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.
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.
In his quest for the NASCAR Cup Series championship, Denny Hamlin may make his last stand — for 2024 at least — in his home state of Virginia, when he takes to the track at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday afternoon (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
And if we’re being completely honest, his odds of winning a championship this year are not good. According to my NASCAR Cup Series playoff forecast, which simulates the rest of the playoffs 10,000 times to track each driver’s chances of advancing through and/or winning the title, Hamlin has just a 13% probability of making his fifth career Championship 4 appearance.
Hamlin goes into the penultimate race of the season trailing William Byron by 18 points in the standings, with longtime rival Kyle Larson wedged 11 points in front of him as well. While he can still potentially make it in without a victory on Sunday, the odds are stacked against it — so his best path involves adding another of those fancy grandfather clocks to his collection (which already includes five of them, tops among active drivers):
Things didn’t need to be quite so dire for Hamlin, though. If not for an unfortunate mistake earlier in the season, he would be much closer to extending his title hopes — and far less reliant on a win this weekend to make that happen.
I’m talking, of course, about the L2-level penalty given to the No. 11 team for running afoul of NASCAR’s engine inspection requirements following Hamlin’s win on March 17 at Bristol. The Toyota Racing Development team mistakenly disassembled and rebuilt that race-winning engine before presenting it to NASCAR for inspection, violating multiple sections of the NASCAR Rule Book in the process.
Both Joe Gibbs Racing and Hamlin were docked 75 points in the regular-season standings and 10 playoff points when the violation was announced in mid-August, following Toyota self-reporting the infraction.
While all of the implications weren’t fully known at the time, Hamlin knew the penalty could end up looming large when he spoke of the situation on his weekly podcast, Actions Detrimental.
“You can look at it and say, ‘Well it’s just a 10-point penalty,’ but it isn’t,” Hamlin said in August. “Look where I’m at now: I’m eighth in points. I was battling for the regular-season championship, which would have paid 15 points, and now at most I’m probably going to get three. Just a huge swing for us … and we know that these cutlines come down to the number, (it) always does.”
Those words seem particularly prophetic now. Let’s break down what would have changed in the regular-season standings if nothing else changed in terms of on-track results, but Hamlin’s team never received the engine penalty:
Hamlin would have finished 30 points shy of Tyler Reddick for the Regular Season Championship, but he would have ranked fourth in the final standings instead of seventh, which would have yielded a bonus of seven playoff points instead of the four he actually received. When you include the initial penalty of 10 playoff points, that reduced Hamlin’s overall playoff tally by 13 points (while also giving one point apiece to rivals Christopher Bell, William Byron and Ryan Blaney).
Carry that forward to the present, and we can see how much closer to the Championship 4 Hamlin would be in the playoff standings without the ripple effects from the penalty. In a hypothetical world, Hamlin would leapfrog Larson to rank fifth in the standings heading into Martinsville (rather than sixth), a mere four points below the cutline instead of 18 below:
That, in turn, would more than double his advancement odds in my forecast model, raising them from 13% to 29% — and lifting his championship chances from 4% to 9% in the process.
No, Hamlin wouldn’t be above the elimination line, nor favored to move on, even in a world without the penalty. He can’t blame it totally for a playoff run that has seen him finish outside the top 20 just as often as he’s finished among the top five. But just the same, he would be under a lot less pressure now if the penalty never happened. His odds of advancing on points without a win at Martinsville would be 24% — instead of just 6% — including a coin-flip’s chance (47%) to make it by finishing between Nos. 2-5 — instead of just 14%, as we noted above.
Simply put, Denny’s path to that first-ever championship was made a lot harder when that engine mistake happened — and he knew it at the time. But it’s still far from over for the No. 11 car, at a track where Hamlin has seen so much success (and is the co-favorite to win again, alongside Larson).
So maybe we’ll look back on the penalty as just another chapter in the story of Hamlin’s first title. The data shows, though, it likely will prove to be one obstacle too many in the career of a driver who can’t seem to catch that crucial break to help push him over the top.
PHILADELPHIA — Comcast is proud to announce the finalists for the 2024 Comcast Community Champion of the Year Award, the prestigious annual award created to recognize the extraordinary philanthropic efforts of individuals across the NASCAR industry.
These remarkable individuals have demonstrated unwavering dedication and inspiring acts of service, creating ripples of positive change that extend far beyond the race track. From championing melanoma research to empowering colleagues and ensuring the health of their communities through life-saving blood drives, the 2024 finalists embody the spirit of giving back.
The 2024 finalists are:
• Scott Crowell, senior manager of facility operations, NASCAR Productions (Willow’s Wish Foundation)
• Erik Jones, Driver, Legacy Motor Club (Erik Jones Foundation)
• Susan McKee, senior director of HR/IT, Charlotte Motor Speedway (Speedway Children’s Charities)
Comcast’s Xfinity brand entered NASCAR as entitlement partner of the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2015 and is now also a Premier Partner of the NASCAR Cup Series. Since the program’s inception, Comcast has donated more than $1 million to 27 nonprofit organizations, amplifying the impact of the philanthropic efforts of all finalists and champions.
