Deja vu: Blaney wins at Martinsville to make Cup Championship 4
RIDGEWAY, Va. — Ryan Blaney won a thrilling Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway to make the Championship 4 again in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Blaney, the defending champion, will race for his second Cup Series title next Sunday at Phoenix Raceway after winning Sunday. He came from ninth to first in the final 88-lap green-flag run to the checkered flag to secure the berth.
In total, Blaney led 32 laps, including the final 16 and 15 laps in stage two before battling the No. 6 car of Brad Keselowski for the lead. Blaney had one of the best cars all day but it took erasing a three-second lead in 42 laps to really earn the win.
“Yeah, I didn’t know if I was going to get there. I knew there was a shot. Really my focus was just saving rears in case I did get a chance, I would capitalize on it like I wasn’t able with the 6 because I burned my stuff up,” Blaney said. “I’ll be honest with you, that’s the most tired I’ve been after a race in a long time. My God, I was tired. I still am.”
Blaney passed Chase Elliott with 15 laps to go. Elliott passed teammate Kyle Larson nine laps before and was on the same quality tires as Blaney.
According to Elliott, Blaney was too good.
“I was pushing really hard trying to get to the No. 5 (Kyle Larson). I just felt like Ryan (Blaney) had been really good. I was scared to give him an opportunity to get to the No. 5 first. I just really wanted to try to get the lead. And then you never know, maybe a caution comes out or something. It just didn’t work out for us. We’ll go to Phoenix and try to put together a good weekend,” Elliott said.
Kyle Larson finished third and missed the Championship 4, despite earning the most wins (6) and playoff points (42) of anyone in the series this season.
“This whole Round of Eight has been a fight, really. From the first stage at Las Vegas on, it’s been a fight. I feel like we made the right pit call to give ourselves the best opportunity. I’m proud of my team; the car, the pit crew, everyone at Hendrick Motorsports. We just didn’t have enough,” Larson said.
Larson alluded to a plethora of issues at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway that put him in 11th and 13th, respectively, and with only one stage point between the two races.
It looked like Sunday was going to save him from all of that, especially as he held on with older tires than Elliott.
“I actually thought that when Chase (Elliott) got to second, I thought he was going to drive right to me and pass me easily. I was surprised I held on as long as I did, so it gave me hope. But then we just fell off the last 30 laps or so,” Larson said.
Blaney, Elliott, Larson, Austin Cindric, Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Austin Dillon, Ross Chastain, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano finished in the top-10.
Through the Field
Shane van Gisbergen finished 12th in his best oval performance to date.
Stewart-Haas Racing had its cars finish 11th (Noah Gragson), 14th (Ryan Preece), 15th (Chase Briscoe) and 16th (Josh Berry). Preece and Briscoe ran inside the top-10 and picked up stage points throughout the race.
Christopher Bell finished 22nd, one lap down, after NASCAR penalized him under the precedent set up after the Hail Melon move.
MORE: First test of Hail Melon rule knocks Bell out of Championship 4
Teammate Martin Truex Jr. finished 24th, two laps down, after speeding during his final green-flag pit stop with under 130 laps to go in the 500-lap race. Before that, Truex ran 15th, on the lead lap, after getting a green-flag speeding penalty in the first stage, getting back on the lead lap on lap 159 and spinning on lap 185.
Kyle Busch finished 28th, three laps down, after losing a wheel coming to the green on lap 308. Busch was running 10th before getting a two-lap penalty for losing the wheel.
STAGE ONE
Martin Truex Jr. started strong, leading the first 41 laps and giving an inkling of hope for a farewell win as he entered Sunday winless in his final full-time season.
Chase Elliott, needing a win to get into the Championship 4, had other ideas. Elliott took the lead on lap 42, and held off teammate William Byron on a lap 85 restart for Christopher Bell and Corey LaJoie spinning in turn one, to win the first stage on lap 130:
- Chase Elliott
- William Byron
- Chase Briscoe
- Ryan Preece
- Ryan Blaney
- Kyle Larson
- Alex Bowman
- Austin Dillon
- Joey Logano
- Brad Keselowski
Points after Stage One: Bell 4132 (+24), Byron 4119 (+11), Larson 4108 (-11), Hamlin 4092 (-27), Blaney 4078 (-41), Elliott 4077 (- 42).
STAGE TWO
After Christopher Bell finished 20th in the first stage, the second stage brought him closer to his goal of earning 34 points to quietly make the Championship 4.
