Blaney Secures Championship Four Berth at Martinsville

By Noah Nelson

After coming so close last week at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Ryan Blaney was finally able to secure his spot in the championship four with a dominant performance at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday. The Team Penske driver led for 145 laps en route to his first victory at NASCAR’s oldest track.

“It’s awesome. I grew up in High Point, not too far from here. High Point is closer to Martinsville than it is to Charlotte, so it’s really cool. I’ve been wanting to win here for a long time. We’ve been super close for many years and awesome to close it out,” said Blaney post-race.

Pit strategy shuffled the running order all day long. On the race’s final restart with 168 laps remaining, Chase Elliott’s team, along with a few others, stayed out for track position, while the day’s dominant duo of Blaney and fellow playoff driver Denny Hamlin had to battle through the field to get back to the front.

Elliott’s strategy gambit did not work out in the end, as he lost the lead to Aric Almirola and faded through the pack, ultimately having to pit for fuel in the closing laps. He finished 17th after leading 83 laps, and was eliminated from the owner’s championship race as a result.

As for Almirola, the veteran driver came so close to a walk-off victory in his swan song season, as he announced this week that this would be his final full-time bid in the NASCAR Cup Series. After taking the lead from Elliott, Almirola had seemingly set sail, leading the next 66 laps, only to be caught by Blaney with just 23 laps to go.

“Honestly, I’m just sad. We had a good car. We just fought track position. Qualifying kind of set us behind and then when we finally cycled to the front and got track position we had a great race car. Man, I was being so patient and taking care of my tires. I wasn’t slipping a tire. I wasn’t doing anything to hurt my tires and they just started to give up on me there towards the end, and the 12, his car would hold on a little longer,” Almirola said.

Hamlin Loses Chance at Championship

Third-place finisher Denny Hamlin saw his playoff hopes come to an end at the race’s conclusion. A nearly flawless day was not enough to catch William Byron, and that elusive championship will have to wait at least another year.

“The mechanical failure last week with the power steering, that sealed our fate. Really proud of this whole FedEx Toyota team for showing up today when we really needed to, having probably a mid 50-point day. They did great. They did absolutely great. The 12 car was the best car today, so congrats to them. All the final four that made it. It’s going to be great. Hate we’re not in it with our FedEx Camry,” said Hamlin, who led a race-high 156 laps after winning stage one.

Fellow playoff drivers Martin Truex Jr. (12th), Tyler Reddick (26th), and Chris Buescher (8th) were also eliminated.

Truex’s playoff exit concludes a miserable stretch for the regular season champion, who started on the pole and led 47 laps before speeding on pit road after stage one. He never recovered from this loss of track position, and one of NASCAR’s biggest playoff collapses will have the #19 team scratching their heads all off-season, wondering what could have been.

“I felt like we did really good to get back to where we did. You just burn the tires off so much worse back there in the hot, dirty track, dirty air. You’re in more rubber. It’s just a dogfight. I don’t know. We gave it a hell of an effort. I felt like we had a really strong car. I don’t think we could have beat the 12. He was really, really strong. We were definitely close,” he said.

With their respective wins at Las Vegas and Homestead-Miami, Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell were already locked in to the championship four, with Blaney joining them after his victory as well. The only driver to make it in on points was William Byron, who struggled all day, grinding out a 13th place finish to advance to the next round.

“Obviously we were not very good. Our worst race of the year. These guys deserve it so much. They work so hard. Honestly, probably with 50 to go I felt really, really bad. I just had to drive the hell out of it. The guys stuck with me, they kept motivating me through little bits and pieces, just kind of keeping my mind straight,” said an exhausted Byron.

The NASCAR Cup Series concludes its season next weekend at Phoenix Raceway, as Larson, Bell, Blaney, and Byron all hope to capture the championship crown. This year’s crop of championship hopefuls signals a changing of the guard at the top of the series. Kyle Larson, at 30 years-old, is the oldest driver of the bunch, and the only one with a championship to date.