Posted on by Press Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR, in partnership with Emmy® Award-winning studio Words + Pictures, today announced RISING, a new multi-part documentary series offering an unprecedented look inside the lives of three young, up-and-coming NASCAR drivers as they’ve established their identities both on and off the track this past season. The project was produced by FULL SPEED ENTERTAINMENT, the production partnership between NASCAR Studios and Words + Pictures which focuses on elevating the cultural footprint of NASCAR, its drivers, and teams through bold storytelling, talent-driven initiatives, premium content and large-scale specials.

Premiering Nov. 17-21, 2025, on NASCAR’s YouTube Channel, RISING follows Carson Hocevar (22, Cup Series), Jesse Love (20, Xfinity Series), and Rajah Caruth (23, Craftsman Truck Series) through a key season in their careers. Each of the five episodes captures the pressure, sacrifice and ambition that have fueled these talented stars, part of the next generation poised to help carry NASCAR into the future.

“RISING explores the ups and downs of trying to make it at the highest levels of our sport,” said John Dahl, NASCAR SVP of Content. “We’re providing an inside look at the vulnerability and hunger of these young drivers to prove themselves. It’s a series for anyone who can relate to that daily struggle of striving to reach your dreams, and premiering the series on our NASCAR YouTube Channel allows us to meet fans exactly where they are, offering free, global access and bingeable storytelling on a platform that’s already home to one of the most engaged communities in the world.”

The series, in partnership with Words + Pictures (The Last Dance, 30 For 30, Court of Gold, Full Speed), continues NASCAR’s commitment to authentic storytelling and reaching new audiences in a variety of formats, including documentary-style content. Shot across multiple circuits and personal settings, RISING balances the thrill of speed with the human stories that define the sport’s evolution.

“We wanted to strip away the helmets and let viewers meet these young men as people first,” said Aaron Cohen, Chief Creative Officer, Words + Pictures. “They’re competitors, but also sons, friends, and dreamers. RISING gives a raw, unfiltered look at how much heart it takes to make it in NASCAR. YouTube is the natural home for these stories, allowing us to connect these personal journeys directly with the passionate fanbase that already lives on the platform.”

With more than 2.5 billion active users globally, YouTube is the largest streamer in the world. Additionally, more people in the U.S. are watching YouTube on their televisions than their mobile devices and users now stream over 1 billion hours of content on their televisions. Debuting RISING on YouTube underscores NASCAR’s commitment to growing on the platform and reaching a massive digital-native audience as part of its content strategy.

FOX Sports will air RISING on FS1 beginning in December with a special five-week programming schedule, providing its viewers with premium NASCAR content leading up to FOX’s telecast of the 2026 DAYTONA 500 on Feb. 15.

RISING is executive produced by Tim Clark, John Dahl and Tally Hair from NASCAR Studios, Connor Schell, Libby Geist and Aaron Cohen from Words + Pictures, and directed and produced by Matthew Chase from Words + Pictures.

ABOUT THE SERIES

• Title: RISING
• Format: 5 episodes (44–45 minutes each)
• Platform: NASCAR’s YouTube Channel
• Premiere Dates: Nov. 17–21 (one new episode every night)
• Produced by: FULL SPEED ENTERTAINMENT

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — If Joey Logano wanted to defend his 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship, he first needed to win Sunday at Martinsville Speedway to advance from the Round of 8.

His No. 22 Team Penske Ford was strong but not enough to contend for the victory, leading Logano to an eighth-place finish in the Xfinity 500, eliminating him from the NASCAR Playoffs and ending his title reign.

MORE: Race results | Championship 4 set

Team Penske had won each of the last three Cup Series championships — two with Logano (2022, 2024) and one with Ryan Blaney (2023). Both fell short at Martinsville despite an impressive drive from Blaney, leaving Team Penske out of the Championship 4 for the first time since 2021.

“What we did was great,” Logano said. “Unfortunately, none of us are going to win it this year. That sucks. I don’t know how to put it any other way. It hurts. It is what it is. It hurts because we care.”

Logano was one of the day’s best drivers, averaging a fourth-best running position of 6.07 in Sunday’s 500-lapper. But an earlier restart in which Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Chase Elliott cooperated to allow one to slot in front of the other entering Turn 1 left Logano trapped.

“I feel like I lost control when the Hendrick cars pulled the okie-dokie in front of me and I chose the inside lane, which put me third and that’s what let the 12 (Blaney) get up there,” Logano said. “And then you just kind of get stuck in dirty air. I’m kicking myself on that decision, but outside of that, we just weren’t fast enough. That’s the bottom line. We weren’t good enough to drive back through either way, but I thought I would have had a chance if maybe I could have made that better earlier in the race.”

