Byron Holds Off Logano and Dillon to Win at Martinsville

William Byron won the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 from Martinsville Speedway on Saturday night.

Byron had a strong car throughout the race, but followed his teammate Chase Elliott through the first two stages. Byron finally took the lead on the pit stop at the second stage break, and the only time he gave it up over the final 200 laps was during green-flag pit stops.

Byron had to hold off Joey Logano and Austin Dillon on the final overtime restart after a late caution bunched up the field on his way to his second win of the season.

Byron said he knew he would need to be perfect over the final two laps with strong cars behind him.

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“I knew when that last caution came out...I thought everybody behind us would pit and luckily we…were aggressive,” Byron said.  “I chattered the tires in 3 and 4, and kind of left the bottom open. I was able to kind of block my exits and get a good drive off.”

Byron won Thursday night’s Camping World Truck Series race, and said he had always wanted to win one of most famous trophies on the circuit, a grandfather clock.

“Always wanted to win at Martinsville,” Byron said.  “Got two clocks this weekend, so I enjoy that.”

Logano said Byron did a good job defending the lead over the final two laps.

“William kind of messed up off of four and let me get to him,” Logano said.  “He did a really good job of brake-checking. I couldn’t accelerate off the corner and be as close as I needed to be down into 3 to execute the old bump-and-run.”

Dillon started 23rd on Saturday, and a strong long-run car allowed him to get to the front on a rare Martinsville race that went caution-free for most of the night. Dillon restarted third on the final restart, but he was forced to defend after he spun the tires heading to the green flag.

Dillon said he was disappointed he couldn’t capitalize on a car with such speed throughout the day.

“I like to pride myself on when we get in those situations as being clutch, and that was anything but on that last restart,” Dillon said.  “Once I got back in line there, I had some grip and I feel like we had good forward drive all night long. I just felt like if we got through the gears, we’d have a shot at him.”

“We’ve been working our tails off. We’ve been working really hard to make this car as good as possible. Want to get RCR a win and that’s what we’re here racing for.”

Unofficial results:

1. William Byron

2. Joey Logano

3. Austin Dillon

4. Ryan Blaney

5. Ross Chastain

6. Kurt Busch

7. Kyle Busch

8. Aric Almirola

9. Chase Briscoe

10. Chase Elliott

11. Austin Cindric

12. Alex Bowman

13. Erik Jones

14. Kevin Harvick

15. Chris Buescher

16. Bubba Wallace

17. Brad Keselowski

18. Tyler Reddick

19. Kyle Larson

20. Christopher Bell

21. Cole Custer

22. Martin Truex Jr.

23. Ty Dillon

24. AJ Allmendinger

25. Michael McDowell

26. Harrison Burton

27. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

28. Denny Hamlin

29. Daniel Suarez

30. Todd Gilliland

31. Justin Haley

32. Corey LaJoie

33. Cody Ware

34. JJ Yeley

35. Josh Bilicki

36. BJ McLeod

Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Truex Wins at Martinsville

 Originally written for CLNS Media.

Martin Truex Jr. won the Blue Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 from Martinsville Speedway on Sunday to pick up his second win of the season.

Truex ran towards the front for most of the day, but his car began to come alive when the sun set.  Truex got around Denny Hamlin late in the race and was able to pull away to pick up the win.

Truex said the teammates had diverging setups at the end of the race.

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“I was loose coming off the corners and his car got tight,” Truex said.  “We kind of had opposite things going on and it made it difficult to pass.”

Truex said he struggled with his handling until the lights came on towards the end of the race.

“[Crew chief] James Small and the guys really hung with me all day,” Truex said.  “We never could quite get it the way we wanted.  It started getting dark and it came to life.”

Hamlin was dominant throughout the race, and led a race-high 276 laps before settling for a third-place finish.

After a rash of cautions throughout the third stage, Hamlin said his car didn’t have the speed over the final green flag run.

“We had a good short-run car, just did not have a good long-run car,” Hamlin said.  “We had a really fast car for 20 laps or so, and then it would just kind of go away.”

“We had a great day and stayed up front all day.  Gave ourselves a shot at it, just wasn’t quite good enough.”

