Column By: REID SPENCER / NASCAR – MARTINSVILLE, VA – NASCAR’s most popular driver is looking for a popular victory in Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway (2 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Though Chase Elliott’s triumph at Texas in April is his lone win of the season so far, the driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet enters the Round of 8 elimination race exuding confidence, despite sitting eighth in the standings in a win-or-bust frame of mind.
For one thing, Elliott’s cars have shown excellent speed the past two weekends at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway.
For another, Elliott has been in this position before. In 2020, he won at Martinsville to secure his bid for the Championship 4 and a week later claimed the series title with a victory at Phoenix Raceway.
“I just feel good about where we’re at,” Elliott said before Saturday’s practice at the 0.526-mile track. “I think we’ve run really well the last two weeks. I thought our team was operating at an extremely high level last weekend across the boards, so it’s a great time to be doing that.
“I think we’re all in a really good place. I’m in a good place with everything. And, yeah, just proud of how we’ve been running. We’ve been right in the thick of it; right in the mix. When you’re giving yourselves those opportunities, why wouldn’t you be confident in coming to a place that we’ve been able to run well before?
“Even more so, leaving two places that we have not run well at, historically, and came off with two good weekends. So, yeah, I’m really looking forward to it; try to get going and get to work.”
Christopher Bell’s position in standings shapes strategy for Sunday
There’s a definite upside to Christopher Bell’s position in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff standings—he’s the only one of six drivers still competing for a Championship 4 spot in total control of his own destiny.
If Bell scores 34 points in Sunday’s Xfinity 500—a third-place finish with no stage points—he will advance to the Championship 4 race for the third straight year.
However, that makes Bell’s strategy a bit more complicated than that of his competitors, the majority of whom realistically are in must-win situations—as was Bell when he won at Martinsville to advance in 2022.
“It’s definitely putting us in an interesting position,” Bell said, “because one thing that my team does really well is just focus on ourselves and doing the best that we can for ourselves that day.
“But with the points situation, I think it makes a little bit of sense to kind of see what the competition’s doing. Myself, William (Byron) and (Kyle) Larson, we’re in a points battle amongst the three of us, and the thing that’s playing against that is I’m sure William and Larson are going to be racing for the win, and that means we’re going to have to be racing for the win as well.
“But if the yellow flags kind of make the strategy wonky, maybe it’s a situation where we just do whatever they do and just try to stay on the same strategy as them and either lose together or win together. What you don’t want to happen is be on the losing side of it when they’re on the winning side of it and give up a bunch of points.”
Bell enters the race 29 points above the current elimination line. He’s 22 points ahead of Byron and 29 ahead of Larson.
New tire combination is “X” factor in NASCAR Cup elimination race
NASCAR Cup Series drivers and crew chiefs will have to make a major adjustment to a new tire combination Goodyear has provided for Sunday’s Xfinity 500 (2 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The right sides are the option tire used at North Wilkesboro and Richmond earlier this year—with a different tire code based solely on a change in the color of the lettering of the sidewall.
The left-side tires are the softest Goodyear has ever brought to Martinsville, designed to add grip and increase fall-off, which is expected to be approximately one second per lap under race conditions—a significant number give that Cup cars cover the 0.526-mile distance in just over 20 seconds.
The new combination—tested by Cup drivers Bubba Wallace, Kyle Busch and Todd Gilliland in August—is a marked departure from the tries used in the spring, when fresh rubber made a minimal difference in performance.
“It adds another element, for sure,” said Chris Gabehart, crew chief for Playoff driver Denny Hamlin, who leads all full-time active Cup drivers with five victories at the venerable short track. “Without it, you look at the last several Martinsville races, and you know kind of how they’re going to play out. They’re going to be about staying out and minimal time on pit road and keeping track position.
“But we’ve certainly seen Martinsville of old where handling, tire fall-off and tire management matters a lot. When a caution comes out just 15 laps into a run, you come in and you get more tires.
“So we all know what Martinsville’s capable of, but we know what it’s been lately. Will this tire make the difference and (make us) have to adjust? We’ll see. But it’s definitely an added element.”
Hamlin, however, will face an unwanted, unexpected element in Sunday’s race. After he set what turned out to be the third-fastest time in Saturday’s 45-minute practice session, the throttle on his No. 11 Toyota stuck entering Turn 3 on his 33rd lap.
Hamlin’s car broke loose and spun, and the rear end slammed into the outside wall, damaging the Camry extensively and eliminating the possibility of a qualifying run. Accordingly, Hamlin will start from the rear on Sunday and likely will have a less-than-desirable pit stall.
And what made the throttle stick? A chunk of rubber from degrading tires lodged within the throttle body.