Those moments highlight the intensity of what Sunday’s race brought. All four of Logano, Blaney, Elliott and Byron needed to win for a chance to advance to the Championship 4, and all four were running first through fourth on the race track. That was no surprise to Logano.

“I mean you kind of expected it,” Logano said. “You get to this part of the year in the Round of 8, you’ve got eight of the best cars and that’s what you see.”

Joey Logano and Kyle Larson race at Martinsville.
Ethan Smith | For NASCAR Digital Media

A caution at Lap 398 brought Logano to pit road with fellow playoff contender Christopher Bell, with only four others deciding to pit. Neither were able to carve through the field on their fresher tires, though, stagnating in the back half of the top 10.

“It seemed like right at the end of that run, the top five cars started tanking,” Logano said, “but it seems like the tires would fall off and then they’d kind of maintain for a while, and then they’d run out of rubber and they would fall off huge. They’d tank and by the time we passed a couple of cars — you use up a lot of tire to pass cars, then everyone is the same speed and then they started tanking right at the end, and then the caution came out. You’ve got to do something different. You can’t do the same.”

This year marks the end of an era with no Fords and no Team Penske entries in the Championship 4, with the guarantee that either a Hendrick or Joe Gibbs Racing car will take home the 2025 crown.

“Bummed. I don’t know if there’s another word for it,” Logano said. “I’m just bummed that one of us didn’t make it. Everyone works hard enough to deserve to be there. We just couldn’t get the job done today, or really the last three races. That’s what it comes down to.

“The four there deserve to be there. That’s how I always look at it and this year we didn’t deserve to be there.”

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell entered Sunday’s Round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway well aware of the objective: Be quicker than the other guy, and you’ll have a great chance to advance to the NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4.

Larson did exactly that in Sunday’s Xfinity 500, keeping his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet ahead of Bell at both stage breaks and at the checkered, advancing Larson back to the Championship 4 for the third time in the past five seasons by a slim seven-point margin. Bell, on the other hand, was ousted from title contention in the final race of the semifinal round for the second consecutive year.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

The No. 5 team’s advantage began in qualifying on Saturday, when Larson qualified third and Bell 12th. Larson used that track position to his benefit Sunday, finishing third in Stage 1 and second in Stage 2 to earn a combined 17 stage points. Bell wound up eighth in Stage 1 and third in Stage 2 for a total of 11 stage points. What was a one-point deficit for Larson at the green flag was suddenly padded by adding those six extra points, all of which paid dividends late as Larson defended late, ultimately finishing fifth with Bell seventh.

Stoic as always, Larson was unfazed by the task at hand and managed his race to perfection en route to another Championship 4 appearance, joining teammate William Byron and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe.

“It was a little less stressful because I recognized that we were better than Christopher in car performance, and we were just in front of him all night,” Larson said. “I knew when we got a good first stage that it was not gonna be easy, but the math was gonna be much easier. I just had to keep him kind of within my sights at that point.

“Our team just did a great job and we didn’t have any hiccups really. I definitely could have had some better restarts. But like I said, when I had outscored Christopher, I was just playing it a little bit easy and kind of wanted to just tuck in line and go from there. Happy to be in the final four. Really proud of William. That was a hell of a drive. So yeah, we’ve got two Hendrick cars going for a championship, and yeah, hopefully we can do it for Rick (Hendrick, team owner).”

The No. 5 team went through supreme highs and challenging lows this season, beginning by winning three of the first 12 races of the year, then riding a performance slump through the summer earmarked by off-track challenges like personal losses and personnel changes that have left Larson in the midst of a 23-race winless streak, his longest stretch outside Victory Lane since joining Hendrick Motorsports in 2021.

In each of Larson’s prior four seasons, he said Sunday, he spent the full year believing the No. 5 team was a Championship 4 caliber team. With so much adversity thrown their way this season, that wasn’t the case this year.

“We got so far off in the middle, I was like, we’re gonna have to get really lucky to make the final four,” Larson said. “But we’ve just continued to work really hard. I think most years, we’ve just kind of rode that high, and not necessarily that we’ve tapered off in the playoffs, but I think other teams have been where we were this year and they’ve had to work really hard. And the poor performance that we had throughout the summer just made everybody at the shop work really hard.

“Even when we started the playoffs and were really bad, they just took it a whole other couple levels of trying to figure out why we’ve struggled. It’s just really satisfying to see that. I didn’t think we could flip that switch in the playoffs, but I think it just proves 10 weeks is a long time.”

