Column By: REID SPENCER / NASCAR – MARTINSVILLE, VA – 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.
Justin Allgaier looks for another shot at NASCAR Xfinity title
There truly is no “middle class” in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff standings, as drivers head for Martinsville Speedway for Saturday’s National Debt Relief 250 (4 p.m. ET on The CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
There are only “haves” and “have nots.” The former group includes Austin Hill and AJ Allmendinger, winners at Homestead and Las Vegas, respectively, in the Round of 8; and Justin Allgaier and defending series champion Cole Custer, who are significantly above the current elimination line for the Championship 4 Round (35 and 28 points, respectively).
The “have nots” include Chandler Smith, Jesse Love, Sam Mayer and Sammy Smith, who realistically must find a way to win at Martinsville to earn a spot in the Nov. 9 title race at Phoenix Raceway.
Allgaier, who has raced in the Xfinity Series full-time since 2009, is seeking the only significant accomplishment that has eluded him during that span—a series championship.
The 38-year-old from Riverton, Illinois, won last year’s elimination race at Martinsville to advance to the Championship 4 Round but finished second in the final standings behind Custer, who won the title race.
“We were in a similar position entering Martinsville last year and were fortunate enough to come away with the win and move on to the Championship Four,” said Allgaier, who has five top fives and seven top 10s in eight starts at the 0.526-mile short track. “That just further gives me all the confidence in the world in (crew chief) Jim (Pohlman) and everyone on this (team) as we look ahead to this weekend.
“Martinsville has been a strong track for us, and I know we will be just as solid once we hit the track for practice on Friday. We just need to be smart all day long and keep the fenders as clean as we can on our JR Motorsports Camaro.”
