Posted on by Holly Cain

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – William Byron claimed his first victory of the season in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway, and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson put himself in prime championship position with one race to go in the 2026 season.

The 28-year-old Charlotte native Byron led a dominating 362 of the 500 laps at the historic 0.526-mile speedway, ultimately claiming a 2.049-second victory over the spring race winner, another Hendrick teammate, Chase Elliott. It was the most laps that Byron had ever led in a single race in his nine-year career in NASCAR’s premier series and resulted in his fourth win at the track along with the 17th victory of his career.

His No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was so dominant that Byron swept both stage wins and was able to put all but seven cars in the 37-car field a lap down by the checkered flag.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos: Martinsville

“We’re always pretty good here,” Byron said, smiling in understatement.

“Man, it’s been a long road this year and this team’s worked really hard and I just appreciate them. We’ve had our struggles, but today feels damn good. Man, we never quit, and there’s something to be said about that.’’

Beyond Byron’s pace out front to deliver the Hendrick team its 32nd Martinsville victory, the drivers still chasing down the 2026 championship trophy had an eventful afternoon. Polesitter and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, who came into the race ranked second to Larson, finished sixth. Larson finished ninth and JGR’s Christopher Bell was 10th.

Heading to the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race next week at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Larson now only needs to finish 28th or better – or simply gain nine points – to hoist his third career championship trophy.

He holds a 67-point lead on Bell and a 70-point advantage over Hamlin heading to South Florida. They are now the only three drivers still mathematically eligible for the title.

SHOP: Winner’s gear

“I absolutely will feel some pressure this week,” Larson conceded. “I know it’s a large gap. Crazy things can happen. Just got to go there and execute like we have all Chase, yeah, just be ready to capitalize.”

The reigning series champion Larson won the race held last spring at the Homestead 1.5-mile oval, and should he claim the title, the 34-year-old Californian would become only the 11th driver in NASCAR’s 78-year history to win three championships or more.

An unsuccessful strategy call early in the race essentially forced Larson and Martinsville pole winner Hamlin to play catch-up early on.

Unlike most of the field, neither Larson’s nor Hamlin’s teams opted to pit mid-stage in the opening 130-lap stage. But left on older tires, they could not keep the top-five pace they had shown in the opening laps, and their competition who did pit blew by on fresh Goodyear.

The loss of track position fundamentally forced a change to their strategy, with Larson going down a lap and Hamlin falling to the rear of the lead lap. And Hamlin said the setback really proved too much to recover from.

“Just really came down to stage one with us running the no-stop strategy,’’ said Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 JGR Toyota. “Lost all of our track position there.

“Once we lost our track position, the strategy, it’s hard to drive back to the front,’’ he added. “Nobody else did. We obviously got some decent damage there.”

Bell, who steers the No. 20 JGR Toyota, was not immune from challenges either. After running top 10 for much of the early race, it looked like he would benefit from some fortunate pit stop timing – having been on pit road when a caution came out on Lap 198. But he was issued a speeding penalty on pit exit and dropped from what would have been the lead to 14th position on the restart.

Then only a handful of laps later, Bell collided with his teammate Hamlin after slight contact from Team Penske’s Joey Logano in Turn 1 – all fighting for position. There wasn’t any significant damage, and the two JGR cars returned to the track. Larson got his lap back on the yellow that came out for the incident.

RELATED: Read about Bell, Hamlin’s afternoon

“I think at least myself, I got tricked into thinking I was better than I was,’’ Bell said, mustering a slight smile. “My team, [crew chief] Adam [Stevens], did a great strategy call there in stage one to pit and got us a bunch of track position.

“On the Stage 2 start, I felt like I was pretty good. Adam came on the radio and said that William [Byron] was running part throttle. I’m at 100%, he’s at 80%. I don’t know; I was pretty close on the short run, then the long run I fell off.

“All in all, 10th is probably about where we stacked up. It was a really hectic day. It is what it is.”

The longest green flag run (230 laps) in nearly 40 years closed out the race, and all three were able to rally forward for their top 10 finishes.

JGR’s Ty Gibbs ran among the top five for most of the day and finished third with Wood Brothers’ Josh Berry and Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen finishing fourth and fifth – quite a tremendous showing for the New Zealander van Gisbergen, who started 29th.

Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon finished seventh, just behind Hamlin. 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, Larson and Bell completed the top 10.

REACTIONS: Ryan Blaney | Chase Elliott | Carson Hocevar | Joey Logano

It all comes down to next Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where Larson arrives as the defending winner and all three championship-eligible drivers have previously hoisted trophies.

Stage 2 recap: William Byron sweeps the stages

William Byron won Stage 2 of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Chase race at Martinsville Speedway, leading every green-flag lap.

Chase Elliott finished second, followed by Ty Gibbs, Ross Chastain and Joey Logano. Bubba Wallace, Josh Berry, Todd Gilliland, Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell rounded out the top 10.

MORE: Stage 2 results | Watch Byron sweep the stages

After winning Stage 1, Byron took four tires and fuel under yellow, refired to the lead on the restart and set sail.