RELATED: Gordon on No. 5 team: ‘They’ve been through a lot’

Left to deal with the heartbreak of missing the Championship 4 was Bell, who climbed from his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota knowing his title hopes were ending at the 0.526-mile short track for the second straight year. Simply put, Bell was unable to match Larson’s pace throughout the weekend, particularly in Sunday’s race. Larson averaged a third-best 5.13 running position according to NASCAR Loop Data, while Bell posted a sixth-best average running position of 8.03.

“We just weren’t good enough,” Bell said. “I mean, (whether it was) seven points, one point, it doesn’t really matter. We knew that the goal was that we were gonna have to outrun the 5, and he outran us. That’s all she wrote.”

The yellow flag waved at Lap 398 with Larson running ninth and Bell 10th. Crew chief Adam Stevens opted to bring Bell to pit road for fresh tires while Larson stayed out, the hope being that fresh Goodyear rubber would allow Bell to charge through the field. Larson restarted on the inside of Row 5 with Bell on the outside of Row 6, but while Larson charged forward, Bell said he “was just trapped back there.”

“We kind of got hung on the outside on that restart and actually fell back to 15th or so, and that hurt us,” Stevens told NASCAR.com. “I don’t think it was going to make a difference. At the end of the day, we had to finish five or six spots ahead of them, and even if we had a fantastic restart, I don’t think that was going to happen.”

Bell, a Championship 4 contestant in 2022 and 2023, said he lacked the long-run pace necessary to contend Sunday at Martinsville, the site of his walk-off win in 2022 that propelled him to his first title-race berth. It was also the site of a heart-wrenching ousting last year, when a 27-minute post-race wait was needed to sort out the results, and a last-lap wall ride left Bell out of the title quartet.

MORE: Championship 4 is set after Martinsville

“It feels a lot better than last year, for sure,” Bell said. “I genuinely feel like the four going there are very deserving, and it is what it is. We knew coming in here we were gonna have to outrun the 5, and we didn’t.”

Joining Bell on the championship outskirts are defending series champion Joey Logano, 2023 champ Ryan Blaney and 2020 champion Chase Elliott.

The NASCAR Cup Series championship will be decided at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, Nov. 2 at 3 p.m. (NBC, Peacock, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on by Staff Report

The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Championship 4 field is cemented after William Byron’s walkoff win on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.

Both Byron and Ryan Blaney were the class of the field over the 500-lap elimination race. The two playoff drivers needed to win in order to keep their title hopes alive and shared a tightly contested battle for the lead with fewer than 40 laps to go at “The Paperclip,” staying within a second of each other during the final run to the checkered flag.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Kyle Larson clinched the final spot in the title-deciding round by seven points over Christopher Bell. Larson qualified ahead of Bell, and the two searched everywhere on the track to outpoint each other and advance.

Both Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe clinched Championship 4 spots by winning earlier in the semifinal round, and despite having engine issues at Martinsville, they will fight for the Bill France Cup next Sunday at Phoenix Raceway (3 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). Hamlin scored his sixth win of the season earlier this round, which also counted as a milestone 60th career Cup Series win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Fellow Joe Gibbs Racing driver Briscoe punched his ticket by winning a week later at Talladega Superspeedway in overtime.

In addition to Bell and Blaney, Team Penske’s Joey Logano and Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott were also eliminated.

Below is the list of drivers for the Championship 4, ordered by reset points.

NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Championship 4 field

1. Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
2. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
3. William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
4. Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

With the Cup Series title field now set, we have a full picture of all 12 drivers racing for championships next weekend at Phoenix. Here are the other two Championship 4 fields.

2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship 4

Race: Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET (The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

1. Connor Zilisch, No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet
2. Justin Allgaier, No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet
3. Jesse Love, No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
4. Justin Allgaier, No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet

2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship 4

Race: Friday, 7:30 p.m. ET (FS1, MRN Radio, NASCAR Racing Network Radio)

1. Corey Heim, No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota
2. Kaden Honeycutt, No. 52 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota
3. Ty Majeski, No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford
4. Tyler Ankrum, No. 18 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet

Posted on by Staff Report

Ryan Blaney almost did it again.

Needing a Round of 8 walk-off victory for the third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series season, Blaney stormed from qualifying 31st to the front of the field before ultimately falling one spot shy of a Championship 4 spot Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.

Instead, Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron scored the victory, keeping the Regular Season Champion’s hopes for his first title alive into the final weekend of the season.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

“I’m proud of coming from where we qualified and getting to lead and leading laps and had a shot at the win,” Blaney said after Sunday’s 500-lapper in southern Virginia. “We did a good job and we got control of the race for a bit, but, gosh, [Byron’s] car was really fast. My rear [tires] started to go away pretty big on that long run and working through lap traffic, he was able to get by me. Then he got control of the race from there and his car was really fast. I never really thought I had much for him, especially as I think it got cooler. I feel like his car got even better, so he just had great rear drive and they were able to utilize it.”

