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Today, the best drivers in the world took to the paperclip, Martinsville Speedway, to determine who would race for a championship at Phoenix Raceway next week and who would be left bitterly out of the hunt. There were many storylines heading into today’s race. Chief among them was Hendrick Motorsports. Prior to today’s race, HMS had only 1 driver inside the top-4, that driver being William Byron. Meanwhile, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson were on the outside looking in and more-or-less in must-win territory. But the team managed a 1-2-3 finish at Martinsville in the Spring. Could they continue that dominance today?
In the Toyota camp, 23XI Racing driver, Tyler Reddick won his way in last weekend at Homestead-Miami. His team owner, Denny Hamlin, found himself in a must-win situation while his JGR teammate, Christopher Bell, was sitting pretty in the top-4 in points.
Of the two Fords, Joey Logano advanced with a win to open the Round of 8 at Las Vegas. At the same time, defending champion, Ryan Blaney, needed to win today in Martinsville in order to defend his title.
How did these NASCAR Playoff heavyweights fare in today’s race at the paperclip? Who made the Championship 4 and who was left on the outside looking in? Let’s talk about it. Here are your championship 4:
For it being an even-numbered year, Joey Logano has struggled. While, yes, he has a couple of wins, he hasn’t shown the speed and consistency throughout the year to back up him being a championship favorite. That said, he was able to win at the right time at Las Vegas, punching his ticket into the Championship race at Phoenix next week. That, at the very least, shows some validity in the superstition of Joey Logano’s even-numbered year blessing (or curse?).
Here’s his 2024 season at a glance: 3 wins (not including the All-Star Race win), 6 top-5s, and only 11 top-10s. The only thing that’s really in Logano’s favor is that Team Penske has been really good on short, flat ovals so far this year. Logano won the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro, a small, flat oval, and he performed really well at Richmond, Iowa, and Gateway. Do you think Logano will rise to the occasion and capture his third Cup Series title next week at Phoenix?
Tyler Reddick being in this position should surprise no one. Yes, 23XI is still a relatively new team, but that number 45 crew, in particular, has been crazily consistent throughout 2024. So consistent, in fact, that he won the regular season championship. That said, his performance has cooled down somewhat throughout these playoffs. That was until last week at Homestead, where he won on a barnburner of a last lap against fellow championship hopefuls Ryan Blaney and Denny Hamlin.
As stated before, Reddick has been a heavy hitter all season long. In 2024, he has 3 wins, 12 top-5s, and 20 top-10s. Can he ride the momentum he found in Mami into Phoenix to capture his first championship? Only time will tell. This is his first Championship 4 appearance.
Defending series champion Ryan Blaney advanced to the 2024 Championship 4 in dramatic fashion. On a late-race strategy play, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, and William Byron stayed out to gain the upper hand on their competition. Larson led for a little bit before being overtaken by teammate Chase Elliott. But those to HMS cars could not hold off Blaney on his fresher tires. Blaney took the lead with less than 20 laps to go and rode it straight to the race victory.
Blaney has had an up-and-down 2024 season. That said, he seems to have found that spark from last year in the Playoffs. Martinsville was his third win this season and, like his teammate, he tends to do very well on short, flat ovals. Will Blaney be able to capitalize on this momentum to win his second Cup Series title in a row? It’s far from impossible.
The most controversial member of this year’s Championship 4 is William Byron. Byron ended tonight’s race at Martinsville on the outside looking in, having lost his spot to Christopher Bell. But there was controversy there which led to us not knowing for sure who the final transfer driver was. NASCAR took several minutes to review footage and radio communications between the Chevrolet drivers of Byron, Austin Dillon, and Ross Chastain, and that of Christopher Bell and Bubba Wallace.
As the laps wound down, Byron was in by one point over Bell. On TV, Byron had both Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon breathing down his neck but not passing him. When NASCAR reviewed their radios, they found that neither Chastain nor Dillon were trying 100% to pass Byron, knowing that if they did, Chevy would miss the Championship 4 entirely. That dangerously flirts with race manipulation. Meanwhile, in the Toyota camp, Bubba Wallace had some conveniently-timed issue on the last lap. This led to Bell overdriving to pass Wallace which sent the 20 into the wall…where he presumed to ride up there, foot on the accelerator. The wall-ride, or “Hail Melon” is a well-documented no-no in the NASCAR rule book.
