Martinsville Cup Race

    


 What a cutoff race!! NASCAR scheduling Martinsville as the cutoff race for the Round of 8 was genius. The race had drama, comers and goers, an incredible points battle, and exactly why NASCAR created this playoff format. NASCAR truly had a once in a season type of race.

    Stage One was won by Denny Hamlin, but it was clear that early on the race seemed to be between Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., and Chase Elliott. Early on there was some strategy, and it was apparent a few guys were points racing based on late stage strategy. It would prove its value later on, but Denny Hamlin winning this stage would be all the difference between advancing to Phoenix, and not. 

    Stage Two showed that Elliott, and Truex were a little bit ahead of Hamlin, but concern started to set in for championship favorite Kevin Harvick. He had been running outside the top 10 all day, and looked largely irrelevant. If Chase Elliott, or Martin Truex were to win the race it would be a battle to advance between Harvick, Hamlin, and Brad Keselowski. 

    Stage Three was the Chase Elliott show. Chase seemingly dominated the stage, and even overcame multiple bad pit stops, and once it was established Chase was likely going to win our focus turned to the battle to advance between Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, and Kevin Harvick. It got as tight as one point between the three drivers. On the last lap of the race Harvick was one point out, and attempted to wreck Kyle Busch to get the point to advance, but he wrecked himself in the process. 

    Chase Elliott's win advanced him to the Championship Four. The final four are Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, and Joey Logano, and they will be racing this Sunday for the Bill France Cup at Phoenix Raceway. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Letter From The Editor - ''My Personal Story, and Racing Refresh's Commitment to Motorsports Diversity."

Image
I have been a true student of motorsports since year 2000 when my uncle moved to Columbus, OH and introduced me to Big and Little E . Prior to my pursuit of racing knowledge, I have distinct memories of watching Dennis Anderson's monstrous Grave Digger, or King Kenny Bernstein's iconic Budweiser livery win countless races. I remember the rainbow assortment of Pontiac Trans-Ams race in the prestigious IROC events. I sat in amazement as the greatest racer that ever lived, Michael Schumacher won what felt like every start of his career. I always enjoyed motorsports, but it was the off-season of 2000-01 that made me crave and live for more each day.  My uncle had diecast cars that sat on shelves, each with their own story. While they were a wonderful collection, I think I assumed price tags in the millions of dollars as a child. Earnhardt's K2 , old Chevy hot rods, Busch Series this, Winston Cup Series that, he had a wonderful collection. There was one driver he highlighted to
Read more

30 Second Read: Larson Sweeps in Wine Country

Image
                              (Kyle Larson celebrates in victory lane at Sonoma Raceway)       https://twitter.com/TheLTFiles/status/1401690984358944770?s=20      Kyle Larson has found a hot streak! after his stage and race sweep of the Coca Cola 600 last weekend, the Elk Grove, California native doubles down at his home track pulling off another sensational race winning every stage plus the race win in the Toyota Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway. This marks his third win of the year and thus putting him in 1st in playoff seeding. This is not only Hendrick Motorsports fourth consecutive win but fourth in a row of finishing both first and second, which no team has accomplished since the 1950's. Is Larson a new favourite at road courses? with an average finish of 15.2 over 17 career starts on these types of race tracks is almost twice the average finish of teammate Chase Elliott of 8.3 who finished second to Larson. It is not far fetched to say he is a favourite given how he has excel
Read more