Blaney, the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion, first took the lead on Lap 272, leading a total of 177 circuits before getting passed by Byron with 43 laps to go. A Lap 484 caution gave Blaney one last glimmer of hope, opting to go with a four-tire pit stop. However, Byron beat the No. 12 Team Penske driver and got the stronger restart with 11 laps remaining, winning the Xfinity 500 by 0.717 seconds.

The 31-year-old Blaney found himself in a must-win situation after a crash in the Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and a 23rd-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway last weekend. He won three times this season, going to Victory Lane at Nashville Superspeedway in the spring and later winning the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway. His September victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway secured his Round of 8 spot.

“Going into this weekend, I just wanted a shot to win the race, and we had that tonight, and it just didn’t really play out,” the High Point, North Carolina native explained. “I know we gave 100 percent of what we had. Nobody left anything on the table with this group, and that’s all you can ask for. That’s all you can do. The 24 was just a little better than us and they got the job done, so props to them, but on our side, I’m just proud of the effort. We put up a good fight, but it just wasn’t quite enough.”

Teammate Joey Logano finished eighth, also failing to make the finale as the organization was shut out of the Championship 4 for the first time since 2021. Penske had won the last three titles, with Logano winning in 2022 and 2024.

“It stinks we don’t have a shot to go for four in a row for Roger [Penske],” Blaney said. “Roger was here tonight and I was really wanting to see him in Victory Lane and celebrate it with him, but we just weren’t able to get it done and the championship streak at Penske ends. That’s the way it goes and we just have to re-rack and try to be better for next year. That’s all you can do.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — With a heroic, gloves-off drive on Sunday in the crucible that is Martinsville Speedway, William Byron earned a shot at the NASCAR Cup Series title and simultaneously saved the rest of the Championship 4 field from its worst nightmare.

Byron led three times for 304 laps — a career best for a single race — and beat Ryan Blaney to the finish line by 0.717 seconds after a restart with 11 laps left to win the Xfinity 500 elimination race under most exigent circumstances.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

In a scenario under which both Byron and Blaney needed a victory to advance to the Nov. 2 Championship 4 event at Phoenix Raceway (3 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App), Byron passed Blaney on Lap 456 during a long green-flag run and held the top spot for the final 44 laps.

“Pass” doesn’t do Byron’s move on Lap 456 justice. By then, Blaney’s No.12 Team Penske Ford had begun to fade. Byron charged into Turn 1 to the inside of Blaney’s Mustang and knocked it up the track.

Byron rushed past, and Blaney never found an opportunity to return the favor. Hence, for the first time since the Next Gen race car was introduced into the Cup Series in 2022, Team Penske, the organization that won the last three championships, won’t have a driver in the Championship 4 — and the rest of the field can sleep more soundly.

“Damn, I’ve got a lot to say,” Byron said with a broad smile. “Things have a way of working out. God really tests your resilience a lot of times. We’ve been tested. Just unbelievable.

“I’m out of breath. Thank you, fans, for coming out. Badass crowd. I watched my first NASCAR race up there just before the start/finish line. Man, I am just so thankful, excited to see my family, just celebrate this one.

“We obviously go to Phoenix. Just go try to kick ass there.”

The full Cup Series Playoffs Grid
NASCAR Creative Design

Blaney, who went to Victory Lane to congratulate the race winner, had no issue with Byron’s winning move.

SHOP: Winner gear

“Yeah, I look back on that long run before the last yellow where William got by me,” said Blaney, who qualified 31st and methodically worked his way through the field. “I just got loose, trying to work through that. My rear drive was fading quick. I tried to manage a lot in the beginning. Yeah, just was starting to fade.

“I was trying to protect. I mean, that’s just two guys going for it. I don’t blame him for taking that. I had kind of lost momentum. I would have done the same thing, to be honest with you. I knew it was going to be tight. I tried to crowd as much as I could.”

Byron’s victory in a must-win situation knocked seventh-place finisher Christopher Bell out of the championship race. Bell came to Martinsville 37 points above the elimination line and one point ahead of Kyle Larson, but Larson, who finished fifth, outscored Bell on Sunday and claimed the final Championship 4 berth by seven points.

Also eliminated were third-place finisher Chase Elliott and reigning series champion Joey Logano, who ran eighth.