After reviewing the footage, NASCAR ruled in favor of Byron, citing Bell’s wall ride as a safety hazard. So, in the end, William Byron will race in the Championship 4 next weekend at Phoenix. Is it well deserved? That’s debatable. But he sure will be looking to capitalize come next week.
Chase Elliott knew going into today’s race that he pretty much had to win to advance. At first, it looked promising. He started on the outside pole and ran down and passed Martin Truex Jr. to capture the lead. He then went on to win the first stage. But then he had a pit stop that he never 100% recovered from. The jackman put the car down on the right side so the right rear tire changer couldn’t get the right rear lugnut tightened. He had to re-jack the car up on the right side to correct the mistake, costing the 9 team valuable time on pit road.
This put the 9-team behind, meaning that they needed to pull a strategy move in order to win this race and advance to the Championship 4…and it almost worked. The three HMS drivers of Elliott, Larson, and Byron stayed out during the last pit cycle to assume the lead. Elliott nudged Larson out of the way but couldn’t hold onto the point position as Blaney passed him with fresher tires. Elliott went on to finish second but failed to advance to the Championship 4.
Despite only having one win on the year, Chase has had a very good season. He’s run well in the stages and has earned 11 top-5 finishes and 17 top-10s. Unfortunately, he’ll have to wait another year to chase his second Cup Series title.
Denny Hamlin hasn’t seemed like himself this year. He has seemed…distracted, which was predictable when he started a race team in the first place. He was in a must-win situation and he never really was in contention to win. He was quiet. He was running okay for much of the day but he wasn’t going to win. He was never that big of a threat.
The silver lining for Hamlin is that his driver, Tyler Reddick, is racing for a championship next week. So, he can cheer his driver on from the cockpit of his own FedEx No. 11…or, he can go out and try to win the race himself to somehow salvage his late-season collapse.
Hamlin ends this race with 3 wins, 12 top-5s, and 18 top-10s. He’ll look to capture his first title again in 2025 at the age of 45. But how many more years will he have left on a competitive level?
Like Hamlin, Larson wasn’t really talked about a whole lot today. He didn’t need to win but it certainly would have helped. And, the way the cards were dealt, he was on the outside when the checkered flag flew. He managed to lead some laps in the final stage due to pit strategy, but he did nor his teammate Chase Elliott were able to hold off on eventual race winner Ryan Blaney.
Despite this unceremonious exit from the NASCAR Playoffs, Larson has had a good year. He’s won 6 races and earned 14 top-5 finishes and 17 top-10s. The biggest problem Larson faced was inconsistency. If he wasn’t winning, more often than not he was spinning out or wrecking. That’s something he and his team can work on heading into the 2025 season. No doubt they’ll be in contention again next year.
It was an uncharacteristically bad day for the driver of the JGR No 20 Toyota, Christopher Bell. All season long, Bell has been one of the favorites to win the championship, especially after his wins early in the season. After a small dip in performance, the 20 team showed up once again with a string of top-5 finishes as of late. Heading into Martinsville, he was the only driver who looked fairly safe to make it on points. All the number 20 team needed to do was keep his nose clean and stay out of trouble. They couldn’t do it.
They battled handling issues all day and one very slow pit stop. He got trapped a lap down by around the mid-way point of the race and never was able to regain that lap. He was racing in the bottom half of the top 20 in the closing laps of the race. That was when he made his vital mistake. As Bubba Wallace slowed down on his outside, Bell dove low to pass the 23 for position. This sent him up into the marble which slid him into the wall. From there, it seemed that Bell gunned the throttle and basically pulled off a baby Hail Melon.
The move initially put him in a points tie with William Byron. But Bell held the tiebreaker. After a long, confusing stretch of NASCAR reviewing footage, data, and radio communications, it was this mistake that ultimately took Bell out of the Championship. NASCAR banned wall rides in 2022, citing it a safety hazard. This took Bell out of the Championship 4 and put William Byron in.
Despite this, Bell has had a great year. He’s won 3 races, finished inside the top-5 14 times and the top-10 22 times. He will be looking to build on this heading into the 2025 season.
That does it in Martinsville, Daily Downforce readers. The Championship 4 is set! How did your bracket do? How many did you get right and how many did you get wrong? Of the four, who do you think will go on to win the championship next week at Phoenix? What do you make of the controversial finish? Let us know!
Be sure to keep it right here at DailyDownforce.com for all the latest in the world of NASCAR. Only one week left! So with that, we look forward to Phoenix.