The pit cycle began on Lap 191 with Denny Hamlin pitting from 13th and Chase Briscoe following suit. Bell pitted on Lap 199, just as the first caution for incident of the afternoon occurred. Carson Hocevar went for a spin exiting Turn 4, sliding up the track as Byron passed him to put him a lap down.

But Bell was too fast on pit road, pushing him to the tail end of the field for the next restart. He did, however, remain on the lead lap.

The rest of the drivers who hadn’t pitted in Stage 2, including leader Byron, came down for Goodyear tires and fuel during the yellow. Those who had already pitted took the wave around to return to the lead lap.

The race restarted on Lap 206 with Byron back in the lead and teammate Elliott behind him.

On Lap 215, Joey Logano contacted Bell entering Turn 1, which shot the No. 20 Toyota into teammate Hamlin, sending both cars around. The two Joe Gibbs Racing drivers entered Sunday’s race second and third in points, and while neither suffered major damage, the yellow came while Kyle Larson was in the free-pass position.

Kyle Larson did make a second pit stop under caution to tighten a potentially loose wheel, but it didn’t cause any penalty.

Also during the yellow, Austin Cindric came down pit road for repairs to the front end of his No. 2 Team Penske Ford. On the previous restart, Hocevar brake-checked Cindric, causing major damage. He ultimately went to the garage for more extensive repairs.

The race returned to green on Lap 222, and three laps later, Ryan Preece spun and lost a right-rear wheel. He was running inside the top five and led 41 laps earlier in the event.

With eight laps to go in the stage, Ryan Blaney and Berry made contact battling inside the top 10, resulting in heavy front-end damage for the No. 12 Team Penske Ford. Blaney spun in the next corner, causing a caution that ended Stage 2 prematurely with Byron out in front – earning a dominant stage victory.

Stage 1 recap: William Byron wins opening stage

William Byron won Stage 1 of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Chase race at Martinsville Speedway, leading the last six laps.

Ty Gibbs, Ryan Preece, Christopher Bell and Josh Berry completed the top five. Alex Bowman, Austin Cindric, Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott rounded out the top 10 and points earners.

MORE: Stage 1 results | Watch Byron clinch Stage 1 win

Hamlin led the first two laps from the pole, but he missed a shift on Lap 3 entering Turn 3, letting his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Gibbs wrap the bottom and take the lead. Gibbs led the next 43 circuits in the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, but as the leaders hit lapped traffic, Hamlin snatched the top spot back on Lap 45 with a pass in Turns 1 and 2. Ryan Preece seized the second spot from Gibbs soon after.

Green-flag pit stops began on Lap 62 with Bell coming in for service from 11th. Ryan Blaney pitted on Lap 65, with fellow Chase drivers Elliott, Reddick, Byron and a handful of others following suit. Connor Zilisch was hit with a speeding penalty, forcing an additional trip to pit road in his No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet.

Ty Gibbs was the only driver among the leaders to pit, electing for four tires on Lap 76 while Hamlin, Preece and series leader Kyle Larson stayed on track, remaining intent on making it to the first stage break on the same sets of Goodyear Eagles. Hamlin and Preece navigated lapped traffic in reverse as cars on fresher tires passed them to regain their laps.

On Lap 84, Hamlin got stuck behind lapped cars on the top lane, allowing Preece to dart to the bottom and take his first lead of the afternoon. Preece extended his lead to over seven seconds over Hamlin, but the first cars who pitted had tracked the No. 11 Toyota down. Byron launched into second, with Gibbs passing Hamlin moments later for third. Logano, who was on the same strategy as Hamlin, passed him for fourth, and Hamlin eventually plummeted deep outside the top 10 along with Larson and Chase Briscoe.

Byron passed Preece with six laps to go to claim the segment victory. In the closing moments of the frame, Byron lapped his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Larson; the No. 5 driver was not in the free-pass position to start Stage 2.

Larson entered Sunday’s race 73 points ahead of Hamlin for the series lead and remains in a position to potentially clinch the championship following Sunday’s race.

The first 130 laps were completed caution-free.

NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed in the Cup Series garage with no issues, confirming Byron as the Martinsville winner.

Contributing: Staff report

Posted on by Staff Report

Chris Buescher made his 400th career start in the NASCAR Cup Series after taking the green flag in Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway, the penultimate contest of the 2026 season and The Chase presented by Mobil 1.

The driver of the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford finished the Xfinity 500 in 24th after starting 16th.

RELATED: Race results | Buescher through the years

“It’s kind of went by surprisingly quick. Fortunately, it’s been a lot of fun along the way,” Buescher said Wednesday in a Zoom teleconference. “We’ve been able to improve our outlook on the end of the year on most seasons. With that, it’s a slower progression than maybe would have hoped at times, but certainly been a blast along the way. Pretty wild to sit here and think — it was probably just over 20 years ago sitting in the grandstands at Texas Motor Speedway, watching these races, ‘man, that’d be cool to do one day.’ And now we’re here saying we’ve done 399 of them, so not a bad number.” 

Buescher has competed for RFK since the 2020 season, winning five times with the organization. He had a breakout campaign in 2023 with three victories and set career highs in top fives (nine) and top 10s (17). Buescher made a charge all the way to the Round of 8 in the former playoff postseason format before being eliminated from championship contention at Martinsville that year.

