By Anthony Caruso III | Publisher
NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Blaney will race for his second consecutive Championship 4 next weekend. Blaney knew what was at stake.
He had to win to get in. Blaney won the Xfinity 500 on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia.
“I’m worn out — I’ve got nothing left,” said Blaney, who ran down both Elliott and Larson from three seconds back after a restart on Lap 414.
“Oh, my God, I’m tired. Good battle, and this car hung on longer than most, and I could really make some ground.”
This was Blaney’s third win of the season. The High Point, North Carolina native also won at Iowa and also at Pocono.
Blaney has won at Martinsville Speedway for the second straight year. When he won last October, he also moved into the Championship 4.
Now, Blaney has 13 career NASCAR Cup Series wins. Both Martinsville Speedway wins have come with the Discount Tire sponsorship.
Blaney will race for the championship with Joey Logano, William Byron, and Tyler Reddick. Blaney and Logano are Team Penske drivers.
Byron is a Hendrick Motorsports driver while Reddick is representing 23XI Racing.
There was some controversy with the selection of a driver in the Championship 4. NASCAR said that Christopher Bell was disqualified from the Championship 4 due to a wall ride that Ross Chastain previously used several years ago to get a win at this same track.
NASCAR owner Joe Gibbs said he wished that he could protest but he is not able to do so. Bell is a Gibbs driver.
“If you go back a couple years ago now when we had the situation with the one car on the last lap riding the wall, we’ve met with the industry, we met with the drivers, and everyone to a man decided that was not something that we could tolerate,” NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition Elliott Sawyer said. “We didn’t want that move to be accepted. We had language in the rulebook, it is a safety violation, and when we saw the 20 car, that’s exactly where we went.
“We looked at it a couple different times just to make sure, and that was the call.”
NAPA Auto Parts sponsored driver Chase Elliott was second. This was his 11th Top 5 finish on the season. M
Elliott — who was born in Georgia — now has 104 career Top 5 finishes. It is also his second straight Top 5 finish.
HendrickCars.com sponsored driver Kyle Larson finished third. This was his 14th Top 5 finish on the season.
Larson now has 118 career Top 5 finishes in his career. This was his first Top 5 finish since he won nearly a month ago at the Charlotte road course.
A word from the man himself. pic.twitter.com/ybEOHcxQzt
— Team Penske (@Team_Penske) November 3, 2024
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