NASCAR: Martinsville countdown

Six drivers. Two spots.

It is a simple math equation when looking at the big picture, but zooming in it's anything but easy.

For years, scenarios like this have taken place at Martinsville Speedway but with the future of the NASCAR Cup Series championship format in question, this may be the last time.

The final race of the Round of 8 has been full of drama in the past with fights, crashes, hail melons, broken dreams and clutch victories.

For Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin, the pressure this week is off. Both of them clinched their spots in the championship race in Phoenix with wins at Talladega and Las Vegas, respectively.

Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson are both in position to join the other two next week but they can not afford to have a bad performance at the paperclip.

Last week, Larson was in position to win on the last lap but ran out of gas on the back straightaway, which relegated his finish to 26th.

He sits 36 points above the cut line with Bell just one spot ahead of him going into the weekend.

Bell is trying to join his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Briscoe and Hamlin in the championship race after finishing third and eighth in the other two races this round. He has not finished outside the top ten in seven races, which shows why he is one of the best talents in the sport.

But one of these two may not make it to the final round if William Byron, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott steal a win this weekend.

Byron and the 24 team was one of the strongest units in the regular season but after the fiasco at Las Vegas and a subpar finish at Talladega, his chances of a first championship are on the ropes.

Even though it isn’t an even-numbered year, Logano is still hanging around in the postseason. After finishing sixth and 16th in the first two races of the round, he finds himself 38 points from the cutline as he looks to be the first driver since Jimmie Johnson to win back-to-back championships.

Blaney, like Byron, has not had a good round either. With finishes of 38th and 23rd, he essentially needs to win to have any hope of making the championship.

If neither Logano nor Blaney makes it out of Martinsville, it would mean that a team not named Team Penske would win the championship for the first time since 2021.

Elliott is also in need of a win, being 67 points out. He had a less-than-desirable finish of 18th at Las Vegas but wrecked out early and finished dead last at Talladega, putting his hopes on life support.

Historically, the fall race at Martinsville favors Blane,y as he has won the last two races in this setting at the track. Bell, Elliott, Logano and Hamlin have also grabbed wins during the fall race here as well.

While the winner is uncertain, the drama will be through the roof when the green flag flies Sunday at 2 p.m.

Chase Fisher is a second-year student majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email ctf5198@psu.edu.