The NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 field was set Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, where Ryan Blaney won to advance, and William Byron finished 13th to squeak into the title race.
Blaney and Byron will face off against Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell for the 2023 Cup championship Nov. 5 at Phoenix Raceway.
Denny Hamlin finished third and fell six points short of Byron, getting eliminated with Tyler Reddick, Martin Truex Jr. and Chris Buescher.
Follow along below for updates during and after Sunday’s 500-lap race at Martinsville Speedway.
Here were the postrace NBC Sports interviews with Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr. and William Byron:
Denny Hamlin: “The mechanical failure last week with the power steering, that sealed our fate. Really proud of this whole FedEx Toyota team for showing up today when we really needed to, having probably a mid 50-point day. They did great. They did absolutely great.
“The 12 car was the best car today, so congrats to them. All the Final 4 that made it. It’s going to be great. Hate we’re not in it with our FedEx Camry. Definitely I was happy with the performance we had today. Really all around. Just in the Round of 8 you can’t have one bad week. ... Man, I just want to get ready and go try to win next week. I still love it so much because every week I feel like I got a shot to win. That’s what fuels my passion, even at my age, to keep doing this, is I’m with the team that I got that gives me such fast cars every week and gives me a chance to continue to pile on those stats before the end of my career.
“It’s not over by any means. We got a long way to go. Really happy about the year in general. I thought substantially faster this year at all racetracks than what we were last year.”
William Byron: “Obviously we were not very good. Our worst race of the year. These guys deserve it so much. They work so hard. Honestly, probably with 50 to go I felt really, really bad. I just had did drive the hell out of it. The guys stuck with me, they kept motivating me through little bits and pieces, just kind of keeping my mind straight.
“I’m just really thankful for them. It was just, yeah, a slugfest. Everyone raced me there good at the end. Congrats to Ryan. I was really happy for him, brother-in-law. He was really fast. But, man, we just had to hang on. Just had to dig a little bit deeper.
“I knew when I got out of the car I was just beat. But the result means more than anything. These guys work so hard. We’ve worked so hard all season. I’m just really proud of them. ... My helmet fan wouldn’t work. When your head is just blowing like a hair dryer, it’s really tough. We train for that. You just try to find a little bit more. You’re not going to pull in, I guarantee that, with plus seven or plus eight, whatever, I was going to faint before I was going to finish or get out of the race. Just really proud of the team. They deserve this. We’ve worked really hard for it, so it’s nice to see it pay off.”
Martin Truex Jr.: “Our car was good. The field is so tight, so close. Your car drives so much worse in traffic. I felt like we did really good to get back to where we did (after a speeding penalty). You just burn the tires off so much worse back there in the hot, dirty track, dirty air. You’re in more rubber. It’s just a dogfight.
“I don’t know. We gave it a hell of an effort. I felt like we had a really strong car. I don’t think we could have beat the 12. He was really, really strong. We were definitely close.
“Something to work on for next time. Really disappointed. I thought I was well under speed leaving that box. Clearly we were speeding, so... Obviously we have something to look at there. It’s devastating. That’s racing.”
Here are the results, points standings and full stats packages from Martinsville:
Click here for where everyone finished
Click here for the cumulative race report
Click here for the penalty report
Click here for the drivers points after the Round of 8 l And here for the reseeding
Click here for the owners points after the Round of 8 l And here for the reseeding
Ryan Blaney advanced to the Championship 4 with an emphatic victory at Martinsville Speedway, where William Byron squeaked into the Nov. 5 title race.
Blaney earned his second victory of the season and first at Martinsville, beating Aric Almirola by 0.889 seconds.
Denny Hamlin finished third, coming up eight points short of Byron in advancing to the Cup championship showdown at Phoenix Raceway.
Byron hung on for 13th after a lackluster day on the 0.526-mile oval.
Martin Truex Jr., Tyler Reddick and Chris Buescher also were eliminated along with Hamlin.
With 22 laps remaining, Ryan Blaney is back in the automatic transfer spot at Martinsville.
Blaney snatched the lead from Aric Almirola to position himself to claim a spot in the Championship 4 as a Round of 8 winner beside Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell.
William Byron is running 15th and currently clinging to the final spot in the Nov. 5 title race at Phoenix. Byron is six points ahead of Denny Hamlin, who is in third.
With 100 laps remaining at Martinsville Speedway, the championship outlook is similar to where it stood at the initial green flag with a few adjustments.
Ryan Blaney now is the highest-ranked driver above the cutline, followed by William Byron (who had entered Martinsville with a 30-point lead).
Denny Hamlin, who was 17 points behind the cutline to start the race, has closed the gap to six points behind Byron for the final transfer spot.
After the first two stages were dominated by Blaney and Hamlin, a caution with 176 laps remaining has jumbled the order as teams tried different strategies.
Chase Elliott, who has been winless for more than a year, leads ahead of Aric Almirola and Corey LaJoie.
The running order for the playoff contenders: Hamlin is in seventh, Blaney eighth and Byron 19th.