“We are continuously inspired by the stories we receive, each showcasing the significant contributions from individuals across the NASCAR industry,” said Matt Lederer, vice president of brand partnerships and engagement at Xfinity. “This year’s finalists are exceptional individuals united by a shared mission of making a positive impact in their communities and beyond.”
The 2024 Comcast Community Champion of the Year will be selected by a panel of esteemed Comcast and NASCAR executives, along with Ryan Vargas, the 2023 Comcast Community Champion of the Year for his work with FACES: The National Craniofacial Association.
“Comcast has consistently demonstrated their dedication to supporting the NASCAR community with its philanthropic efforts nationwide. What Comcast did for FACES: The National Craniofacial Association cannot be understated. Their funds went directly into the, helping put on FACES Camp 2024 and has boosted Craniosynostosis and Craniofacial awareness across the industry and nation. I am honored to hold the title of Comcast Community Champion of the Year and am proud to stand alongside Erik, Scott, and Susan, who are each an inspiration to me” said Ryan Vargas.
2024 Comcast Community Champion of the Year finalists:
Scott Crowell (Charlotte, N.C.) — Scott has more than three decades of experience in the racing industry, transitioning from a pit crew member to team truck driver, and now serving as NASCAR’s senior manager of facility operations. While his career reflects a passion for racing, his true calling is giving back to individuals and his community. With a deep commitment to genuine care, he excels at connecting with others by rallying volunteers, leading donation efforts, and creating personalized support plans.
Scott has actively engaged in various charitable initiatives, building strong relationships with those in need and volunteers alike. His passion for supporting the special needs community has led him to volunteer for years with the Joyful Hearts organization, particularly during their Joy Prom event. These experiences have culminated in his most rewarding passion yet.
In 2020, Scott’s youngest granddaughter was born with a rare trisomy condition. Supporting his daughter and son-in-law through this challenging journey led them to discover a calling for creating lasting change. This passion culminated in the establishment of the Willow’s Wish Foundation, which fosters inclusive environments. Their current initiative focuses on installing inclusive changing tables in parks and public spaces, each costing around $7-10k. Scott played a crucial role in securing and installing the first of 11 tables in a long-term partnership with the City of Concord. The ultimate goal is to replicate this model across communities nationwide, ensuring a meaningful legacy for years to come.
Erik Jones (Byron, Mich,) — A natural-born leader, Jones has made significant strides in giving back to the community. Established in August 2021, he launched the Erik Jones Foundation, designed to provide charitable donations to organizations and offer direct-to-individual programs within communities across the country. Focused on areas of importance to him, the Erik Jones Foundation consists of three main pillars: reading literacy, early cancer screening and detection, and animal welfare.
To support reading literacy, Jones started the #ReadwithErik program during the COVID-19 pandemic as a weekly Facebook Live and, since then, the program has grown to include in-person readings at both race tracks and schools around the country. The Foundation also partners with schools to donate book vending machines and, this year, launched a pen pal program. After his father lost his battle with cancer in 2016, and with his mother being a breast cancer survivor, early cancer detection and care have been key to the Erik Jones Foundation. During its first year, the Erik Jones Foundation donated $20,000 to the Melanoma Research Foundation and has been instrumental in distributing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of sunscreen samples and bringing the Sun Bus — a mobile skin screening center — to race fans. The foundation also hosts the ‘Window of Hope’ pink window net program at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval to raise funds for breast cancer screenings and care. Passionate about animal welfare, Jones has been able to make donations to animal shelters and partner with key organizations such as the mid-Michigan K9 Association, Adopt-A-Pet Fenton (Michigan) and Rescue Ranch in Statesville, North Carolina.
Susan McKee (Charlotte, N.C.) — Leading Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Pit Crew, a group of staff volunteers she helped establish in 2010, Susan proved her undeniable commitment to service through the creation of new campaigns, volunteer programs, and initiatives with a purpose to help those in her community.
In August, Susan led the speedway’s seventh annual Day of Service. Employees showed their commitment to positively impact the community, with 84 volunteers lending over 275 hours of labor to three local nonprofits as well as creating Bags of Hope, sensory kits, and refreshing Blessing Boxes around the community.
With the help of Susan’s extensive leadership and guidance, the Pit Crew organized blood drives in conjunction with the American Red Cross and OneBlood that yielded 900 units of blood — helping over 2,600 community members. With a heart for those in need and a passion for giving back, McKee has proven her commitment to serving those in need.
Comcast has a storied history of strengthening communities each and every day of the year providing education opportunities and digital skills training to help create more pathways to economic mobility for young people and adults alike, most recently through its Project UP initiative. For more information on Project UP and the latest news on efforts to address digital inequities, visit https://corporate.comcast.com/impact/project-up.
