Ryan Blaney will race for his first Cup championship after qualifying for NASCAR’s title-deciding finale with a Sunday win at Martinsville Speedway.
William Byron, who led the Cup Series with six wins this season, earned the fourth and final slot in the championship by limping to a 13th-place finish. Byron had padded his position with bonus points earned all season and edged Denny Hamlin, who finished third at Martinsville on Sunday, by eight points to qualify for NASCAR’s championship.
Blaney and Byron will race Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson next Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, where the Cup championship will go to the highest-finishing driver.
Larson and Byron gave Hendrick Motorsports a pair of Chevrolets in the final four, Bell is in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing and Blaney drives a Ford for Team Penske. Blaney can give Team Penske back-to-back titles following Joey Logano’s win for Penske last year.
Larson is the only driver in the field with a Cup title and returns to the final four for the second time in three years. Bell is back in the championship for the second consecutive year; Blaney and Byron have never raced for the Cup title.
Hamlin was pretty much in a must-win situation Sunday after a mechanical failure last week caused him to crash and dropped him below the cutoff line for elimination at Martinsville. He wasted no time going after the win and led a race-high 156 laps.
“I’m not counting points. I’m doing everything I can to win. Everything,” Hamlin radioed before the final stage.
But Hamlin lost ground after the final round of pit stops — when he and Blaney each took four tires — and he never could work his way back through the traffic to challenge for the win. Hamlin was also eliminated from championship contention at Martinsville last year on a last-lap Hail Mary move by Ross Chastain.
Blaney won for the third time this season, tying his career high, and led 145 laps. He won twice in the playoffs, but this was his first win at the Virginia track. Blaney, who hails from High Point, North Carolina, considers the short track located 55 miles away his home track.
Martin Truex Jr., the regular-season champion and pole-sitter Sunday, was eliminated from title contention along with Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing, Chris Buescher of RFK Racing and Hamlin.
Up next is the season-ending championship race at Phoenix Raceway, where Larson, Bell, Blaney and Byron will race for the Cup title. The highest-finishing driver among the final four claims the championship. Logano won his second title a year ago by winning Phoenix but has already been eliminated from the playoffs. Byron won in the spring.