NASCAR.com breaks down the final race in the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs at Martinsville Speedway.
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00:00 Here comes Christopher Bell. He'll score the win. Further back, Ross Chastain.
00:04 Chastain did a video game move. Chastain passed Hamlin. Chastain, Elliot Bell, and Lugano are
00:12 going to fight for a championship in Phoenix. Take a look at what he did. I have never seen
00:18 anything like that before in my life.
00:21 Hey, race fans. Welcome into Studio 3 for the preview show delivered by DoorDash. I am Alex
00:36 Weaver. That is Alan Kavanaugh. Two drivers we know are locked and racing for a championship
00:43 in Phoenix. Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell pulled off the magic at Homestead-Miami Speedway
00:49 to lock himself into the championship four, but two spots remain. We're heading to Martinsville.
00:54 So a playoff driver can win at Martinsville, but you can also have a non-playoff driver,
01:00 or Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell win again. And then we have two point spots available. Which
01:05 one will it be, AC? Yeah, a lot of scenarios going on. Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, they're fine.
01:10 They're also the last two winners at Martinsville, which is so strange. Do I think they win on Sunday?
01:15 Heck no. As far as I'm concerned, those two drivers are in the way on Sunday. Any non-playoff
01:20 driver, you are in the way on Sunday because there are six remaining playoff guys that want
01:25 to get to Phoenix. They have so much on the line, they will have no patience for anybody who doesn't
01:30 have the same amount on the line to win a championship on Sunday. So I think one of the
01:35 six who are still trying to get in, still eligible to make it to Phoenix, one of them wins the race
01:40 on Sunday. Well, Alan mentioned the history of Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell. They are our
01:44 latest two winners at Martinsville, so they know how to get it done. But a driver who has wins at
01:48 Martinsville, but does not have a championship and had a lot of problems at Homestead Miami Speedway,
01:54 knocking him way below the elimination line, Denny Hamlin. This is obviously the home state of
02:00 Virginia for him. I don't know if he has a lot of fans at Martinsville, given his history there,
02:05 but Denny Hamlin is needing, desperately needing a rebound. We're going to see what he's made out
02:10 of, right? The whole 11 team, because so much of this year has been, it's the 11, it's Denny's year.
02:15 Now he goes in really below the line, needing a win it seems like. It's just such a tough position,
02:20 because of course he can win there. He needs a good performance. He's always good at Martinsville,
02:25 but second place may not be enough. You can go out there, lead 499 laps and finish second,
02:30 and that might not be enough to get him to Phoenix. That is such a tough position to be in,
02:33 where the points are. I just worry about Denny. What I liked was last week we saw Chris Gapart
02:38 get right in Denny Hamlin's ear after the race at Homestead, kind of give him a pep talk and just
02:43 recycle everything and say, "Look, we're going to be there. We just have to focus. We knew this bump
02:48 in the road was going to be there. We'll see what they can do, how they can overcome it at Martinsville."
02:52 Yeah, fall of 2022 he finished fifth, and spring of 2023 he finished fourth. May not be enough.
02:59 Not enough. I'm going to go ahead and say it. Let's dive in further to the playoff bubble,
03:03 because right now heading into Martinsville, here's what the bubble stacks up and looks like.
03:07 William Byron, 30 to the good. He has wins at Martinsville, knows how to get it done.
03:11 Ryan Blaney, no wins at Martinsville, but plus 10 right now above the elimination line.
03:16 Tyler Reddick is the first one outside on that playoff bubble. He is minus 10 with no wins at
03:23 Martinsville. And then Martin Trix Jr., three wins at Martinsville, but minus 17. Yeah, that's tough.
03:28 And when you look at it, look, Blaney's in the cap or it's here right now in terms of points.