Larson and Byron will represent Hendrick Motorsports against Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe in the season finale. Hamlin and Briscoe already had qualified for the title race with victories in the Round of 8, but both experienced apparent engine failures at Martinsville.

MORE: Briscoe, Hamlin suffer apparent engine issues

“We had good enough track position all day,” said Larson, who ran a problem-free race. “We were kind of out of the mess, I guess. Yeah, that was good. My HendrickCars.com Chevy was fast. Our pit crew was on it all night.

“What a performance by William. That’s awesome. I think when the 12 (Blaney) gained control of the race, it was going to be really hard for anybody to beat him. William did a great job on the restarts, just kept positioning himself. Was good enough to get by him on that long run.”

Byron dominated Stage 1 from the pole, leading 126 of the 130 laps. He surrendered the top spot only once, under caution on Lap 30 after a tangle in Turn 2 when Michael McDowell got the lead on an ill-fated two-tire call.

Byron charged past McDowell moments after the subsequent Lap 36 restart and led the remaining 95 laps of the stage. After the break, he was first off pit road under caution and still at the point when Stage 2 went green on Lap 141.

The driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet led all 130 laps in Stage 2, but a caution on Lap 242 changed the tenor of the race. Blaney was one of seven lead-lap drivers who pitted on Lap 245, and after Byron came to pit road during the stage break, Blaney lined up second beside Tyler Reddick for a restart on Lap 272.

Blaney soon had the lead and control of the race — and maintained it until Byron made the winning pass on Lap 457.

The final restart after Carson Hocevar’s third spin of the afternoon was academic. Byron pulled away and wasn’t challenged over the final 11 laps. Even Blaney was impressed.

“Thought I got a good restart, the last one,” said Blaney, who led 177 laps. “Kind of entered up top, tried to carry speed and he just motored right around me on the bottom. Pretty impressive.

“Just proud of the effort,” added Blaney, who had won the previous two fall playoff races at Martinsville. “A shame we’re not going to Phoenix as part of the Championship 4. We’ll be doing the best we can to finish the year out strong. But I’m just proud of the 12 guys. They gave 100 percent of what they had. That’s all you can ask for.

“Wasn’t quite enough tonight. We’ll just move on.”

Non-playoff drivers Ross Chastain and Ryan Preece ran fourth and sixth, respectively. Todd Gilliland and Josh Berry were ninth and 10th.

Note: Inspection in the Cup Series garage was completed without issue, confirming Byron as the winner and making the Championship 4 field official. No cars will return to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina for further evaluation.

Posted on by Staff Report

Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin both went behind the wall with apparent engine issues during the final stage of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs race at Martinsville Speedway.

Briscoe first reported problems, slowing down the frontstretch at Lap 296 from the 14th position. Fewer than 40 laps later, smoke billowed out of Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota from the second position. Riley Herbst also had an apparent engine issue in the No. 35 23XI Racing Toyota.

RELATED: Unofficial results | At-track photos

“Obviously something major, mechanical,” Hamlin told reporters after his race came to a premature end. “I don’t know, just because the engine simply shut all the way off. If it was a blowup, it’d be the first one that was like that, where, no noises, no anything, just the engine actually cuts off. But I don’t know. Way too early to speculate.”

Both drivers are already locked into next Sunday’s Championship 4 race at Phoenix Raceway (3 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) via wins earlier in the Round of 8. Hamlin won at Las Vegas Motor Speedway two weeks ago, a victory that doubled as his 60th in the Cup Series. Briscoe was the winner last weekend at Talladega, surviving overtime for his third win of the season in the No. 19 Toyota.

“No indication. I was just running around there,” Briscoe explained. “I felt really good about coming here and where we were at and racing with [Kyle] Larson there, and went to upshift and something happened. I’m not really sure; it’s unfortunate. We’ll go on to next week, and that [issue] won’t matter anyway.”

For Hamlin, it’s his third DNF of the season related to engine issues. He expressed concern last weekend at Talladega about mechanical problems and also had an issue with his starter during qualifying Saturday at Martinsville. Hamlin wasn’t sure if Sunday’s issue was connected to Saturday’s, nor if he had the same issue as Briscoe.

“I could be worried, but I can’t do anything about it, so I’m still optimistic,” said Hamlin when asked if he’s uneasy about a potential failure during the championship event at Phoenix. “We’re gonna put our best foot forward, and hopefully, it’s enough next week. That’s all I can do.

“Our performance is good. We’re up front. As long as we can keep it together, we’re fast and capable … I’ve said, come one, come all. I think that I’m gonna have to win next week if I’m gonna win the championship, and we’re gonna come prepared for that.”

If Hamlin were to win the title, it would be the first of his future Hall of Fame career. He enters Phoenix as the winningest Cup Series driver without a championship.