1. What lasting moment will be made at Martinsville?
In a season — and postseason, in particular — full of jaw-droppers, it feels likely that the legendary half-mile will offer 2024’s latest historic moment.
Honestly, at this point, it’s hard not to feel spoiled.
The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season has seen a plethora of impactful moments, at a tempo that has only seemed to ratchet up once the calendar turned to September.
Tyler Reddick’s wall-riding, last-lap rampage as he stormed to the checkered flag and a Championship 4 berth Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway was just the latest entry in an overflowing bin of “holy $&*%” things we’ve seen on the race track this year, reminiscent of Ross Chastain’s “Hail Melon” at Martinsville Speedway a few years back, but on a track triple in size.
We now head to that same track — NASCAR’s oldest and most historic — and it feels inevitable that come Sunday evening we’ll be sitting back in our seats, in awe of what we’ve just witnessed and clamoring for more.
There is perhaps no track more fitting to decide which four drivers will battle next weekend at Phoenix Raceway for the 2024 Bill France Cup than a quaint, half-mile in rural Virginia.
Everything always seems to happen in this race, from walk-off wins, to video-game moves, to sunset-drenched proclamations of “goin’ to Homestead” to post-race shouting matches to interrupting a driver’s burnout and calling him a hack. It feels like we’ve seen it all at Martinsville, and yet it continues to surprise us.
Based on how things have gone for the past, oh, nine months or so, do we have literally any reason to think another memory won’t find a permanent home in NASCAR lore on Sunday?
“Martinsville is probably the perfect place for being an elimination race,” two-time champion Joey Logano told Ford Performance. “I know NASCAR thinks about this stuff when they put the schedule together and they look at Martinsville and think, ‘Everyone is gonna be really close to each other. There’s gonna be full contact. A lot of things can happen.’ You look at all the (elimination) races that we have. Bristol, cars are all over each other. The Roval, the tightest road course we go to and the cars are all over each other. Martinsville it’s the same thing, so you’ve got to expect drama when you go there. Some people will be in do-or-die scenarios and what are they willing to do?”
If a driver answers with anything other than “win at all costs” … better luck next year.
Apart from Logano and his fellow locked-in Reddick, no other Round of 8 drivers are safe entering the weekend, even Christopher Bell with his 29-point cushion as the top driver not yet clinched. A win is the surest way to keep your championship hopes alive a week from now, and for those below the elimination line, the history ain’t too pretty if they’re counting on making up that deficit.
Only once has a driver pointed their way into the Championship 4 when entering the final race of the Round of 8 below the bubble. Martin Truex Jr. did that from sixth place in the standings in 2021, and he only needed to dig out of a measly three-point hole. With everyone from Kyle Larson (fifth, -7) and on facing deeper deficits than that, he and Denny Hamlin (-18), Ryan Blaney (-38) and Chase Elliott (-43) should consider this nothing short of a must-win race.
The good news for them, though, is that this is a common occurrence — a playoff driver has won the final race of the Round of 8 when entering below the elimination line in 40% of this format’s history. And in each of the past five seasons, at least one driver from below the elimination line after the first Round of 8 race has made the Championship 4; in this case, that would be Hamlin, Blaney or Elliott.
Those three drivers have a combined 10 elimination-race wins in playoff history and are each formidable at Martinsville historically, so if you’re looking for drivers to keep an especially close eye on, it’s worth starting with them. Especially considering that of the three eventual Cup champs to win their way into the Championship 4 from below the elimination line, those are two of ‘em.
2. Is Martinsville going to be Hamlin’s race to lose?
The home-stater Hamlin has had Martinsville wrapped around his finger for a long time, but it might not be enough to hold off his feisty competitors.
“You’re not out of it till they throw the checkered flag at Martinsville,” Denny Hamlin said after Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he left below the elimination line.
For now, Hamlin’s championship hopes are indeed dwindling yet still alive — but we’re a handful of days away from knowing if that’ll remain the case or if we’re a few months away from the perpetual slew of “This could finally be Denny’s year”-type preseason coverage we’ve grown accustomed to.
At times, it definitely has felt like 2024 was going to be the one (honestly, a not-too-unfamiliar feeling), and at times, it has looked, once again, like something would happen to snatch the potential of a first Cup Series championship from his grip.
With everything on the line at Martinsville and some recent spirited playoff performances, though — you can feel pretty good about him making his first Championship 4 since 2021. After that, who knows, but it feels like he’ll get there.
The Chesterfield, Virginia, native’s five wins are nearly as many as the rest of the playoff drivers have combined (seven), and while Hamlin and the No. 11 coalition are not immune to in-race mishaps and toe-stubbing, crew chief Chris Gabehart always seems to bring a fast car to the race track when his driver needs it the most.