He competed in his first full-time Cup campaign with Front Row Motorsports in 2016 and scored his maiden victory in a fog-shortened race at Pocono Raceway. Buescher then moved over to JTG Daugherty Racing (now Hyak Motorsports) and competed full-time with the team from 2017-2019.

In 2015, Buescher won the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship with RFK, winning two races and recording 20 top-10 finishes en route to the trophy.

While Buescher said he hasn’t had one particular moment that made him say “I’ve made it,” he’s appreciative of the competitive opportunity RFK has given him in his national-series career.

“I feel like we’ve been on pins and needles through a lot of the years,” Buescher said. “Jack [Roush] and everybody at RFK here gave me a massive opportunity a long, long time ago and just want to continue to do well for them, and feel like we’re giving back to that opportunity that was afforded me. The last handful of years have certainly felt like I’ve been able to really put stakes in the ground and hold on around here. It’s been fun to get this thing on the upswing and in a good place, and in a place where we’ve been able to go win a small handful of races, but a handful nonetheless, and in the hunt to win a handful more.” 

Posted on by Holly Cain
MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Carson Kvapil bookended Saturday’s Halloween evening at Martinsville Speedway, leading early and leading late to claim his third NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory of the season — and of his career — in the National Debt Relief 250.

It was a clutch performance for the 23-year-old North Carolinian who won the pole position and led the most laps on the day — 121 of 250 — in the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet to keep himself in the championship conversation heading to Homestead-Miami Speedway next week for the season finale.

Ultimately, Kvapil had to hold off his JRM teammate, Justin Allgaier, for the win, taking the trophy by 0.434 seconds over Allgaier, who leaves Virginia the new championship leader by 22 points over Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love.

Hendrick Motorsports rookie Corey Day was third, joining those three drivers atop the standings and positioning themselves for a thrilling season finale to decide the title.

Allgaier leads Love by 22 points, with Day 23 points back and Kvapil now 31 points out. Haas Factory Team driver Sheldon Creed finished sixth at Martinsville — good enough to keep him in the championship mix. He’s ranked fifth, 42 points behind Allgaier.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Martinsville

“It’s awesome, I knew in practice we had a very fast Chevrolet,’’ said Kvapil, who earned his and crew chief Rodney Childers’ first Martinsville win. “Able to qualify on pole but just kinda had a rough race between the end of Stage 1 and the end of the race there; just kept getting shuffled back.

“But it just really worked out. Just super excited. Winning is always great, but finally getting one at a track I feel like I’m good at is really cool.’’

The series’ championship leader coming into the race, Richard Childress Racing’s Love endured a tough night. Caught on pit road immediately behind an incident cost him positions mid-race, then a tire rub forced him to limp and persevere through Stage 2, where he finished 22nd and was forced to play catch-up. Finally, his car suffered brake trouble with 30 laps to go, crashing and bringing out the race’s 12th and final caution. He finished 30th, dropping him from the lead into second place in the championship.

“Nothing really to process; I feel like I’ve got a good idea of where it started to unravel and what did us in and all the bad stuff and good stuff that happened in between along the way,’’ Love, the reigning O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion, said.

“I’m not really going to study too much about today, it really doesn’t matter. We have obviously one goal and probably for the most part only one avenue, one way to achieve that goal and it brings me a lot of clarity.

“It means unless the [number] seven (Allgaier) has a DNF at Homestead, we’ve got to go and win the race. Obviously, that’s where we do our best work in moments like that.’’

Allgaier, whose 52 laps led Saturday were second only to his teammate Kvapil, is the defending race winner at the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway where the series goes next weekend to settle the championship.

“I think that last set of tires we had to push really hard to get through the field and those cautions didn’t help us out,’’ said Allgaier, noting the six cautions and a nearly 12-minute-long red flag in the final 105-lap run.

As for next week, he smiled and said, “I love the fact we have five [cars] going into Homestead with a shot to be champion. It’s going to make for a great battle. I feel like our team does a really great job. We won there last year. We know how to get around the race track and we know we’ll have speed, we just have to execute.

“If we do all the things we’ve been doing and execute the way we know we can, we keep the points lead.’’

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Brandon Jones finished fourth, followed by Haas Factory Team teammates Sam Mayer and Creed. JRM’s Sammy Smith was seventh, with Joe Gibbs Racing’s William Sawalich, Brent Crews and Taylor Gray rounding out the top 10.

The series heads south to Homestead-Miami Speedway next Saturday for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Championship Race (5 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series garage, confirming Kvapil as the winner.

Posted on by Zack Albert

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Justin Allgaier walked over and grabbed the shoulders of Jesse Love in a consoling show of sympathy for the fright-filled Halloween he’d endured at Martinsville Speedway.

It was a cordial conversation and a show of respect between the two most recent NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champions, who will race it out again for the title in next weekend’s finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. But instead of a 1-on-1 faceoff, the championship-battle reservations are for a party of five.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Martinsville

The top spot in the tour’s standings changed hands with a wild pendulum swing as Love faltered to a 30th-place finish in Saturday’s National Debt Relief 250. The 19-point advantage he carried into the 250-lapper was erased, with Justin Allgaier placing second to JR Motorsports teammate Carson Kvapil and emerging with a 22-point edge.

