How NASCAR Quest for 'Game 7 Moment' Continues at Martinsville

For much of its history NASCAR’s annual driver’s championship has been all but officially clinched with a few races in-hand. The Daytona Beach-based organization has used almost a dozen systems since 1949 to crown a champion, but not until the current Playoffs did any system guarantee the title would be decided in the last race.

You know… one of those “Game 7” moments that former NASCAR president Brian France so urgently sought.

How NASCAR's Playoffs Work

Everything changed in 2004, when the Chase for the Championship (soon renamed The Playoffs) was introduced. After a handful of tweaks along the way, the current system works like this: the 16 winningest regular-season drivers compete in a four-round, 10-race “tournament” that eliminates four drivers every three races until there’s a “Championship 4” at the year’s last race.

The one who beats the other three—regardless of where they finish relative to the rest of the 36-driver field—is the Cup Series champion. (There are details upon details and minutia upon minutia along the 10-race way, but you get the idea).

Where NASCAR Cup Series Stands with Two Races Remaining

Only two of 10 races remain in the 36-race season: Sunday afternoon’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia, then the Nov. 6, season-ending Cup Series Championship 500K at Phoenix Raceway. Joey Logano has already has qualified for the Championship 4, leaving seven others to argue at Martinsville over the other three spots.

If Sunday afternoon’s winner is among the seven championship-eligible drivers, he automatically moves into next weekend’s season-finale at Phoenix. If Logano or anyone outside the top-seven in points wins, the three highest-ranked drivers will advance with him next weekend.

Who's Still Alive in Playoff Chase?

Starting with the current point-leader and Championship 4 finalist, the eight hopefuls are:

• Former champion and four-time 2022 winner Joey Logano of Team Penske won two weeks ago at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. That qualified him for next weekend’s CSC 500-K, regardless of how he fared (an uninspiring 18th) last weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway or how he fares this weekend at Martinsville.

• Two-time 2022 winner Ross Chastain of Trackhouse Racing goes to Martinsville second in points, 14 above the top-four elimination cutline of 4,087. He has only seven Martinsville starts, including a fifth in the spring. (In fairness, some of those earlier starts were not in especially good equipment).

• Former champion Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports is six points above the cutline line. He’s a five-time winner this year and was 10th at Martinsville in the spring, one of his eight top-10 finishes there in 14 starts. Among his five Martinsville top-5s is a 2020 victory.

• Two-time 2022 winner William Byron of Hendrick is right on the Playoff cutline of 4,087 points. He dominated at Martinsville in the spring, leading more than half the laps for his fourth top-five in nine starts there. His Martinsville resume also shows a second, fourth, and fifth.

• Five-time Martinsville winner Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing is fifth-ranked going to his best track. He’s five points below the cutline, but shouldn’t be overly concerned given his record at the short track in his home state of Virginia. In 33 career starts, he has 16 top-five finishes and 22 top-10s. He has twice as many Martinsville starts as anyone else in the Round of 8, and should feel comfortable about his chances to advance.

• The same can’t be said of winless Ryan Blaney of Team Penske. He’s 18 points below the line and 0-for-13 all-time at Martinsville. On the plus side, he’s completed all but four of 6,409 laps there and has six top-fives, including three seconds, a third, a fourth, and a fifth. He was fourth there in the spring, when the race was 400 laps instead of 500.

• Christopher Bell of JGR has won twice this year, but is a daunting 33 points below the advance line. He was in far better shape until being innocently caught up in the now-infamous Bubba Wallace-Kyle Larson accident two weeks ago in Las Vegas. Bell has only five starts at Martinsville, with a best of seventh in 2021. He was 20th in the track’s spring race.

• Eighth-ranked Chase Briscoe of Stewart Haas Racing, a one-time winner this year, is 44 points below the line and in something of a must-win situation to make the Championship 4 next weekend. His Martinsville resume shows two finishes in the 20s and a ninth in the spring race, but no laps led.

Odds and Ends for Martinsville

• To make matters worse, the National Motorsports Appeal Panel on Thursday denied Stewart-Haas Racing’s appeal of fines, points deductions, and suspensions for Custer’s alleged last-lap maneuvering on the Charlotte Roval to help Briscoe advance to the Round of 8. Driver Cole Custer and crew chief Mike Shiplett were fined $100,000, Custer lost 50 driver points, and Shiplett was suspended indefinitely. Briscoe was not charged.

• Two other NASCAR races are on the weekend schedule at the track in southern Virginia.

Corey Lajoie won the The Whelen Modified Tour Thursday night race and the Xfinity Series has a Saturday afternoon race. Joe McKennedy won the Modified Tour championship with a 12th-place finish at the season-ending Modified 200.

In the Xfinity Series, the Xfinity 250 will determine which two drivers will join Josh Berry and Noah Gragson in the Nov. 5 championship race at Phoenix. The final two will come from Ty Gibbs, AJ Allmendinger, Justin Allgaier, Austin Hill, Sam Mayer, and Brandon Jones.