Ryan Blaney gets 4th in the championship with win at Martinsville

It was déjà vu all over again for Ryan Blaney and the No. 12 Team Penske team on Sunday in the NASCAR Cup Series Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway. Blaney was able to overcome a huge gap of more than five seconds to Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott with about 55 laps remaining in the race. Blaney would push past Elliott to take the lead with 15 laps remaining and he would never look back.

Blaney, the reigning series champion, beat Elliott by 2.593 seconds to secure the Championship 4 spot in next weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series championship race at Phoenix Raceway. As he did last season, Blaney secured a spot in Championship 4 after a disappointing second-place finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

RACE RESULTS: NASCAR Series Xfinity 500 at Martinsville
CONNECTED: NASCAR Cup Series playoff standings after Martinsville

The level of attention his No. 12 team continues to devote to these elimination races, a week before the huge upset, has Blaney feeling good about the group he is part of.

“Yeah, I mean, it was a week, I don’t know, the Homestead race last week where it looked like we had a chance to get to Phoenix, and that definitely upset us on Sunday,” Blaney admitted in an interview. . his post-race press conference. “Our group did a great job, Monday morning we’re going to come back and do our job and figure out what we need to do to win Martinsville. That’s exactly how this team works. That’s why I’m really proud to be part of this group.”

Now, as he did last season, Blaney will bring his greatest momentum to Phoenix Raceway, a track where Team Penske has hoisted the Bill France Cup in each of the last two seasons. Blaney knows his team will be ready to bring home Roger Penske’s third straight championship.

“I definitely believe in momentum,” Blaney said. “I believe in confidence and all that. I think it’s the same as last year, right? You will carry it over to next week.”

Blaney continued: “This team is really ready for this. Hopefully we can carry the momentum we got last year by winning this race into next week, so…”

Blaney will join Team Penske teammate Joey Logano, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick and Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron, who was the other driver to win the Championship 4 on Sunday night at Martinsville.

While Byron was able to pin the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in Championship 4 with a sixth-place finish, the team fell just short of a second car to compete in the championship race in its 40th anniversary season.

The driver, who has three wins in the first eight races of the season, heads into next weekend’s championship race on a 27-race losing streak. However, Byron has really come to life over the last six races, as he has finished sixth or better in every race during that period.

“I don’t care,” Byron said of people questioning whether he has what it takes this year to win a championship. “I just appreciate our fans and everyone who supports us. And I know I have an amazing team behind me and I’m really excited to go to Phoenix. Yeah, I mean we didn’t win this round. We’ve had our ups and downs. This year it’s not as good as last year, but we’ll still be in the same place, we’ll have a chance to compete for a championship, and I know we’ll learn a lot.”

Elliott saw his hopes of a second NASCAR Cup Series championship end with a second-place finish, while Kyle Larson, with six series wins this season, missed out on an opportunity to advance after finishing third.

Austin Cindric finished in an impressive fourth place, one spot ahead of Denny Hamlin, who failed to qualify for the Championship 4 in fifth place. Although Hamlin didn’t advance, he put in a whirlwind effort as he climbed from the final starting spot after crashing hard after his throttle was wide open in Friday practice.

Hamlin’s team repaired the car and he methodically moved up the field, but ultimately he did not have the car needed to overcome the last few positions he needed to win the race.

Austin Dillon finished seventh, one spot behind Byron, followed by Ross Chastain, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano.

Christopher Bell initially finished 18th, passing Bubba Wallace on the final lap, which was enough to put him into the Championship 4 field over Byron. However, NASCAR determined that Bell had violated the rules by driving into the wall on the final turn of the race to advance.

After a nearly 30-minute delay after the checkered flag, NASCAR issued a race penalty to Bell and the No. 20 team, putting them in 22nd place, making Bell the last driver down one lap. Bell’s change in finishing position denied him a place in Championship 4 and ensured Bell’s passage into the final round of the playoffs.

While the field for Championship 4 has already been set, NASCAR’s Elton Sawyer has said for now that the sanctioning body will review data, video and in-vehicle radios to determine whether any teams attempted to manipulate the race finish.

“Yeah, we’ll see,” Sawyer said. “As I said earlier, we want to come back like we would have done anyway. We will come back, we will take all the data, video. We’ll listen to the car audio system. We will do everything. It’s like any other event.”

Teams in question include Bubba Wallace, who slowed on the final lap and allowed Bell to pass him for position, and Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain, who created a double jam behind Byron in what could potentially be a concerted effort. to prevent anyone from passing Byron, a fellow Chevrolet driver.

The NASCAR Cup Series championship race is scheduled for next Sunday, Nov. 10, at Phoenix Raceway. This race will be televised on NBC with coverage beginning at 3:00 pm ET. Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide live radio coverage of the event.