A yellow flag with 176 laps remaining at Martinsville Speedway has pulled the contenders to the pits for possibly the last stop of the race.
Ryan Blaney was leading over Denny Hamlin when the caution occurred for a Michael McDowell spin.
Barring an extended overtime, the window should be open from here for making the finish of the 500-lap race. So Blaney elected to pit from the lead, though his team had hoped to run it out for another 50 laps until the last stop.
Several drivers tried divergent strategies with two or no tires, so Blaney and Hamlin both lost several spots while taking four tires. They both will be outside the top 10 on the restart.
Ryan Blaney steadily marched toward his first Championship 4 berth, beating Denny Hamlin to win Stage 2 at Martinsville Speedway.
Hamlin remained in position to make the championship round in Phoenix for a fifth time, gaining nine stage points for a second-place finish. He has 19 stage points and has closed a large gap to William Byron, who entered the race 30 points above the cutline but has no stage points while running outside the top 15 for much of the race.
It’s been a roller-coaster round for Blaney, who had a sixth-place finish at Las Vegas restored after an initial disqualification was rescinded. The Team Penske driver then rebounded for a second at Homestead-Miami Speedway to move 10 points above the cutline entering Martinsville.
The pit woes continued for Martin Truex Jr. under yellow while a furious battle for the lead erupted on the Lap 226 restart.
Truex has been pit by flawed strategy and slow pit stops throughout the playoffs, but he was the culprit this time as he was penalized for speeding in the pits.
He fell to 25th on the restart from a top-five position, wiping out any potential at stage points and likely putting him back in a must-win to advance to the championship.
When the green flag fell, Denny Hamlin briefly retook the lead from Ryan Blaney, who battled back on the outside.
Near the halfway mark, Blaney is leading, but Hamlin is running second and currently in the last provisional playoff spot.
Martinsville has its third leader, and it’s another playoff driver who wants a shot at the championship.
Ryan Blaney passed Denny Hamlin on Lap 194 of 500 to move into an automatic transfer spot to the Championship 4.
But all wasn’t lost for Hamlin, who remains on pace to gain nine stage points and in a provisional spot for the Championship 4.
William Byron, who entered the race 30 points above the cutline, is running outside the top 20 and in serious jeopardy of missing the championship race because he is unlikely to gain any stage points.
Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney got off to strong starts in their bids to make the Championship 4.
Hamlin won Stage 1 at Martinsville Speedway to stay on track for his first victory at the short track in eight years and an automatic berth in the title race at Phoenix.
Blaney, who entered Martinsville 10 points above the cutline in the final transfer spot, banked nine points by finishing second to Hamlin.
Martin Truex Jr. finished third in the stage and gained eight stage points.
The big loser was William Byron, who entered the race with a 30-point advantage on the cutline. The Hendrick Motorsports driver was 12th in the stage, gaining zero points and allowing Hamlin, Truex and Blaney to cut into his margin.
The first yellow flag at Martinsville marked an anxious moment for Denny Hamlin.
With the leader beginning to lap cars, the pressure mounted on those running on the fringe of the top 30. Austin Dillon applied the heat to Alex Bowman, who hit Harrison Burton off Turn 2 to trigger the multicar pileup that also included Kyle Busch and Daniel Suarez.
Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. (running second) both escaped the chaos and pitted during the caution.
On the Lap 112 restart, Hamlin took the outside, and Truex allowed his teammate to slide down into the lead. But Ryan Blaney took advantage of the teamwork and passed Truex for second.
With 20 percent of 500 laps complete at Martinsville Speedway, Denny Hamlin leads Joe Gibbs Racing teammate by Martin Truex Jr. by 1.767 seconds.
Hamlin (53 laps led) and Truex (47) have led all the laps so far.
Trying to win his first race at Martinsville Speedway in eight years, Denny Hamlin seized the lead from Martin Truex Jr. on Lap 48 of 500.
Hamlin, a Chesterfield, Virginia, native, has won five times at his home-state short track, but his most recent Martinsville victory was March 29, 2015.
With the lead change, Hamlin currently is in a provisional transfer spot to the Championship 4. William Byron, who runs 14th, is in the final position on points.
Ryan Blaney is minus-13 to the cutline but on track to gain stage points while running seventh.
Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin, both trying to race their way into the Championship 4, settled into the first two spots at the front of the field at Martinsville Speedway.
The field settled into a mostly single-file line behind the top two. The first stage will comprise 130 of 500 laps around the 0.526-mile oval.
After an eventful ending to Saturday’s Xfinity Series cutoff race at Martinsville Speedway, here are some major storylines to watch as the Cup Series sets its Championship 4 field.
Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick could face tough decisions
A historical look at the most successful manufacturers and team owners in the playoffs
Richard Childress was very unhappy with Xfinity driver Sheldon Creed
Justin Allgaier wins Xfinity race at Martinsville
Friday 5: Crew chief tells Denny Hamlin: “Go get me a clock”
Ross Chastain, NASCAR stars recall ‘Hail Melon’ at Martinsville one year later: ‘A big brain move’
Championship 4 field could be youngest in this playoff format