Hamlin will undoubtedly be a factor, but what has made this Round of 8 so compelling is just the sheer magnitude of talent from top to bottom on display. If you want that Championship 4 spot, you’re going to have to really work for it.
“This is so, so intense and we knew coming into the Round of 8 with these drivers, we were going to have winners, winners and winners,” said Bell, the only back-to-back Championship 4 contender looking for a third. “Coming to Homestead, you look at the guys who run well here and you’re expecting a winner from the bottom half of the grid, and I think the same thing will happen in Martinsville.
He was right — Toyota teammate Reddick won from well below the elimination line after flipping a week earlier at Las Vegas.
While that descriptor applies to his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Hamlin, it also applies to Elliott — who’s riding a series-best six-race top-10 streak on short tracks, the longest of his career. And good golly, have you seen Hendrick Motorsports’ Martinsville stats?
Just to list a few:
• Only team to lead more than 10,000 laps at a track (10,852 laps led at Martinsville)
• 29 wins there are the most ever by a team at a track
• Won five of the last eight Martinsville races with four different drivers
• Finished 1-2-3 in April, the first 1-2-3 finish by a team ever at the track
With three drivers remaining, battling with each other (along with three other, less friendly drivers) for just two remaining spots, surely we’ll see at least one Hendrick pilot at the front of the field for a good, long stretch, and possibly all three. That said, while Hendrick has won five of the last 12 races there, JGR and Team Penske — the other two teams with drivers looking for Championship 4 spots — won the other seven, so it’s not a complete monopoly.
It’s also worth noting that Logano will be driving with absolutely no pressure this weekend and is sporting the longest top-10 streak he’s ever had at a track in Martinsville (10). It’s the longest active top-10 streak of any driver at the venue as well, so we can’t rule it out that he plays spoiler and takes away his competitors’ ability to take fate into their own hands with a win. Team Penske is just stout there, with Blaney in a great spot this weekend, too — his nine top fives at Martinsville are his most at any track.
So while the race feels like in some ways Hamlin’s to lose based on his history, there are plenty of hungry and capable wolves waiting to pounce on a Championship 4 berth, should they get the opportunity to feast.
NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director Brad Moran details the changes to the Cup Series tires ahead of the Round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway.
4. Will Ryan Blaney pull off a second straight “Jimmie Johnson?”
Four times did “Seven Time” win the Martinsville playoff race en route to a title — and once three years in a row. No. 12 has an excellent shot to become just the second driver to do it back-to-back, as winning at Martinsville often indicates a title is near. (Credit: Racing Insights)
Year
Champion
2006
Jimmie Johnson
2007
Jimmie Johnson
2008
Jimmie Johhnson
2011
Tony Stewart
2016
Jimmie Johnson
2018
Joey Logano
2020
Chase Elliott
2023
Ryan Blaney
5. Catch the pack — news and notes from around the garage
Ryan Blaney’s mind has fully shifted to Sunday’s Round of 8 elimination race at Martinsville Speedway, but the defending champ hasn’t forgotten about his final-lap, final-turn decision last week at Homestead that cost him a guaranteed spot in the Championship 4.
After grasping the lead from Denny Hamlin with two laps to go, Blaney was pressured by Tyler Reddick down the backstretch and had to make a quick decision on whether to defend the top or block the bottom to deter a potential slide job from the No. 45 driver and 2024 regular-season champion. Blaney chose the latter but Reddick ripped the fence on two-lap older tires to speed past Blaney in Turns 3 and 4 to steal the victory and punch his ticket to Phoenix.
It was a dream tug left at the wheel for Reddick while Blaney was left pondering what could’ve been in the hours after the race.
“I rewatched it when I got home Sunday night,” Blaney said. “I rewatched the whole race and rewatched the end of it and lost some sleep over the end of that race. I mean, it’s so easy to go back and watch it from the broadcast or relive it in your head of like ‘well, gosh, if I just would have done this different, it would have been a different outcome.’ But that’s easy to do, like, in the moment, it’s really hard to make the right decision. You’re making a lot of decisions every lap and I look back on that, and I talk about in some scenarios, whether it’s speedways or end of these races whether you’re leading or second or whatever, you’re guessing. In some situations, on what lane is going to be better, where the car in front of you is going to go, where the car behind you is going to go, you’re guessing. And sometimes you guess right, sometimes you guess wrong. I guessed wrong on where he was going to go.”
All sports, and especially in racing, require a lot of split-second decision-making. While looking back at the tape Blaney became a viewer, just like fans at home, asking himself why he made the choice to go to the bottom when the best move would’ve been to defend the top.
“I can only speak on pro sports because I am a part of one and I watch a lot of others, and it’s like, when I watch a football game, I’m like, ‘why didn’t he just do that?’ … In the moment, when you’re that person and you’re that athlete, or living in that time, it’s so much harder than being on the outside and watching on TV with all different angles and things like that. You’re making real-time decisions in the moment. You don’t have any time to like process, think about it, go through all the options. It’s boom, boom, boom. It’s all happening super fast.