The multitude of trouble for Love’s No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet team — capped by a Lap 220 crash after brake failure — allowed Allgaier to pass him, but also opened the door for three other title hopefuls to keep their longshot bids alive. Corey Day recovered from an early spin and closed to 23 points off the lead, with Kvapil 31 points back and Sheldon Creed still in the hunt at minus-42.

The jolt to Love’s title defense, however, was the most pronounced, and he insisted that even with the engine still warm from a full day at Martinsville that he was focused forward on the Homestead finale.

“Everybody’s gonna ask me how am I gonna process this, and how long I’m gonna be upset about it, and I’m pretty much already over it,” said Love, who finished nine laps off the pace. “You guys are my last obstacle in the way of putting it behind me, which is fine, but at the end of the day, next week our goal is to become a two-time champion, and in order to do that, obviously winning the race is going to achieve that. So when there is one goal at hand and pretty much one avenue to achieve that goal, there’s a lot of clarity in that moment. So yeah, not going to take a whole lot for me to put this one behind me.”

A boxed-in pit stop in Stage 2 was one of the least of Love’s issues. His car’s right-front tire began to smoke midway through the stage, and he made multiple stops under yellow flags to address a rub and an eventual flat. A broken water line compounded those problems, before his brake pedal finally pressed to the floor with 30 laps remaining, sending the No. 2 Chevy looping into the Turn 1 retaining wall.

MORE: Hear from Allgaier | Hear from Day

Allgaier, meanwhile, was rock-solid on a night when Kvapil’s pole-starting No. 1 Chevrolet was the field’s best. The 40-year-old veteran led 52 laps and padded his points stockpile with a Stage 1 win and a runner-up effort in Stage 2.

Like Love, Allgaier has the chance to become a multi-time champ, matching the crown he earned in 2024 and adding the finishing touch to one of his finest seasons. It’s an opportunity he welcomes as he heads into the later years of his career, and he made sure to tell his No. 7 JRM crew he loved them during a red-flag break in the final stage.

“It’s always good to be the points leader,” said Allgaier, a six-time winner this year. “At the same time, you would love to be farther ahead. You’d love to have a 70-point lead and go in there and not have to worry about it, but either way, I’m proud of the team, proud of the effort. I think that Homestead’s a great race track for us. Obviously, getting the win there last year and just the speed that we’ve had there. You know, this team, I’m so proud of the effort, and I’m disappointed for my guys that we didn’t get the job done. But it’s hard to be disappointed at JR Motorsports 1-2.”

Day stands as the next-closest title challenger after an outing that began with his No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in a five-car pileup before the first stage was finished. With minimal damage, he rallied to lead 24 laps and come home third, just behind Allgaier.

A triumph would highlight a breakout four-win campaign in his first full O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season, and he foresees winning in his first-ever trip to Homestead as a requirement.

“I’d say we have a pretty good chance,” Day said. “I’d say we’re in a must-win. I don’t really see the 7 running worse than top five there, for sure. So yeah, a must-win’s OK, though. I like that. I like those odds. It’s better than being out of it entirely.”

Love said he shares the must-win mentality, especially after a fit of Martinsville mayhem.

“It does change it a little bit, right?” Love said of his approach to the finale, “because unless the 7 has a DNF, right, and then it’s between me and the 17, you’re going to have to win the race to win the championship. So funny how that works out. But you know, regardless, I feel that there’s a lot of, again, clarity mentally when you show up the race track with that mindset, and I feel like our team will do a great job in a moment like that. So yeah, just put our eggs in one basket, go to Homestead with a chance to win, and prepare to do so, and I feel very confident in that moment.”

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Riley Herbst plans to run the full distance of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway despite an injury to his left wrist suffered in a crash last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, 23XI Racing confirmed on Saturday.

Herbst qualified 27th in the No. 35 Toyota for Sunday’s Xfinity 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

MORE: Martinsville lineup | At-track photos: Martinsville

Herbst’s left wrist and forearm remain wrapped after being involved in a late wreck in the YellaWood 500. On Lap 183, Joey Logano’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford broke loose and ignited a multicar wreck, during which Herbst hit the outside hard and ricocheted into the inside SAFER barrier, ending his day with a 26th-place finish. Herbst exited the car gingerly with assistance from the AMR Safety Team and was released from the infield care center.

At Martinsville, Herbst said he remains sore from head to toe and that his body is still stiff, but he is intent on competing in the penultimate race of the 2026 season. Team co-owner Denny Hamlin noted, however, that Harrison Burton is on standby if needed.

“I think that Riley’s gonna attempt to run,” Hamlin said Saturday morning. “I’ll let him talk about the medical side of things, but it’s, really, I think it’s a pain-tolerance thing for him and I suspect he’ll try to get it done this weekend.”

Herbst confirmed he tore a ligament in his left forearm but managed to complete 113 laps in Saturday’s practice session in addition to his two qualifying laps.