Bell stayed out on lap 185 while the leaders pitted, including William Byron who took control of the lead from Elliott at the start of the stage.
After being the second driver on to pit road under caution, Elliott was 15th off of pit road after an issue on the right-rear tire.
Meanwhile, playoff drivers Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell restarted first, second and fourth with non-playoff driver Brad Keselowski in between them. Behind them was Austin Dillon, Noah Gragson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Harrison Burton, Erik Jones, Justin Haley and Daniel Hemric in 11th, all on fresher tires.
Farther back, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman, Chase Briscoe, Todd Gilliland, Carson Hocevar, Ryan Preece, Joey Logano and Ross Chastain rounded out the top-20. Elliott was 26th.
Keselowski played spoiler to the playoff drivers, taking the lead from Blaney on lap 203 and taking home his first stage win since Talladega last fall.
- Brad Keselowski
- Ryan Blaney
- Denny Hamlin
- Kyle Larson
- William Byron
- Christopher Bell
- Austin Dillon
- Alex Bowman
- Noah Gragson
- Ryan Preece
Points earned after Stage Two: Bell 4138 (+23) Byron 4125 (+10) Larson 4115 (-10) Hamlin 4100 (-25) Blaney 4087 (-38) Elliott 4077 (-48)
Elliott ended the stage in 12th.
FINAL STAGE
Brad Keselowski continued playing spoiler to the playoff drivers, leading 110 laps in the stage until pitting on lap 373. Ryan Blaney stayed close to Keselowski, even threatening to “blast him” and bump him out of the way.
Twenty laps before either of them pitted, Chase Elliott’s team called an audible and pitted from 10th. That elevated Elliott to the lead when pit the green-flag pit stop cycle ended. Behind Elliott was William Byron who jumped ahead of Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney, the latter whom grew frustrated with Byron.
“There goes the 24, just driving away,” Blaney said on the radio.
Blaney was even more frustrated when a caution fell on lap 399 for Alex Bowman bumping Carson Hocevar into the turn two, giving Elliott the break he needed.
“What a f-cking stroke of luck for the 9. I’m too loose, I can’t power down, when I can drive away while leading,” Blaney said.
Under caution, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Austin Cindric and Ryan Preece stayed out. Meanwhile, Blaney pitted with Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Chase Briscoe, Joey Logano, Bowman and others to get 28-lap-fresher tires.
Things didn’t get better for Blaney. He lost a spot when NASCAR let the race go green after Kyle Busch lost a right-front wheel.
The controversial call set Blaney on a tear. He closed in from three seconds back to go to victory lane.
Points after the Xfinity 500:
- Ryan Blaney WIN
- Tyler Reddick WIN
- Joey Logano WIN
- William Byron +4 points to the cutline
- Christopher Bell -4 points to the cutline
- Kyle Larson -7
- Denny Hamlin -24
- Chase Elliott -44
Blaney’s win in context
Blaney now has 13 wins in 341 NASCAR Cup Series starts. Six of them have come in the 71 races since the start of last year. At 13 career wins, he is tied with William Byron, Tim Richmond and Dick Rathmann for 59th on the all-time wins list.
Blaney has come a long way from his days racing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for Brad Keselowski Racing. BKR is also where fellow Championship 4 competitor Tyler Reddick raced before and kickstarted his NASCAR career.
“There’s been a lot of great, great drivers that have come through that. I was really fortunate to be part of it. Between myself, Tyler Reddick, Ross Chastain, Daniel Hemric and Austin Cindric was part of that. There’s pedigree over there. BKR was amazing. I owe Brad a lot,” Blaney said, in stark contrast to more heated words he had for Keselowski while racing him for the lead earlier.
It’s all led to this point and even getting here this year hasn’t been easy. He faced heartbreak during the Las Vegas weekend when he crashed twice and at Homestead-Miami when Reddick blew by him with a bold outside move in the final corner.
“It hasn’t been the smoothest of Playoffs for us, but we’ve dug down deep and really believed in each other,” Blaney said. “I’ve said it many, many times. That’s what I love about this group I have around me. They don’t ever really get bummed out. Maybe for a little bit, a night, but then they just move on. They figure out where we need to be better, how we need to be better.”
NEXT: Phoenix Raceway, 3 p.m. ET; NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (312 laps)
Xfinity 500 results and points
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com