“You’re never going to be batting 1.000 for making the right decision, the right call and that’s what the difficulty of sporting is, is can you make the right decisions? And how often do you make the right decisions? In my mind, going down the back, I’m seeing the run that he’s got down the back, and the timing of it, I’m like, ‘OK, I think he might pull a slider here.’ That’s what I kind of made my mind up on is that he was going to pull a slider and I was just going to kind of enter where I did and slide up the track. If he did pull a slider, maybe I can pull under him or where I kind of entered I was like ‘well, I’m going to cut a little distance off the race track here to where maybe I can still be on his outside if he did pull a slider and I can drive back around him.’ It was just the wrong move.”
Instead of having a fun, relaxed day as one could have at a tough track like Martinsville, Blaney will now have to fight for a checkered flag if he wants to keep his title defense alive as he’ll enter Sunday’s Xfinity 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) 38 points below the elimination line.
The upside for the No. 12 Team Penske team is that both Chase Elliott (2020) and Christopher Bell (2022) have won at Martinsville entering beneath the elimination line, proving it can be done. Elliott would win the title in ’20, and Blaney himself is the defending winner of the Martinsville playoff race, which rocketed him to last year’s championship.
Not only will Sunday be a physical hurdle for Blaney along with making the right adjustments all weekend long, but it also will be a mental challenge the rest of the week and until the season ends potentially to move on from how Homestead played out.
“I feel like the mental side is the toughest thing about our sport,” Blaney said. “It’s just how do you mentally stay in it and how do you adjust to what you need to do week in, week out and in the moment, and then for the future. So I try not to dwell on the past too much, and you just learn from it and move on.”
For Sunday’s Cup Series playoff race at Martinsville Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App), Goodyear will introduce a new left-side tire compound as it continues to fine tune its tire combinations on short tracks this season.
Earlier this season, Goodyear introduced the option tire for the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway and was used again in the summer at Richmond Raceway. It was a softer right-side tire that generated more speed on the shorter run but wore out quicker than the standard tire during the course of a green-flag run.
Goodyear will use the option tire compound as the standard right-side tire for Sunday’s Round of 8 finale, while the left-side tire will be one of the company’s softest compounds.
“This year has been one of great development and advances on our short-track tire package,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “The option tire that we ran at both North Wilkesboro and Richmond has been designed to give the Cup cars more grip early in a run and have lap times fall off more later. We come to Martinsville with that same right-side tread compound as part of the setup teams will run, along with a left-side tire that utilizes the ‘softest’ tread compound in our tire lineup. Martinsville is a tricky track for many reasons — not only the time of year we race there, but also the layout with the tight, concrete corners. We had a good test there in August and came out of it with this setup, which is another step forward on our short track package.”
To get teams and drivers acclimated to the new tire setup, NASCAR will hold an extended 45-minute practice session on Saturday at Martinsville.
“We did some testing at Martinsville back in August, which has created a new, even softer left-side tire,” said Brad Moran, NASCAR Cup Series managing director. “All the tires will be new there. We do have the extended practice. They have an additional set of practice tires to do some adjustments. We sure hope it creates some interesting racing, and how it’s all going to work out, it’s one of those deals where we’re really not going to know until we get them all out there on Sunday.”
At Martinsville, Cup teams will get two sets of tires for practice, one set for qualifying and 10 sets for the race (nine race sets plus one set transferred from qualifying).
Charles Denike will become crew chief of the No. 23 Toyota for 23XI Racing and driver Bubba Wallace beginning in 2025, the team announced Wednesday.
Denike, who currently serves as crew chief for the No. 19 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet with Christian Eckes in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, will replace Bootie Barker atop the pit box next year as Barker moves into a leadership role within the team’s competition group, continuing to help prepare cars and strategize for races at Airspeed, the team’s facility in Huntersville, North Carolina.
“23XI has been good to me, and I hope I have been as good for 23XI,” Barker said in a team release. “Loyalty is important to me and I will continue to do all I can in my new role to help everyone here succeed. I was fortunate to be a part of 23XI’s inception, and I look forward to being a part of the team’s continued journey.”
Barker has served as the team’s crew chief since the final eight races of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season, scoring the first career win for himself and Wallace at Talladega Superspeedway that fall. The duo struck again in September 2022 at Kansas Speedway, this time donning the No. 45, with their second visit to Victory Lane.
“Since joining 23XI, Bootie has provided Bubba and the No. 23 crew with the leadership and confidence they needed to grow into the team they are today,” Dave Rogers, 23XI director of competition, said in a release. “As we began to look ahead to next season, we decided that Bootie’s experience would best serve the organization in a different role based at Airspeed. His input will continue to be an asset to our teams. We’re excited to welcome Charles to the organization and look forward to getting started with him at the end of the season. He will be a terrific addition to the No. 23 team and 23XI as we continue to work to be better.”