“I got lucky in that we tore part of the ligament that doesn’t need surgery,” Herbst told NASCAR.com and FOX Sports Saturday. “If I tore it on the other side of the ligament, it would have been done for 12 weeks, and we would have needed surgery. So, got lucky in that sense. Well, I got lucky in all the sense of it to walk away from that. So, yeah. Now it’s just about mitigating pain for nine weeks. …

“It’s all going to be about pain mitigation. Talked to a bunch of hand surgeons across the country, and they all had the same conclusion.”

Herbst admitted the last week was “scary,” particularly as he reflected on the incident itself.

“I don’t know if race car drivers are supposed to say scary, but usually wrecks, they happen within a blink of an eye, a snap of a finger, and that’s how that first hit was,” Herbst said. “I didn’t even know it happened by the time it happened. But the second one, I had I think I calculated two-and-a-half seconds to look at the wall and stare at it. So yeah, that’s the worst part of the whole ordeal.

“First hit, obviously, I don’t want to hit the wall at 160 [mph], so I hit the brake pedal and went to the floor and tried to downshift to slow it that way, and I was willing to kind of hurt my motor to try to take some of the impact. But the transaxle and drivetrain was already out of it after that hit, so I couldn’t downshift it either, and so I was kind of just along for the ride.”

The No. 35 Toyota that Herbst raced at Talladega was brought back to the NASCAR Research and Development Center in Concord, North Carolina, for further evaluation following the incident. Herbst said: “Visually, it’s rough inside the cockpit, but I think everything did its job.”

The 27-year-old Las Vegas native stepped aside for the August race at Daytona International Speedway after dealing with lingering effects from a crash the week prior at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Herbst confirmed the next week that he had suffered a concussion. Burton drove the No. 35 Toyota at Daytona to a 12th-place finish.

Herbst sits 30th in the Cup standings in 33 starts with a career-high three top-10 finishes. With Corey Heim taking over 23XI Racing’s third full-time entry in 2027, Herbst is moving to Legacy Motor Club next season, where he will drive the No. 84 Toyota in 2027.

Contributing: Staff report

Posted on by Zack Albert

Track: Martinsville Speedway
Location: Martinsville, Virginia
Track length: 0.526 miles
When: 2 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,233,037
Race distance: 500 laps | 263 miles
Stages: 130 | 260 | 500

Sunday’s starting lineup | Pit stall assignments

Signs of the season: Fall color, high postseason stakes

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Martinsville Speedway in the fall has often synced with seasonal traditions — autumn leaves, frost-on-the-pumpkin weather and on some given years, the spooky Halloween scenes that spanned Friday and Saturday preliminaries.

From a racing standpoint, for the second of the NASCAR Cup Series’ two annual visits, it’s meant pressure and in the previous postseason format, eliminations. Though it’s the first year of The Chase presented by Mobil 1 structure, some elements of the former playoff system still apply.

A more clearly drawn picture of the battle lines for this year’s Cup Series championship will be decided after Sunday’s Xfinity 500, the next-to-last race of the season. In previous years in the bracket-style playoff format, Martinsville hosted the race that decided the final four title contenders competing for the Bill France Cup in the season finale. Which championship-eligible drivers will square off in next weekend’s curtain-closer at Homestead-Miami Speedway will still be determined at Martinsville, but also how many of the seven who are still clinging to a mathematical chance.

RELATED: Weekend schedule | At-track photos: Martinsville

That number could be just one. Kyle Larson built a commanding 73-point lead after prevailing in dramatic fashion at Talladega Superspeedway last weekend, notching his third win in what’s been a nearly flawless Chase run. His only blip through eight of the 10 postseason races came in a Phoenix DNF, and avoiding a repeat performance could put the championship out of reach.

“Just continuing to do what we have been doing here throughout The Chase,” Larson said of his Sunday objectives. “We are executing at a really good level and having a solid day from start to finish. That is the hope. You never know how it is going to go. Obviously, there are some really good drivers here, so I don’t anticipate clinching anything. I just want to have a good day and not give up too much before next week.”

Larson will start in a promising spot, placing third in Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session. He’ll be sandwiched between a pair of Joe Gibbs Racing aces in front of him with Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs occupying the front row, and two Team Penske drivers behind him with Joey Logano and Austin Cindric going fourth and fifth in that order.

Saturday marked Hamlin’s series-leading sixth pole position this season, plus his second consecutive and sixth overall at Martinsville, where he is a six-time Cup winner over the course of his career. After claiming the first starting spot, he emphasized that execution will be crucial while acknowledging “the chance is very, very slim,” even with help to erase his 73-point gap. “Obviously, I’m gonna be as aggressive as I can without, you know, being ridiculous,” Hamlin said.

For the rest of the remaining Chase hopefuls, the urgency is also real.

“Oh, we’re 100 (points) out. It’s all or nothing,” said Logano, a three-time champ who slots fifth in the standings. “If you want to win the championship, it’s you must win, and you must win two in a row, and that’s even needing some help on the other end. So yeah, you’re all or nothing. It’s Hail Mary. It’s all you’ve got. You know, if the goal is to win the championship, which it is, it’s going to take a lot to make it happen.”

MORE: Saturday qualifying recap | Cup Series standings

Sunday’s showdown will be a 500-lap affair, 100 laps longer than the springtime event won by Chase Elliott. That result was aided by savvy pit strategy, which should factor again into the high-stakes outcome.

