin of Victory: 02.593 Seconds
• Time of Race: 3 Hours 28 Minutes 31 Seconds
• Average Speed: 75.677
• Cautions: 9 for 66 laps
• Lead Changes: 15
• Green Flag Passes: 2,605 (6.0 passes per green flag lap)

• XFINITY 500
• Race Winner: Ryan Blaney
• Age: 30
• Team : No 12 - Discount Tire Ford
• Owner: Roger Penske
• Crew Chief: Jonathan Hassler
• Ryan Blaney won the XFINITY 500, his 13th victory in 341 Cup Series races
• This is his third victory and 17th top-10 finish in 2024
• This is his second victory and 12th top-10 finish in 18 races at Martinsville Speedway
• Chase Elliott (second) posted his 12th top-10 finish in 19 races at Martinsville Speedway It is his 18th top-10 finish in 2024
• Kyle Larson (third) posted his eighth top-10 finish in 20 races at Martinsville Speedway
• Josh Berry (16th) was the highest finishing rookie
• William Byron leads the point standings by 4 points over Christopher Bell