In two years with Eckes, Denike has combined for seven wins, 23 top 10s and 33 top 10s in 44 starts.
“Bootie has meant a lot to me and the No. 23 team,” Wallace, driver of the No. 23 Toyota, said in a release. “We’ve been together for some special moments, and I’m glad he’s still going to be a part of what we’re building at 23XI. I’m excited to work with Charles and see what we can accomplish together.”
In total, Denike brings nine Truck Series wins on his resume, netting one each with Chase Elliott and Sam Mayer with GMS Racing in 2020. Denike’s career began in 2012 with Precision Performance Motorsports in the ARCA East and Xfinity Series as a team manager, according to the 23XI release, before moving to GMS in 2016 as a race engineer. Denike then moved to the crew-chief position in 2020 where he remained with GMS until the 2022 campaign.
“I am excited for the 2025 season with the No. 23 team and to work with Bubba and all of 23XI Racing beginning in the offseason,” Denike, a nine-year veteran of the US Army, said in the release. “Bubba is a proven winner, and I believe we will bring out the best in each other. Thank you to Michael (Wheeler, Sr. Director, Planning & Operations), Denny, and Dave for the opportunity to join the 23XI family. They have built an incredible culture at Airspeed.
“I am a believer that winning is a process. When you step foot into Airspeed, you see the tools and resources that it takes to win and are surrounded by people with the same vision and mindset. I am looking forward to this next chapter and to be able to contribute to 23XI’s growth and journey to winning championships.”
NASCAR suspended Craftsman Truck Series driver Conner Jones for one race on Wednesday after an incident in Saturday’s Baptist Health 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The sanctioning body also gave an L1-level penalty to the No. 38 truck driven by Layne Riggs for improperly mounted ballast.
On Lap 76 of 134 at Homestead, Jones hit Matt Mills in the No. 42 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet from behind with his No. 66 ThorSport Racing Ford and Mills shot up the track and into the outside wall. NASCAR responded by giving Jones a two-lap penalty during the race and then followed up with the one-race suspension for violating Sections 4.3.A; 4.4.B: NASCAR Member Code of Conduct in the rule book. That means Jones will miss this week’s race at Martinsville Speedway (6 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Mills’ truck was engulfed in flames, and although Mills exited the vehicle under his own power, he was transported to Jackson South Medical Center where he stayed two nights under observation for smoke inhalation. Mills was released from the hospital on Monday and Niece Motorsports revealed he was cleared to race this weekend at Martinsville.
As for the No. 38 truck, NASCAR officials deducted 10 driver and 10 owner points from that Front Row Motorsports team and suspended crew chief Dylan Cappello one race for violating Section 14.3.4.A&B: Ballast Containers in the rule book. Riggs, who finished 22nd at Homestead, remained in 11th place in the Truck standings after the penalty.
In other penalty news, NASCAR fined three Xfinity Series crew chiefs $5,000 apiece for having one lug nut not safe and secure in post-race inspection for Saturday’s Credit One NASCAR AMEX Credit Card 300. Those crew chiefs were Mardy Lindley of the JR Motorsports No. 1 for Sam Mayer, Andy Street of the Richard Childress Racing No. 21 for race winner Austin Hill and Joe Williams of the RSS Racing No. 39 for Ryan Sieg.
Officials also fined Truck Series crew chief Charles Walter $2,500 when one lug nut was found not safe and secure on the Spire Motorsports No. 71 driven by Rajah Caruth.
At the most pivotal time of the season, the eight drivers left fighting for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship rose to the occasion Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Six of the eight postseason contenders combined to lead 250 of the 267 laps in Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400, the middle race of the Round of 8. A race-high 97 of those circuits were led by race winner Tyler Reddick. Ryan Blaney (47) and Chase Elliott (81) entered in must-win positions and combined to lead nearly 48% of all the laps in Sunday’s 400-miler.
But in the end, the entire outlook of the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs was upended in a matter of 14 consequential minutes on a late afternoon just outside South Beach. From Reddick’s final pit stop to the race’s final restart, go inside how the postseason picture changed so quickly at Homestead-Miami:
After stretching his fuel supply to its bitter end, Tyler Reddick hits pit road from the lead with 15 laps remaining to conclude Lap 252. The No. 45 Toyota of 23XI Racing was running fifth, roughly 3.5 seconds behind then-leader Ryan Blaney when the final round of green-flag pit stops began with 50 laps remaining. Crew chief Billy Scott determined staying out would be the team’s best chance to leap-frog the other playoff drivers ahead of them and score the ultimate walk-off win.
“Man, bed’s made here,” Scott radioed to Reddick. “Only chance is to get a yellow somewhere between here and when we run out of gas.”