Unofficial results:

1. Martin Truex Jr.

2. Chase Elliott

3. Denny Hamlin

4. William Byron

5. Kyle Larson

6. Joey Logano

7. Christopher Bell

8. Tyler Reddick

9. Kevin Harvick

10. Kyle Busch

11. Ryan Blaney

12. Matt DiBenedetto

13. Chris Buescher

14. Austin Dillon

15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

16. Bubba Wallace

17. Ross Chastain

18. Cole Custer

19. Ryan Newman

20. Aric Almirola

21. Kurt Busch

22. James Davison

23. Josh Bilicki

24. Quin Houff

25. JJ Yeley

26. Anthony Alfredo

27. Chase Briscoe

28. Cody Ware

29. BJ McLeod

30. Erik Jones

31. Michael McDowell

32. Daniel Suarez

33. Brad Keselowski

34. Alex Bowman

35. Justin Haley

36. Ryan Preece

37. Corey LaJoie

 

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Elliott Wins at Martinsville, Locks Himself into Final Four

 Originally written for CLNS Media.

Chase Elliott won the Xfinity 500 from Martinsville Speedway on Sunday afternoon to lock himself into the Championship round.

Elliott came into the race below the Playoff cutline needing a win to advance to the championship race.  Elliott came out swinging, and led 236 of 500 laps on his way to a dominant victory to lock him into the season finale.

Elliott said the victory was the missing piece to his team contending for a championship for the past few years.

“Biggest win ever for us,” Elliott said.  “To be backed in a corner like that and have to win tonight, I feel like that’s what we’ve been missing these past four or five years.”

Elliott led throughout the race, but a late pit miscue almost cost him a shot at the victory.  Elliott’s jackman jumped over the wall too soon, but was able to touch the pit wall to reset himself.  NASCAR originally penalized Elliott, but it was rescinded upon further review.

Elliott said the team was able to adjust on the car to help it drive better to get back to the lead.

“I didn’t think our car was driving as good there at the end as it was at the beginning of the race,” Elliott said.  “Those last couple pit stops…made some really good changes and had a good pit stop on that last one.”

“I feel like we’ve had the group to do this, we just have to go and make it happen; we did tonight.”

While Elliott celebrated, Kevin Harvick saw his championship hopes come to an end.  The nine-time winner and regular season champion struggled all day and finished 17th, eight points out of the final round.  Coming to the checkered flag and in need of a single point, Harvick spun Kyle Busch to try and gain one position.  After spinning himself, Harvick found himself on the outside looking in.

Harvick said regular-season success no longer means a simple road to the championship.

“These championships aren’t winning like Petty and Earnhardt used to win them,” Harvick said.  “You have to put them together three weeks at a time and it comes down to one race.”

“Not a great three weeks; didn’t go our way and we fought for everything we had.  It just came up short.”

Following the race on Sunday, Alex Bowman, Martin Truex Jr. and Kurt Busch joined Harvick as the four drivers eliminated from Playoff contention.

The Cup Series season ends next Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, and Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski will join Elliott as the four drivers eligible for the Cup Series Championship.

1. Chase Elliott

2. Ryan Blaney

3. Joey Logano

4. Brad Keselowski

5. Kurt Busch

6. Alex Bowman

7. Aric Almirola

8. Clint Bowyer

9. Kyle Busch

10. Matt DiBenedetto

11. Denny Hamlin

12. Erik Jones

13. Cole Custer

14. Matt Kenseth

15. Christopher Bell

16. Ty Dillon

17. Kevin Harvick

18. Ryan Newman

19. Ryan Preece

20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

21. Bubba Wallace

22. Martin Truex Jr.

23. Austin Dillon

24. Tyler Reddick

25. Corey LaJoie

26. John Hunter Nemechek

27. Daniel Suarez

28. Michael McDowell

29. Timmy Hill

30. Jimmie Johnson

31. JJ Yeley

32. Josh Bilicki

33. Quin Houff

34. Joey Gase

35. William Byron

36. James Davison

37. Brennan Poole

38. Chris Buescher

39. Garrett Smithley

Photos courtesy Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images

Truex Shines at Martinsville Under the Lights

Originally written for CLNS Media.

Martin Truex Jr. won the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 from Martinsville Speedway on Wednesday night at the track’s first Cup Series night race.

Truex, along with the rest of the Toyota drivers, struggled at the beginning of the race.  But after the team made multiple changes, he was able to drive through the field on multiple occasions.