William Byron won Sunday at Martinsville, punching his Championship 4 ticket along with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson.

Posted on by PJ Walsh

Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) could be a wild one.

Today’s race is the final chance for playoff-eligible drivers to punch their tickets to next weekend’s championship race at Phoenix.

RELATED: More on today’s Round of 8 elimination bout in What to Watch

Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe have already earned their berths to Phoenix, meaning there are still two spots up for grabs Sunday at Martinsville.

Live NASCAR odds from BetMGM list polesitter William Byron as the race favorite with +350 odds, followed by Denny Hamlin (+475), Chase Elliott (+475), Kyle Larson (+500) and Ryan Blaney (+625) for today’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 8 finale.

I’m zeroing in on two drivers from this list of favorites, as well as a 20-1 longer-shot pick for my best bets for Martinsville.

NASCAR Odds, Best Bet Pick for Talladega

*Odds as of Sunday morning

Let’s jump right in with my top two favorites to bet for Sunday’s race.

Denny Hamlin (+600) to Win — ESPN BET

I’m not breaking any news by saying I like Hamlin to win today’s race.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has six career Cup Series wins at Martinsville, including earlier this season.

But what really caught my eye was an interview with Hamlin during Saturday’s on-track activity.

In that interview, Hamlin mentioned that the left-rear tires were burning off in practice, just as they did 15 years ago.

Very few drivers in today’s field were in the Cup Series 15 years ago, and considering Hamlin notched four wins at this track from 2008-2010, he’ll have the best idea of how to save tires to ensure long-run speed.

Ryan Blaney (+625) to Win — Caesars

Blaney is known for having pace on long runs at Martinsville and appears to have it again this weekend.

The No. 12 Ford posted the third-fastest 20- and 25-lap averages in practice on Saturday, but Blaney didn’t do himself any favors after qualifying a disappointing 31st for today’s race.

However, Blaney has won the past two playoff races at Martinsville, and while he didn’t start as deep as 31st on the grid, both of those wins came with starting positions outside of the top 10, so I’m willing to buy low(er) on the Team Penske driver despite his poor qualifying effort.

Bubba Wallace (+2,000) to Win — FanDuel

Wallace has repeatedly said that Martinsville is among his favorite tracks, and he has backed that up with finishes of eighth, ninth, 11th, fourth, 18th and third over his last six races at this circuit.

Wallace appears to have a race pace in his career as well this weekend, ranking fourth in 20- and 25-lap averages and second in the 30-lap average in practice.

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

Editor’s note: Race projections were updated after Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions.

It all comes down to Martinsville Speedway if you want to make the Championship 4. The penultimate race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season is always one for the books, and Sunday’s event (2 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) should be no different.

Joe Gibbs Racing has the high ground after Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe snagged half the tickets punched for Phoenix to race for the Bill France Cup so far, and teammate Christopher Bell is the highest in points of the remaining playoff drivers without a win. However, lurking beneath the surface are four hungry drivers with accomplished pedigrees at the Virginia short track, all looking to win their way in walk-off fashion to make it to the Championship 4.

Will the fall Martinsville trend of favoring walk-off winners continue, or will Hamlin sweep the year at his home track? Before cars hit the half-mile, let’s dig a little deeper with stats provided by Racing Insights.

RELATED: Weekend schedule | Cup Playoffs standings

All eight playoff drivers fill out the top eight projected finishing results, with Hamlin predicted to back up his victory at Martinsville in the spring. It makes sense as Hamlin has a whopping 9.8 average finish at the short track across 39 starts and has led 100 or more laps in five of the last nine Cup races there. He’s also scored top fives in five of the last six events, bookended by that March triumph.

However, having punched his ticket to the Championship 4 already with his 60th career win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway two weeks ago, it’s tough to see the No. 11 driver focus on Sunday with all eyes toward going for that elusive Cup title a week later.

Looking at prior years with Martinsville as the cutoff race in the semifinal round, only one driver has finished inside the top five at the track after winning earlier in the round — that was Joey Logano with a third-place result in the 2020 fall race. With no added incentive except for a grandfather clock added to his home decor, you may want to look elsewhere for a winner on Sunday.

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Hello, Ryan Blaney — once again. Only one time has a driver not won from beneath the cutline at Martinsville to reach the Championship 4, and that was non-playoff driver Alex Bowman in 2021. The No. 12 Team Penske driver is responsible for the last two Martinsville playoff victories, the first of which culminated in his crowning as series champion in 2023. Blaney’s had a rough go of it since his New Hampshire victory to make the Round of 8. He’s finished outside the top 10 in every race since, with a best finish of 13th at the Charlotte Roval. But the Martinsville numbers are very good for Blaney, as he’s finished no worse than 11th dating all the way back to the spring of 2019.