The other major change in the seven months since the circuit’s last Martinsville visit is in the rules, which mandated the removal of energy-absorbing foam in the bumpers to soften the often-jarring impacts from contact, restart bumps and other stack-ups on short tracks.  That rules change, issued in June, promises to make those commonplace bump-ups at the tight 0.526-mile oval less harsh, but with a greater risk of damage since the crush factor increases.

“I’m going to have my spotter remind me of that all day,” said Christopher Bell, 74 points back in third. “That is a super-critical thing that has the potential to be a really big change for Martinsville. The way the restarts happen and the stack-ups, it’s going to have a really big impact on the race. Making sure that you’re mindful of that is going to be mission critical. I think it’s going to be a talking point for sure.”

The Cup Series field makes the rounds at Martinsville Speedway during the 2026 Cook Out 400, with views of the hillsides on the backstretch.
Jacob Kupferman | Getty Images

Seek the streak

Consistency sometimes comes in short supply at Martinsville Speedway, where finding a rhythm is a prerequisite and trouble can derail even the strongest runs. One driver, however, has set the recent standard when it comes to collecting top-10 finishes in bunches.

Joey Logano has assembled a brilliant string of top 10s at the tricky short track, spanning two generations of Cup Series cars, leading all active drivers and taking aim at three all-time greats here. The three-time champ is tied with Hall of Famer Lee Petty, and only Jimmie Johnson (17 straight top 10s here from 2002 to 2010) and Jeff Gordon (15 straight from 2003 to 2010) are ahead of him. How Logano and other current drivers stack up at Martinsville:

DriverTop-10 streakBest finish during streak
Joey Logano142nd (twice)
Kyle Larson81st (April 2023)
Chase Elliott51st (March 2026)
Christopher Bell32nd (March 2025)
Ryan Blaney22nd (Oct. 2025)
William Byron21st (Oct. 2025)
Josh Berry210th (twice)

Speed reads

Race-day essentials:

• Martinsville hub: Weekend information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more
• Sunday Setup: Crew chiefs sticking to the Martinsville plan | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh looks for fall in the Virginia hills | View gallery
• Neil Paine: How Larson’s pursuers can close in at Martinsville | Read more
• NASCAR Classics: Rewind with full-race replays from the Martinsville archives | Watch now
• Power Rankings: Larson a clear No. 1 with Chase field on his heels | This week’s ranks

Posted on by Staff Report

The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Martinsville Speedway on Sunday (2 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where a group of six hungry Chase presented by Mobil 1 drivers hope to pump the brakes on Kyle Larson’s championship clinch.

After Larson’s victory at Talladega Superspeedway last week – his third of the postseason – the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports driver heads to the hills of southern Virginia with a 73-point advantage over Denny Hamlin. If Larson scores 59 points in the Xfinity 500, no matter how his competitors fare, he’ll be crowned his third Bill France Cup and second in a row next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway as long as he starts the race.

RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos: Martinsville

Larson is rock solid at the 0.526-mile Hendrick stronghold, but many of his championship peers also have strong numbers at the iconic short track. Drivers like Hamlin, Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe need victories to maintain any hope at the championship, meaning all bets are off over 500 laps of close-quarters racing.

See drivers to keep an eye on for the penultimate race of the 2026 season, as well as Racing Insights’ full race projections.

DRIVERS TO WATCH

KYLE LARSON: To beat the defending series champion, you’re gonna have to knock him out – and Martinsville is a hard place to do that. Larson’s finished inside the top 10 in each of the last eight races at “The Paperclip,” including an April 2023 win. He owns an average finish of 5.8 in nine Next Gen starts, and that Martinsville success has translated to other short tracks as of late. Larson’s finished top 10 in 11 of the last 15 races at this track type, including a P6 finish at Richmond Raceway over the summer that, in hindsight, kickstarted his stellar Chase run. He’s just one of three drivers all time with seven top-six finishes in the first eight postseason races, and a strong run Sunday could strengthen his grasp on yet another Cup Series championship.

DENNY HAMLIN: The Chase certainly hasn’t gone to plan for this grizzled veteran, but a victory at Martinsville — one of his best tracks — could extend the title conversation one more week. Hamlin’s six wins in Ridgeway, Virginia, are most among all active drivers, and he owns a total of 15 short-track triumphs. He’s the only driver who has finished inside the top 10 in all six short-track races thus far on the schedule. Hamlin has led north of 3,000(!) laps at Martinsville, his most among all tracks, and has top fives in five of the last six races. The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing driver needs to be within 22 points of Larson to control his own destiny come Homestead-Miami Speedway.

JOEY LOGANO: This year’s short-track king is hungry for one more to cap the 2026 season. Each of Logano’s three victories this year has come at this track type, starting with a summer North Wilkesboro Speedway dub that all but turned his season around. Logano has finished inside the top 10 in the last 14 Martinsville races, the third-longest streak in track history, and has never recorded a DNF in 35 starts. Sunday marks his 650th career start, and another win would make the No. 22 Team Penske driver just the second to win on the day he celebrated that milestone (Richard Petty, Dover, 1974). Logano remains mathematically eligible to win the championship, but at 100 points back, Racing Insights pegs his odds for a fourth title at just 0.1%.

