While all the focus is on who advances to the Championship 4 next weekend at Phoenix Raceway, Martin Truex Jr. played spoiler on Saturday, scoring his first pole of the 2024 season at Martinsville Speedway. All four Hendrick Motorsports cars advanced to the final round of qualifying and have contending speed. Meanwhile, the new Goodyear tire compound for this weekend looks to wear tires more rapidly and could be a primary factor come Sunday’s 500-lap extravaganza.
RELATED: Set your Fantasy Live lineups | Weekend schedule
Dustin Albino’s race-day lineup:
Starter 1: William Byron
Starter 2: Kyle Larson
Starter 3: Chase Elliott
Starter 4: Ryan Blaney
Starter 5: Martin Truex Jr.
Garage pick: Joey Logano
NEXT IN LINE: Christopher Bell, Ty Gibbs, Chase Briscoe, Bubba Wallace
RISING: It has been a rough farewell season for Truex, a three-time Martinsville winner. The No. 19 Toyota looked to have one of the best cars in practice and backed it up in qualifying by scoring its first pole since the penultimate race of the 2023 season at Martinsville. After mastering Martinsville between 2017 and 2020, Truex has four finishes outside the top 10 in the last five races.
A confident Elliott is a dangerous Elliott, and the performance of the No. 9 team has been on point in the Round of 8, even if the results don’t show it. Elliott is in a must-win scenario on Sunday, and he looked to have a Chevrolet that could do anything he wanted in practice. Elliott was inside the top five on the short and long run and qualified on the front row.
FALLING: If Denny Hamlin didn’t have bad luck, he wouldn’t have any luck at all. A large chunk of rubber got stuck in the No. 11 Toyota’s throttle body nearly halfway through the practice session, causing the throttle to hang and leading to a crash entering Turn 3. Hamlin will have to start at the rear, and he believes his only chance of making it to the Championship 4 now is by winning. He won’t be points racing and fantasy is a points game. Take Hamlin out of your lineup.
Wallace wasn’t bad in practice, but the No. 23 Toyota didn’t exactly stick out, either. He does have three top-10 finishes in the last four Martinsville races and considers the facility to be one of his best tracks. But with Hendrick Motorsports’ dominance in qualifying and other fast Toyotas, Wallace has dropped in the pecking order in my lineup.
FEATURED MATCHUPS:
Christopher Bell vs. Denny Hamlin: Five-hundred laps around the famed short track can be an eternity. Drivers will jab the brakes 1,000 times on corner entry. The No. 11 team will race its primary car and has time to recover from starting at the rear of the field. Bell has been clicking on another level in the playoffs with an average finish of 5.5, including seven top-10 finishes in eight races. But he also has mixed numbers at Martinsville and will start in the middle of the pack (16th) on Sunday. With the unknown of how much pace Hamlin’s car will have, Bell is the safe choice.
Kyle Larson vs. William Byron: This matchup is brutal. Byron has a swagger about him this weekend, looking to sweep the 2024 Martinsville events. Larson is much more comfortable at Martinsville compared to years past, having success with Hendrick here. There’s a points battle that could be brewing as well, though it could go to waste if their teammate Elliott wins. The No. 24 car looks to have a bit more potential.
Ryan Blaney vs. Chase Elliott: I’m flipping on picks like I’m reading a book this weekend. Despite having a single victory, Blaney has become the standard at Martinsville, with eight top-five finishes in the last 11 races. However, Elliott is my pick for the win entering Sunday as he has been in a similar position of needing a victory to advance to Phoenix before. Not sure if that will catapult him to the championship as it did in 2020, but the No. 9 car is the pick.
Martin Truex Jr. vs. Chase Briscoe: As DJ Khaled would say: “Another one.” Briscoe nearly missed my lineup and is one of three drivers to have top 10 finishes in all five Next Gen races at Martinsville, but Truex is starting from the pole with the best track position. The No. 14 car made the final round of qualifying but give me the No. 19 Toyota on Sunday.