William Byron, Chase Elliott and Logano are all below the Championship 4 cutline as well, and all are prior Martinsville winners, most recently the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports driver in the spring of 2024.

Byron is due some luck after a pit stop without warning from Ty Dillon in front of him derailed him at Las Vegas, and a last-lap spin through the tri-oval at Talladega stymied him to must-win territory at Martinsville, down 36 points to teammate Kyle Larson.

After a string of tepid runs at Martinsville from 2021-2023, Elliott has gotten hot at the short track with three consecutive top fives. He knows a thing or two about winning in walk-off fashion, as he won the 2020 fall race that culminated in his lone Cup title.

As for Logano, you can’t count him out either. The three-time series champ is a top-10 machine at Martinsville. His last result outside the top 10 at the Virginia track? The spring of 2019.

FANTASY: Set your lineup | Make a 36 for 36 pick

DRIVERS TO WATCH

BUBBA WALLACE: In the Gen 7 car, Wallace has been quite good at Martinsville with an average finish of 9.9. He’s finished fourth or better in two of the last three races at the track.

ROSS CHASTAIN: The No. 1 Trackhouse Racing driver has a well-known history at Martinsville, most notably the iconic “Hail Melon” move out of desperation that sent Chastain to the Championship 4 in 2022. Chastain enters the short track looking for his third straight top 10.

RYAN PREECE: The driver of the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford is starting to build some momentum going into 2026. He plated top 10s at the Roval and Las Vegas before coming home 15th at Talladega. Martinsville is a place where the short-track ace feels at home, and he’s coming off a seventh-place run in the spring.

TODD GILLILAND: The fourth-year Cup driver hasn’t had the season he would have wanted, but broke through with a career-best runner-up performance at Talladega. Gilliland isn’t too shabby at Martinsville with a pair of top 10s — most recently in the spring.

AUSTIN DILLON: It was a swift exit from the playoffs, but Dillon has a knack for strong performances at short tracks. He owns a third-place finish at Martinsville in the Gen 7 car (2022) and finished seventh in the playoff race last fall.

RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR XFINITY 500:

Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula incorporates current track, track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to predict a projected winner and provide full race results. Updated on race day with practice and qualifying factored in.

*(P) denotes playoff driver

FINISHCAR NUMBERDRIVER
111Denny Hamlin (P)
25Kyle Larson (P)
39Chase Elliott (P)
422Joey Logano (P)
512Ryan Blaney (P)
624William Byron (P)
719Chase Briscoe (P)
820Christopher Bell (P)
923Bubba Wallace
101Ross Chastain
1160Ryan Preece
1248Alex Bowman
1345Tyler Reddick
1454Ty Gibbs
158Kyle Busch
166Brad Keselowski
1771Michael McDowell
1834Todd Gilliland
1917Chris Buescher
203Austin Dillon
2199Daniel Suárez
2277Carson Hocevar
232Austin Cindric
2421Josh Berry
2541Cole Custer
2643Erik Jones
2747Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
2888Shane van Gisbergen
294Noah Gragson
3010Ty Dillon
3116AJ Allmendinger
3238Zane Smith
3342John Hunter Nemechek
3435Riley Herbst
357Justin Haley
3651Cody Ware
3766Casey Mears
Posted on by Zack Albert

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — The message to Sammy Smith from the No. 8 JR Motorsports radio was delivered loud and clear. That over-the-air signal was a reminder of the fray that exploded on the last lap during the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ most recent trip to Martinsville Speedway, a fracas that he was in the middle of, again with rival Taylor Gray in front of him.

“We’ll go kick his ass the right way this time,” the No. 8 radio crackled.

Those kicking plans unraveled on a notably civil last lap of Saturday night’s Round of 8 finale in the Xfinity Series Playoffs, and so did Smith’s hopes of reaching the Championship 4 grid and a title shot in next Saturday’s season-ending race at Phoenix Raceway. Gray scooted away to his first victory in the series, but Smith followed through on the “right way” part of the scenario, taking a clean runner-up finish instead of an overly aggressive bump-and-run tactic that could have propelled him to the win and a Champ 4 berth.

“I wasn’t close enough to move him the right way,” Smith said post-race, “and if I move him like I did this spring, I’m going to get blackballed and get thrown out of the playoffs anyway, so I’m probably parked. Obviously, I didn’t want to do it that way anyway, and he was the better car today.”