FULL PROJECTED RESULTS FOR XFINITY 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC)

POSITIONNUMBER DRIVER
111Denny Hamlin
25Kyle Larson
39Chase Elliott
412Ryan Blaney
522Joey Logano
624William Byron
720Christopher Bell
860Ryan Preece
954Ty Gibbs
1019Chase Briscoe
111Ross Chastain
122Austin Cindric
1323Bubba Wallace
1421Josh Berry
1545Tyler Reddick
1648Alex Bowman
176Brad Keselowski
1877Carson Hocevar
193Austin Dillon
2034Todd Gilliland
217Daniel Suárez
2297Shane van Gisbergen
2317Chris Buescher
2471Michael McDowell
2538Zane Smith
2641Cole Custer
2788Connor Zilisch
2843Erik Jones
2916AJ Allmendinger
304Noah Gragson
3147Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
3233Austin Dillon
3342John Hunter Nemechek
3410Ty Dillon
3535Riley Herbst
3651Cody Ware
3766Josh Bilicki
Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Kyle Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team led by crew chief Cliff Daniels are under no false illusions: One whale of a fight still lies ahead if they’d like to clinch the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series championship.

Ahead of Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Daniels was met in the media center alongside the leaders of the three-headed monster of Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas he’s trying to fend off: No. 11 team leader Chris Gayle, No. 20 crew chief Adam Stevens and No. 19 shot-caller James Small.

MORE: Starting lineup | At-track photos: Martinsville

The playbook for the JGR trio is simply to attack with its fleet of Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe. Out front, Daniels is emphasizing another clear direction for Larson and Co.: Don’t let up now.

“Our game plan hasn’t changed a lot the last handful of weeks, even with the ups and downs, and I think that that’s probably true for all of us sitting here,” Daniels said. “We’ve all seen, and we’re all very aware of how quickly the points can swing. So every week, you’ve just got to be focused on maximizing your day and whatever that’s going to take. This is certainly a race where the 11 (Hamlin) can go lead all 500 laps, and we’ve still got to have a strong day. So our game plan really hasn’t changed much.”

Gayle, Hamlin and the No. 11 team are the closest within range to put heat on Larson’s back bumper, but even they are a distant 73 points back entering Sunday’s 500-lapper. The good news is they have quickly found success together in their three races at Martinsville: one win (2025 spring), a second-place finish (2026 spring) and a staggering amount of laps led (274 in 2025 spring; 292 in 2026 spring). Gayle’s job is to deliver another Toyota Hamlin’s way, packed with the feel Hamlin needs to effectively navigate Martinsville’s 0.526-mile layout.

“When I came over in ‘25, he thought he was in a spot where he didn’t have exactly what he needs, so it was an opportunity to kind of experiment with something a little different, which we obviously did out of the gate,” Gayle said. “And I think we’ve just kind of exploited what we’ve done there more each time, and I think that direction has been correct for us. But yeah, definitely. I mean, from our perspective, it’s a really clear (goal): Go get all the points, be as aggressive as possible to stay in contention going into next week.”

The Goodyear Racing tires used this weekend are the same ones utilized in each of the last two Martinsville races. Larson has fifth- and ninth-place finishes on this tire at Martinsville; Hamlin’s runner-up effort in the spring was preceded by a blown engine last fall.

Larson and Daniels have been quite strong at the 0.526-mile oval, rattling off eight consecutive top-10 finishes. But Daniels is still hesitant to rely on that past success, especially considering this right-side tire is the same compound that was used at Phoenix Raceway on Oct. 18, when the No. 5 team suffered its worst race of The Chase at Phoenix Raceway, averaging a 23rd-place running position before crashing with a flat tire.

“Gosh, Phoenix was such a bad miss for us that you still always have that asterisk of the short-track package on this tire,” Daniels said. “And we’ve certainly had a decent notebook here at Martinsville for a while. Our teammates have been strong. The 9 (Chase Elliott) and the 24 (William Byron) have been really strong here historically and consistently. And we’ve also consistently been a top-10 car. So we’re not straying too far from home [on car setup]. Still have to evolve as the sport does, as the field does of things that you learn and apply. So yeah, we’ll see, but certainly trying to put it all together this weekend.”

The No. 11 team is thinking about the next steps forward as well. Those adaptations proved to work well in Saturday’s qualifying session as Hamlin wheeled the No. 11 Toyota to the Busch Light Pole Award, his second pole of The Chase and sixth of the season. Larson will start third.

“If you bring back the exact same thing, typically that doesn’t work well for you, right?” Gayle said. “You knew regardless of how many laps you led (in the spring), we didn’t win the race, and there were things we could still improve on. And so you’re always looking to find setup changes, tweaks that improve those things that you still need help with, right? And so I think that’s been our big focus.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell was a mere five points behind Larson when he climbed into his No. 20 Toyota last week at Talladega Superspeedway — poised to keep the defending series champ honest and hopeful this may well be the year he hoisted a NASCAR Cup Series championship trophy.