That caution didn’t come before Reddick’s fuel ran low and necessitated a trip to pit lane with 15 to go. Upon exiting pit road, Reddick merges onto the track just behind second-place-runner Kyle Larson but storms past both Larson and Blaney off Turn 4 to remain on the lead lap.
Playoff impact: With 15 laps left and four fresh tires, Reddick needed one last caution — and fast — otherwise, the No. 45 team would have been far below the elimination line heading to Martinsville Speedway.
5:33 p.m.
Cue the critical caution. In a fierce battle for the lead at Lap 255, Larson charges three-wide through the middle of Blaney and the lapped car of Austin Dillon entering Turn 3. Larson’s lunge upsets the handling of his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and sends him for a long slide through Turns 3 and 4. The 2021 Cup champion ultimately lost just one position to Denny Hamlin through the process, but a yellow flag in the closing stages means a late-race restart is inbound.
Playoff impact: Either Blaney or Larson seemed destined to lock themselves into the Championship 4 with a victory if the caution hadn’t come out. At the time of caution, Larson sat three points above the elimination line. Instead, the yellow saves Reddick, who maintains his lead-lap position and can capitalize on those who must pit again under the caution.
The last pit stops of the day prove pivotal. Ryan Blaney wins the race off pit road over Hamlin. Chase Elliott gains three spots to slot ahead of Alex Bowman (gained four spots), William Byron (even), Christopher Bell (lost two), AJ Allmendinger (even), Carson Hocevar (gained two), Kyle Larson (lost six) and Chase Briscoe (gained three). Larson pits with the leaders and restarts inside the top 10, but lost multiple spots because the team needed to fix the diffuser flap beneath the rear of the car after it deployed mid-spin.
Because he just pitted prior to the yellow flag, Reddick stays out to inherit the lead with just two green-flag laps on his tires. Reddick chooses the top lane for the restart with Blaney choosing the front row alongside him. Hamlin, Bowman, Bell and Hocevar line up behind Reddick; Elliott, Byron, Allmendinger and Larson behind Blaney.
Playoff impact: Reddick is suddenly thrust into the catbird seat and will control the restart after running 25th before the yellow. Had Reddick been the first car one lap down to receive the free pass, he would have had to restart in the rear instead. Blaney, Hamlin and Elliott are now on even footing with sights set on disposing of Reddick quickly after the restart.
James Gilbert | Getty Images
5:41 p.m.
The green flag flies at Lap 261 to trigger seven laps remaining. Blaney appears to stumble on the restart, allowing Elliott to put Blaney three-wide for second with Hamlin up high. Through Turns 1 and 2, Hamlin rips the high line and momentarily goes four-wide with leader Reddick, Blaney and Elliott to take the top spot away down the backstretch.
Despite the frontstretch bobble, Blaney slots back to second place on the back-straight while Elliott charges to third. With six to go, Blaney charges back to Hamlin’s left, attempting to retake the lead but to no avail. Reddick, however, uses the high line off Turn 2 to clear Elliott for third. Further back, Larson fades out of the top 10.
Playoff impact: Hamlin’s 22-race winless streak finally has an end in sight. After a frustrating season from the midpoint forward, Hamlin now leads in the late stages with a chance to lock his name into the Championship 4 bracket for the first time since 2021. Blaney, Reddick and Elliott all sit beneath the elimination line as Hamlin leads.
5:44 p.m.
With two laps left remaining, Blaney uses a huge launch off the high side of Turn 2 to storm to Hamlin’s left down the back straightaway. The No. 12 Team Penske Ford powers into Turn 3 using the middle groove and drifts high to defend against Hamlin on exit, leading to the white flag.
Playoff impact: The defending NASCAR Cup Series champion now has his chance to charge back into the Championship 4 with 1.5 miles left in front of him. With Blaney out front, Hamlin second and Reddick third, Hamlin drops to 17 points beneath the elimination line with Reddick 18 points out.
5:45 p.m.
White flag. Final lap. Reddick dives to the bottom of Turns 1 and 2 and bolts past Hamlin, co-owner of the very team Reddick races for. The three leaders take separate lines through the first set of corners — Blaney middle, Hamlin top and Reddick bottom. Reddick’s blast to the low line rockets him past Hamlin, heading down the backstretch.
One set of corners left. Blaney opts for the middle again, just like he did the lap prior on Hamlin. But this time, Reddick rips into the corner on the high line with far more speed. Despite two more laps on his tires, Reddick finds just enough grip around the wall to soar past Blaney. The checkered flag waves. Reddick is the winner over Blaney, Hamlin, Bell and Elliott.
Playoff impact: Tyler Reddick collects his fifth win in two seasons for 23XI Racing and his first career berth into the Championship 4. Despite top-five finishes for each, Hamlin, Blaney and Elliott leave Homestead beneath the elimination line. Hamlin is 18 points out, with Blaney down 38 markers and Elliott 43. Larson ultimately finishes 13th — at least 11 spots worse than he sat 12 minutes prior. Instead of leaving three points above the elimination line or locked into the Championship 4, Larson exits seven points beneath the line heading to Martinsville.