Moving on instead to the championship race were Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love and JR Motorsports’ Carson Kvapil, two drivers who advanced on the basis of points after rocky evenings on the track. They’ll vie for the Xfinity Series crown with JRM’s Connor Zilisch, this year’s top rookie, and Justin Allgaier, the defending series champion.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Martinsville

Joining Smith on the wrong side of the elimination line were Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones, who ended up four points behind Kvapil as the first driver out, and Haas Factory Team stablemates Sam Mayer and Sheldon Creed further back.

For Gray, the win was a measure of redemption for a pair of recent hard-knock losses at the 0.526-mile Martinsville track. Gray missed out on the Championship 4 in the Craftsman Truck Series after a run-in with Christian Eckes here last fall, then was slammed by Smith in the final lap in the springtime Xfinity show — both incidents that sparked heated post-race confrontations.

Gray said he was cognizant of their dust-up last March as the laps ticked down, and told reporters that the two had talked in the months since. “I’m not cool with him, though, if that’s what you’re asking, no,” Gray said. “And I think he knew better. I think he knew that he was gonna get himself in a fight if he wrecked me. So yeah, I think he probably played this one out a little smarter in his head than last time.”

Love and Kvapil were left with some sense of relief after both reached the Championship 4 field for the first time. Love entered the race with a comfortable 40-point advantage in the playoff standings, but two key pit-stop miscues and a resulting 23rd-place finish cost him a significant chunk of his cushion.

Love sped in the final section of pit road during his first stop of the race, knocking him to 30th in the running order early on. A Stage 2 pit stop brought more heartache when an errant tire rolled into the pit box behind Love’s, drawing an equipment interference penalty and dropping him to 36th in the 38-car field. “We’re not going to let it get us down here,” No. 2 crew chief Danny Stockman told his team over the radio after the second infraction. “We’ve got to (expletive) clean it up — everybody.”

Though he fell a lap down at one point, Love held on and advanced by an 18-point margin.

“It’s a relief, but not to say you ever take it for granted, but I expected coming in here to be moving on to Phoenix,” Love said, “and didn’t expect for it to be as blue collar of a night as it was, but I know that we’ll be good at Phoenix. I know it’s my best race track. I know this place is my worst race track, and I never like coming here, so I’m glad I can say sayonara until March next year.”

Kvapil recovered from a spinout on the 227th of 253 laps that threatened to upend his playoff course. Andrew Overstreet, crew chief for Kvapil’s No. 1 Chevrolet, opted to keep his driver on the track during a cycle of pit stops after a Lap 92 caution. That move helped Kvapil inherit the lead and hang on for a Stage 2 win and bank 10 crucial points in the standings to help his cause.

MORE: Xfinity Series’ Championship 4 is set

Kvapil was 13 points up as the final stage ticked down, but his spin in close-quarters racing with Ryan Sieg and pole-starter Harrison Burton left him in 30th place and staring down a sudden seven-point deficit. From there, the short-track ace rallied with some encouragement over the No. 1 team radio: “You’re faster than all these cars. Take no prisoners.”

Carson Kvapil smiles post-race at Martinsville Speedway
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media

Some 20 laps later, Kvapil had made up 12 spots to secure an 18th-place finish, advancing by a slim four-point margin and becoming the third JRM driver with a title shot next weekend.

“We positioned ourselves pretty well into Stage 3 before we got turned there,” Kvapil said, “and we kind of were in the situation where we just needed to just finish where we were and just not make any enemies and just try to ride it out. I think we were ahead of (Love) at the time. I think he got his lap back, and we were gonna have to go forward, but we were in a way better spot than we were at the end. Just once we got put back to 30th, it was, man, you’ve just got to hammer it. I mean, you hate to do it, right? You hate to go in there and just hammer people out of the way. But I mean, with less than 20 to go, you’ve just got to do what you’ve got to do, right? And I know our car has the speed to do it.”

On the other side of the four-point difference was Jones, who netted 11 points in the stages but wound up two positions short of a Champ 4-clinching victory.

“Struggled with the car a little bit throughout the race as well,” Jones said. “I mean, I don’t think by far we were anywhere capable of driving, taking the lead, going to win the race by just straight-up, real battle. We were good enough to go and be competitive to maybe take advantage of somebody’s mistakes, but I don’t know. All in all, we still have a little bit of work to clean up here. We’ve got some things that we can continue to make better, in my opinion. So I’m happy for Taylor. I’m happy to for him to get his first win. He’s been working hard at it. I know he has. So if somebody is going to win it, I guess let’s let one of those guys get it. So dejected we’re not going to go run for the championship, but proud of all the things that we’ve done this year and we built.”

The Xfinity Series finale is set for next Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).