But a pit-road miscue early in the Talladega race put him down a half dozen laps and forced a day of playing catch-up while Larson pulled off an amazing overtime victory, passing 11 cars on the final lap for his first-ever superspeedway win. Bell finished 35th and now trails Larson by 74 points entering Sunday’s penultimate Chase presented by Mobil 1 race at Martinsville Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos: Martinsville

The upside, however, is the way Bell’s team has handled the disappointment and turned it into “no-pressure” motivation for this final two-race run on the season.

“Last week was a trying moment for our team,’’ Bell said Saturday at Martinsville. “I was really happy with how we all came together. It would have been really easy to tear each other down in that moment and none of us did. I was really proud of our group for last week and how we handled it.”

And, he added, “It’s certainly a mentality shift. Where we are at now, we know that the only way forward is to go out here and win two stages and a race and go to Homestead and win two stages and a race. In reality, we have nothing to lose, so now the pressure is off. It’s just a matter of going out there and throwing Hail Marys. We’re to that point now, so that’s what we are going to do.

“Just the way we all handled it was remarkable.’’

Bell won the 2022 Martinsville fall race, was a runner-up in the 2025 spring race and has had seventh-place finishes here in the last two races. He’s also a former winner (2023) with four top-11 finishes in six starts at the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway, where the series goes to conclude the season next week.

Posted on by Holly Cain

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin claimed the Busch Light Pole Award for Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), giving the championship contender a single-season, career-high six poles and at least the green-flag advantage on the field with two races remaining to determine the NASCAR Cup Series title.

Hamlin’s No. 11 JGR Toyota turned in a 98.492 mph lap around the historic 0.526-mile oval nestled among the southern Virginia fall foliage Saturday afternoon, just bettering his JGR teammate, Ty Gibbs, in the No. 54 JGR Toyota by 0.049 seconds.

Five of Hamlin’s last six race victories have come from pole position, and his work Saturday puts him in front of the seven drivers still mathematically title-eligible.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson (98.114 mph), who leads the standings by 73 points over Hamlin, will roll off third in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Team Penske Ford teammates Austin Cindric (97.987 mph) and championship-eligible Joey Logano (97.962 mph) round out the top-five qualifiers.

RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos: Martinsville

“It always makes strategy easier when you’ve qualified up front,” said the 45-year-old Virginian, who now has six career poles at his home-state track and 54 in his decorated career.

“I felt very good about it,” Hamlin said of the fast lap. “I knew coming off Turn four it was enough, and it’s a really good feeling.”

Hamlin has six victories at Martinsville — most among active drivers. His last came in the spring 2025 race. He started from pole position and finished runner-up to Chase Elliott, Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, this spring.

“That was a great lap, truthfully hit all the marks I wanted to hit and the car did all the things I needed it to do on that first lap,” Hamlin said. “Really great job by the race team, great adjustments there, and we’ll see what we’ve got tomorrow.

“We’re going to give it all we’ve got, and all we’ve got is all we’ve got. I wish I had a little bit more, but we just need to control our own destiny tomorrow, and that’s getting the best day we can and let all the chips fall from there.”

Larson won at Martinsville in 2023 and is on a streak of eight consecutive top-10 finishes there, including runner-up showings in 2022 and 2024.

“It was solid. I was hopeful for the lap time to show a little faster,” Larson said of his qualifying work. “Happy to start on the first couple rows and hopefully we can stay in the hunt all day.

“I think everybody else is convinced that we’re going to lock it up here this weekend, but to me, I don’t look at it that way. Obviously Denny’s starting ahead of me, and he’s really, really good here, and was a point away from a max points day earlier this year.

“I’m more looking at how to keep it up front to leave myself a buffer for next week. We’ll see how the race plays out, but that’s kind of my mindset. But Denny’s definitely a much better short track racer than me. So just trying to stay in the hunt.

RFK Racing driver Ryan Preece (97.896 mph) was sixth fastest, followed by Hendrick teammates Alex Bowman (97.840 mph), defending race winner William Byron (97.770 mph) and Elliott (97.714 mph). Wood Brothers Racing’s Josh Berry (97.709 mph) rounded out the top 10.

Hamlin’s JGR teammates Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell round out the top four in the championship standings and will start 11th and 14th on the grid. They are 79 (Briscoe) and 74 (Bell) points off Larson’s pace.

Practice recap

Ryan Preece paced the field in Saturday’s 50-minute session to kick off on-track activity for the Cup Series this weekend. He put down a quick time of 96.612 mph in the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford.

Ford claimed the top three spots with Josh Berry (96.224 mph) and Todd Gilliland (95.927 mph). Ty Gibbs (95.898 mph) and Ross Chastain (95.854 mph) rounded out the top five. Denny Hamlin (95.801 mph), Carson Hocevar (95.757 mph), Chase Elliott (95.690 mph), Michael McDowell (95.641 mph) and Christopher Bell (95.627 mph) completed the top 10 in practice.

MORE: Practice results

Larson struggled in practice and was only 29th fastest with a 94.822 mph best lap and was not close to the top 10 in any consecutive lap average charts.

Chastain had the best 10- and 15-consecutive lap average, while Hocevar topped the board in 20- and 25-consecutive lap average.