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Truex had a pit road penalty while leading early in the race, but he was able to recover to win and finish as the only Toyota driver on the lead lap.

Truex said it was a testament to his team’s strategy at Martinsville.

“We’ve been working a long time on trying to figure this place out,” Truex said.  “The last couple years we’ve been really strong.  Just hats off to the guys.”

The victory was Truex’s first with new crew chief James Small, after Cole Pearn stepped down at the end of 2019.

Truex said he knew his team was going to win with their new leader atop the box.

“It’s huge for his confidence; he’s doing an awesome job and I’m really proud of him,” Truex said.  “It’s nice to get another win early in the season.  Hopefully we can go on a roll.”

Ryan Blaney finished second on Wednesday night.  After starting on the pole, he quickly dropped through the field and was lapped by lap 60.  His team was able to make adjustments to the car and, after getting the lucky dog, Blaney showed his speed and drove to the front.

Blaney said he was proud of his team for getting them back up front.

“Big shout out to [crew chief] Todd Gordon and everybody on this 12 team because, I’m not going to lie, we were awful to start the race,” Blaney said.  “Luckily we got a lot better, on even the first stop.”

Blaney said he needed a caution and restart to be able to fight Truex for the victory.

“Wanted a restart towards the front with Martin to see…if I could have raced with him,” Blaney said.  “Couple solid runs we’ve got here stringing together, just need to break through.  Hopefully we can do this soon.”

Unofficial results:

1. Martin Truex Jr.

2. Ryan Blaney

3. Brad Keselowski

4. Joey Logano

5. Chase Elliott

6. Alex Bowman

7. Matt DiBenedetto

8. William Byron

9. Kurt Busch

10. Jimmie Johnson

11. Bubba Wallace

12. Ryan Newman

13. Chris Buescher

14. Michael McDowell

15. Kevin Harvick

16. Tyler Reddick

17. Clint Bowyer

18. Corey LaJoie

19. Kyle Busch

20. Erik Jones

21. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

22. Ty Dillon

23. Matt Kenseth

24. Denny Hamlin

25. John Hunter Nemechek

26. Ryan Preece

27. Daniel Suarez

28. Christopher Bell

29. Cole Custer

30. Brennan Poole

31. JJ Yeley

32. David Starr

33. Aric Almirola

34. Quin Houff

35. Joey Gase

36. Garrett Smithley

37. Austin Dillon

38. Reed Sorenson

39. Timmy Hill

Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Truex Dominant in Martinsville Victory, Hamlin and Logano Fight on Pit Road

Originally written for CLNS Media.

Martin Truex Jr. won the First Data 500 from Martinsville Speedway on Sunday afternoon to lock himself into the Championship Round of the Playoffs.

Truex was dominant on Sunday, and led 464 of 500 laps.  Truex, who struggled on short tracks for the majority of his career, has now won three in the past two years.

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Truex said he and his team have been working to get better on short tracks.

“We’ve wanted to win here for a long time, and the guys have worked so hard,” Truex said.  “I’m just so excited and proud to drive this thing.”

The victory locks Truex into the Championship finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway where he will fight for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Championship.

Truex said he’s excited that his team can now focus on the race in three weeks.

“We don’t have to worry about points anymore, we can just get to work on our Homestead car,” Truex said.  “We’re going to Homestead again, so that was what we tried to accomplish this weekend.”

William Byron tried to chase Truex down in the closing laps, but the 21-year old driver wasn’t able to make a move on the 19 of Truex.

Byron said he would have used the bumper to try to pick up his first career victory if he had been close enough.

“I wouldn’t have raced him dirty, but I’m really hungry for my first win,” Byron said.  “He ran such a good race, I think he would have been able to drag the brake and do anything he could to keep me behind him anyways.”

After the race, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano got into a pit road altercation after the two made contact late in the race.  Logano pushed Hamlin, and that led to a fight between the two drivers and their crews.

Hamlin said the fight started with a typical move from Logano.

“Everything was civil, and then, like Joey does, he does the little push and runs away,” Hamlin said.  “That’s Joey, he’s scared.  He would probably say, ‘it’s short track racing.’”

Logano said he was frustrated that Hamlin did not apologize for the contact between the two Playoff drivers.