With Reddick and Las Vegas winner Joey Logano locked into the Championship 4, Sunday’s fourth-place finisher Bell sits 29 points to the good, with sixth-place finisher William Byron seven points above.
In 14 minutes, the outlook of the playoffs changed all over again.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Given all the pitfalls and peril that had come his way in an eventful 400 miles at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Kyle Larson didn’t have a “play it safe” mode in the waning laps of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race. Being overly cautious wasn’t in the playbook, and the approach nearly sealed a return trip to the Championship 4 field.
Larson finished an unlucky 13th in Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400, rallying from an early wall crunch to contend for the victory and a title-race spot until his spin in a contest for the lead with 13 laps left. Those honors went instead to first-time Champ 4 entrant Tyler Reddick, who converted on his own bold, late-race move for a clinching victory, landing him a bid for the Cup crown in the Nov. 10 finale at Phoenix Raceway.
Larson ranked seventh among the eight playoff-eligible drivers in Sunday’s finishing order; only Joey Logano, who clinched a championship bid the previous weekend in Las Vegas, was worse off in 28th place. Larson had entered the day with a plus-35 margin relative to the provisional elimination line. He left Homestead at minus-7 heading to the Round of 8’s finale Sunday at Martinsville Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App), with his wild points swing a direct result of his day and Reddick’s grid-shaking win.
Larson said he and other drivers above the elimination mark heading into Homestead — namely Christopher Bell and William Byron — likely shared the inclination to press for the victory that seemed imminent. Watching drivers who reached Homestead in elimination territory — Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott alongside himself — have productive days only increased the urgency.
“When the win’s in front of you, and you see a guy like the 12 (Blaney) who’s below the (elimination) line going to win, or the 11’s (Hamlin) in third, the 9 (Elliott) — like all the guys who are below the (elimination) line are having great days. I mean, when the win’s in front of you, I don’t think any of us — Bell, William — would have done anything different,” Larson said. “You’re going for the win to lock yourself into Phoenix. Yeah, I’ve been disappointed in other races a lot more than what I am right now. I’m honestly, I’m really proud of even having a shot, like there’s nobody else that would have been able to do that. So yeah, I’m proud of that. Just wish it would have turned out a little differently.”
The seven other playoff-eligible drivers ran the 400-mile distance without major issue, but trouble seemed to target Larson in the early going. Larson was the victim of Sunday’s first caution period on Lap 47 of 267 when his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet popped a tire and scraped the outside retaining wall. Larson escaped with mild damage, and his steering held straight, but the scraping car ground away at the rear diffuser, hurting the team on downforce and handling. After dropping from second place to 33rd, he ended Stage 1 in 24th place but on the lead lap.
During the stage intermission, contact between Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s No. 47 Chevy and Chris Buescher’s No. 17 Ford left Buescher’s car impeding Larson’s pit-stall entry. He lined back up 35th for Stage 2 after more work on his No. 5 Chevrolet and worked back to 15th by the segment’s end. Those stage results, however, left him without additional points, which were gobbled up by stage winners Reddick and Hamlin.
Larson climbed all the way back into the top five once the race reached what appeared to be its final green-flag run. With 13 laps remaining, Larson ran second and made a bid to pass Blaney’s leading No. 12 Ford as both worked around the lap-down No. 3 Chevy of Austin Dillon. Larson lost control in the tight squeeze and made a long slide through Turn 3 but avoided contact with the wall or other cars. He continued on, but his chance for a victory faded.
“Just proud of myself for driving my ass off to get up there and have a shot because we shouldn’t have,” Larson said. “Then, yeah, racing for the lead there, I just couldn’t quite get close enough to Ryan, and finally got my chance to get close. I didn’t really know what to do. I was coming with a head of steam and was hoping Austin — and, yeah, he didn’t do anything wrong at all — but I was hoping he would kind of leave me the lane against the wall, but he ran his lane, and there was still a little bit of a hole, and I was going to try and shoot the gap and get clear in front of him, but just got loose as I was trying and spun. So yeah, it kind of ended our shot there.”
Larson faces not only a points deficit next weekend but also 500 laps at Martinsville Speedway, a technical short track that has produced mixed fortunes for the 32-year-old driver. Larson landed just one top five in his first 12 starts there, but his results have improved dramatically since signing on with Rick Hendrick’s team in 2021. Since then? Larson has won three pole positions in seven starts there, and he added his first Martinsville victory in the spring of 2023.
“I mean, it’s not my best track, but it’s been a lot better for me the last years since joining Hendrick,” said Larson, who was the race runner-up and pole winner at Martinsville back in April. “So, it’ll be tough, but I’m looking forward to the challenge and hope we can go there and have a solid weekend.”
