Playoff intensity, rivalries set to escalate at Martinsville
For just the third time in its storied history, Martinsville Speedway will set the table for who earns the right to race for a Cup Series championship at Phoenix Raceway.
While the Virginia short track had been a turning point late in the season for championship hopefuls in the past, it’s now the last obstacle that stands between drivers and a bid at the big trophy.
With on-track intensity likely to reach a peak Sunday as three spots remain up for grabs among seven drivers, tempers will flare as competitors try to navigate near each other in the close-quarters action for 500 laps around the 0.522-mile oval. Martinsville is a top venue for rivalries to spark and there are a handful of current rivalries between drivers looking for their golden ticket to the title.
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The freshest of the conflicts this season actually began in the middle of the playoffs.
Denny Hamlin and William Byron exchanged unpleasantries after on-track disagreements last month at Texas Motor Speedway. After Byron believed Hamlin ran his No. 24 Chevrolet into the wall, Byron spun Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota under caution, which initially resulted in a points penalty for Byron. Byron’s penalty was later amended, helping him secure a Round of 8 bid.
While the two championship-eligible drivers haven’t had a run-in since Texas, Martinsville serves as the perfect venue if Hamlin were to pay back Byron. And payback may be in the cards for Hamlin as he’s directly beneath Byron on the Champ 4 elimination line by five points.
The fall edition of the Martinsville race has been the event where Hamlin’s been spotlighted for some extra-curricular activities.
Most recently, and arguably, the most notorious, Hamlin’s post-checkered flag joust with Alex Bowman.
After getting spun in the closing laps in last season’s penultimate race, Hamlin met Bowman at the start-finish line in a confrontation that led to the two cars going nose-to-nose in an all-time staredown.
In his post-race interview, Hamlin referred to Bowman as a “hack,” which the driver of the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 turned into merchandise.
Prior incidents involving Hamlin included a scrum with fellow playoff driver Chase Elliott in 2017, when Hamlin spun the then-driver of the No. 24 with less than three laps to go, and a post-race altercation with Joey Logano in 2019 after the two made contact on track.
While Logano is already locked into the Championship 4 after his win two weeks ago at Las Vegas. Elliott, the 2020 champion and this year’s championship favorite, only holds an 11-point advantage above Hamlin on the elimination line. The Hendrick duo and Hamlin will certainly be must-watch TV on Sunday.
In two of the last four years, the eventual Cup champion won the Martinsville fall race.
Logano did so in 2018 after a back-and-forth battle for the lead with Martin Truex Jr. in the closing laps. With the No. 22 Team Penske Ford running second, Logano put the bumper to Truex’s then-No. 78 Toyota and outdueled Truex to the checkered flag, setting up his crowning achievement at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
After multiple years of Round of 8 shortcomings early in his Cup career, Elliott broke the semi-final woes in 2020 at Martinsville with a dominant performance as he led 236 of 500 laps en route to his first Championship 4 appearance. His maiden championship race culminated in his first Cup title.
Martinsville Speedway already speaks for itself regardless of when it hits the NASCAR schedule but when combined with the playoff atmosphere and the last-chance attempts by drivers to secure their spot for a title opportunity, there are very few venues in sports that can match the level of intensity competitors will be at when they exit pit road and turn laps around the half-mile short track.
The Xfinity 500 is scheduled for Sunday at 2 p.m. ET. The race will be broadcast on NBC and can be listened to on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