“I just wanted to see what he was going to say, and he really wasn’t apologetic at all,” Logano said.  “Maybe I shouldn’t have shoved him at the end; it maybe escalated it a little bit more.”

Unofficial results:

1. Martin Truex Jr.

2. William Byron

3. Brad Keselowski

4. Denny Hamlin

5. Ryan Blaney

6. Kurt Busch

7. Kevin Harvick

8. Joey Logano

9. Kyle Larson

10. Ryan Newman

11. David Ragan

12. Chris Buescher

13. Bubba Wallace

14. Kyle Busch

15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

16. Matt DiBenedetto

17. Daniel Hemric

18. Corey LaJoie

19. Ryan Preece

20. Erik Jones

21. Paul Menard

22. Austin Dillon

23. Michael McDowell

24. Ty Dillon

25. Matt Crafton

26. Landon Cassill

27. BJ McLeod

28. JJ Yeley

29. Ross Chastain

30. Alex Bowman

31. Daniel Suarez

32. Garrett Smithley

33. Reed Sorenson

34. Timmy Hill

35. Clint Bowyer

36. Chase Elliott

37. Aric Almirola

38. Jimmie Johnson

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Keselowski Dominates in Martinsville Victory

Originally written for CLNS Media.

Brad Keselowski won the STP 500 from Martinsville Speedway on Sunday afternoon.

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Keselowski dominated throughout the afternoon, and led a race-high 446 of 500 laps.  Throughout the race, Keselowski was followed by Chase Elliott, but Keselowski was able to hold off NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver over the final run to pick up the victory.

Keselowski said his pit crew helped keep him up front during some of the most important pit stops throughout the day.

“That’s what this team does,” Keselowski said.  “They never give up and I’m very proud of them.  Just great for our team; awesome execution on pit road.”

Keselowski led all but 54 laps, and he said he studied how Elliott drove the track when he found himself behind the younger driver.  Keselowski said he used that knowledge to hold Elliott off in the closing laps.

“I don’t know if we were as good as [Elliott],” Keselowski said.  “He passed me there with about 200 to go, and I watched him and studied him.  Kind of broke it down to where I knew what I had to do to hold him off with that fast of a car.”

Elliott started to run Keselowski down with just a handful of laps remaining, but ran out of time to make a move.  Elliott said he wished he’d changed his line sooner to catch Keselowski.

“I tried to move up there at the end, I don’t know if I could have got to him,” Elliott said.  “I tried to get him there in Turn 3, and was pretty well content on moving him out of the way.”

Unofficial results:

1. Brad Keselowski

2. Chase Elliott

3. Kyle Busch

4. Ryan Blaney

5. Denny Hamlin

6. Kevin Harvick

7. Clint Bowyer

8. Martin Truex Jr.

9. Aric Almirola

10. Daniel Suarez

11. Austin Dillon

12. Kurt Busch

13. Ty Dillon

14. Alex Bowman

15. Paul Menard

16. Ryan Preece

17. Bubba Wallace

18. Kyle Larson

19. Joey Logano

20. Matt DiBenedetto

21. Chris Buescher

22. William Byron

23. Ryan Newman

24. Jimmie Johnson

25. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

26. David Ragan

27. Daniel Hemric

28. Landon Cassill

29. Matt Tifft

30. Erik Jones

31. Michael McDowell

32. DJ Kennington

33. Corey LaJoie

34. Ross Chastain

35. Jeb Burton

36. Cody Ware

Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Logano Wins at Martinsville in Wild Finish

Originally written for CLNS Media.

Joey Logano won the First Data 500 from Martinsville Speedway on Sunday afternoon to clinch a spot in the Championship Round of the Playoffs.

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Logano led a race-high 309 laps on his way to victory lane.  While he had a dominant car, he had to hold off Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. over the final 50 laps.

Truex and Logano raced side-by-side over the final 10 laps, and Truex took the lead coming off Turn 2 on the final lap.  Logano drove into the back of Truex going into the final corner, and two drivers made contact coming to the finish line.

Logano said he did what he had to do in trying to clinch a spot in the final round of the Playoffs.

“Just thinking about Miami,” Logano said.  “We’re here to win a championship this year.  We’re just going to focus hard on moving forward right now and building a great car for Miami.”

Truex raced Logano clean while the two battled for the lead, but Logano used the bumper in a last-ditch effort to get the victory. 