03:32 I think of a guy like Hamlin. Can he make up 10 points on Ryan Blaney? Yeah, maybe. Hamlin's
03:37 not only fighting Ryan Blaney. Tyler Reddick is there. Martin Trix Jr. is there. Chris Buescher
03:41 has short track wins. He's also fighting for that victory. That's what makes it such an uphill
03:46 battle. I will say this though. Truex has wins at Martinsville. Denny has wins at Martinsville.
03:51 If I think one driver can jump up and make it in there, I do think it's the 11 car. Yeah. Oh,
03:56 okay. I like it. Denny Hamlin, rebound. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. Lots of them. All right.
04:01 Time for our playoff pulse. This is technically, I'm going to call it our last playoff race,
04:05 because next week we'll be in Phoenix racing for a championship. It'll be four drivers,
04:09 one wins, takes all. That's it. So our playoff pulse for my last time, Martinsville, who's your
04:15 good? My good for Martinsville, William Byron. Look, he has a win there before. Normally runs
04:20 good there. You're going to look back in the spring. You're going to see he finished 23rd.
04:23 That was a clutch issue. That was not a normal Martinsville finish for William Byron. I think
04:27 they go in to Martinsville, get a good finish, and then go to Phoenix with a lot of momentum.
04:31 All right. My good. Also the 24th. Willie B. Willie B. We agree. All right. How about your
04:36 bad? My bad is going to be Chris Buescher just has a huge points deficit. He's there at the bottom.
04:43 He did not have good weeks at Vegas and Homestead Miami Speedway that put him way down on the
04:47 playoff bubble. So Chris Buescher is my bad. Yeah. One career top 10 uphill battle for Buescher.
04:53 Same with my pick, Tyler Reddick. Tyler Reddick, just bad timing, such a good year. And then you
04:58 come to a track where he's never had a lap lead. He's never finished better than eighth. Everything
05:04 on the line at a track. He doesn't always perform at. Prove us wrong, Chris. Prove us wrong, Tyler.
05:09 See what we can do. You just have to lead one lap. The final one. That's all we need. All right.
05:14 Last but not least, the wild card for Martinsville. My wild card is Ryan Blaney. Look, the stats say
05:19 he has the best average finish of any of these guys at Martinsville. No wins yet. So I think
05:24 he can do it. But I do wonder about the Penske side of things, the Ford side of things. They
05:28 haven't had the best year so far. Which side shows up? The Ryan Blaney that's really good at
05:33 Martinsville or the Ford Penske side we haven't seen so much performance out of? That's what I'm
05:38 worried about. That's why he's a wild card. All right. My wild card is a driver that Ryan Blaney
05:42 does not want to see in victory lane. His name is in the track name. I'm going to go with Martin
05:48 Trix, Jr. I like the 19th chances. Three wins at Martinsville. I think obviously 17 points is a lot
05:53 to overcome. All right. NASCAR 75 flashback. We're throwing it back to 2018. Yeah, let's throw it
05:59 back just a few years. 2018, one of the best playoff finishes ever. Let's go right to two
06:04 laps to go. Martin Trix, Jr. in the 78, stalking leader Joey Logano. MTJ gets by the 22. But oh,
06:11 buddy, you did it a little too early. Logano becomes the hunter. And on the final corner
06:16 of the final lap, a little bump, a little run, a little rub. Logano gets the win, moves on to the
06:23 title race because of that win. And Logano ends up winning his first championship. Alex, he later
06:28 credited that move at Martinsville. That car at Martinsville was really what won him the
06:33 championship that year. We have seen a lot of drivers make history at Martinsville. Last year,
06:38 a driver got in just by riding up against the wall with the hail melon. Ross Tustain was in
06:42 the championship four. So we're going to lock it in. Martinsville is the time to do it. You have
06:46 one chance to get into the championship four and race for a championship. Make sure and tune in to
06:52 the XFINITY 500 this Sunday, 2 p.m. Eastern on NBC. And make sure you join us right back here
06:56 next week for the preview show delivered by DoorDash, where we will help set up the championship
07:01 race. She's Alex, I'm Alan. We'll see you then.
07:06 [Music]