After exiting his car to a chorus of boos from the Martinsville audience, Logano said he knew he was only going to have one shot at the win.

“I knew I was going to lay the bumper,” Logano said.  “I knew that my one shot was going to be to lay the bumper to him a little bit.”

“You’ve just got to expect Martinsville at the end of the race…you’re going to have some bumping and grinding.”

Truex Jr. wasn’t as pleased with Logano’s move late in the race, and said he would make sure Logano didn’t win the championship.

“I was next to him for six laps and I never knocked him out of the way,” Truex said.  “We were going to race hard for it in my book.  I cleared him, fair and square…he just drove into the back of me and knocked me out of the way.”

“I’m just not going to let him win it; I’m going to win it…he may have won the battle, but he ain’t won the damn war.”

Unofficial results:

1. Joey Logano

2. Denny Hamlin

3. Martin Truex Jr.

4. Kyle Busch

5. Brad Keselowski

6. Kurt Busch

7. Chase Elliott

8. Ryan Newman

9. Daniel Suarez

10. Kevin Harvick

11. Aric Almirola

12. Jimmie Johnson

13. Chris Buescher

14. AJ Allmendinger

15. Ty Dillon

16. Jamie McMurray

17. Alex Bowman

18. David Ragan

19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

20. Ryan Blaney

21. Clint Bowyer

22. Paul Menard

23. Matt Kenseth

24. Cole Whitt

25. Michael McDowell

26. Erik Jones

27. DJ Kennington

28. Regan Smith

29. Ross Chastain

30. Austin Dillon

31. JJ Yeley

32. Landon Cassill

33. Jeb Burton

34. Darrell Wallace Jr.

35. Joey Gase

36. Matt DiBenedetto

37. Kyle Larson

38. Timmy Hill

39. William Byron

40. Hermie Sadler

Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Bowyer Snaps Winless Streak with Martinsville Victory

Originally written for CLNS Media.

Clint Bowyer won the STP 500 on Monday afternoon from the Martinsville Speedway.

The race, originally scheduled for Sunday afternoon, was postponed due to a snow storm in the Virginia area.  That forced NASCAR to run most of the Truck Series race and the entire Cup Series race on Monday.

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Bowyer’s victory snapped a 190-race winless streak that dated back to his victory at Charlotte in October 2012. 

Since Bowyer moved to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2017, he has seen his teammate Kevin Harvick run up front every week while Bowyer ran mid-pack.  Bowyer said watching his teammates succeed helped light a fire within him and his team.

“It’s hard to watch your teammates…have all that success,” Bowyer said.  “It still fuels that fire, and it can either be a detriment or a positive attraction, and for us, it just made us want to get to Victory Lane.”

Bowyer dominated on Monday, and led a race-high 215 laps.  Bowyer said he knew his car was fast from the beginning of the weekend.

“Something just felt right about today,” Bowyer said.  “Our weekend, all four cars were fast.”

Kyle Busch had a strong car and ran up front throughout the race, but he couldn’t get to Bowyer to make a move for the win.  Instead, he collected his third second-place finish of the season.

Busch said he was starting to get frustrated with running so well without a victory.

“We’ve been that close each and every week, so we’re right there, we’re knocking on the door,” Busch said.  “We’ve been the closest thing to everybody each and every week.”

Unofficial results:

1. Clint Bowyer

2. Kyle Busch

3. Ryan Blaney

4. Martin Truex Jr.

5. Kevin Harvick

6. Joey Logano

7. Alex Bowman

8. AJ Allmendinger

9. Chase Elliott

10. Brad Keselowski

11. Kurt Busch

12. Denny Hamlin

13. Paul Menard

14. Aric Almirola

15. Jimmie Johnson

16. Kyle Larson

17. Erik Jones

18. Daniel Suarez

19. Ryan Newman

20. William Byron

21. Michael McDowell

22. Ty Dillon

23. Chris Buescher

24. Kasey Kahne

25. David Ragan

26. Jamie McMurray

27. Cole Whitt

28. DJ Kennington

29. Ross Chastain

30. Austin Dillon

31. JJ Yeley

32. Matt DiBenedetto

33. Trevor Bayne

34. Darrell Wallace Jr.

35. Harrison Rhodes

36. Gray Gaulding

37. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

38. Landon Cassill

Jerry Markland/Getty Images