NASCAR at Martinsville

The Round of 8 is set as the NASCAR Cup "playoffs" continues at the shortest track of the season: Martinsville Speedway in Virginia. And to everyone's surprise, Kyle Larson is not in the field after an engine expiration at Kansas Sunday, which was won by Truex Jr. for the 7th win this season for the Jeresy native.

The Round of 6 for the Trucks Series begins this Saturday at Martinsville also. Chase Briscoe and Kaz Grala were the two eliminated after Talladega a few weeks ago.


Cup Standings

1 Martin Truex Jr. 4069
2 Kyle Busch 4042
3 Brad Keselowski 4026
4 Kevin Harvick 4017
5 Jimmie Johnson 4017
6 Denny Hamlin 4014
7 Ryan Blaney 4009
8 Chase Elliott 4006



Trucks Standings

1 Christopher Bell 3047
2 Johnny Sauter 3027
3 John Hunter Nemechek 3014
4 Matt Crafton 3014
5 Ben Rhodes 3013
6 Austin Cindric (R) 3007

Well...

That all happened.

Needed something to get my interest back in NASCAR, and I'd be a liar if I said that everyone driving like Stevie Wonder in the last 20 laps didn't do it for me. God, NASCAR needs more short tracks!

At least it wasn't Denny Hamlin. I mean there would some dirty moves but that definitely took the cake. Felt bad for Chase after that one.

I concur, and I'm glad that I tuned in for the end, myself. That was a great show that we got for Martinsville's first race under the lights!

The leaders were really aggressive but for the most part raced respectably, and that was a lot of fun to watch. It's unfortunate that Hamlin kind of ruined the party; he's not the first driver who's ever caused a crash like that, but his attempts to defend himself really made him look silly. I feel really bad for Elliott, myself, because he had a fantastic race go to pieces regardless of whether or not he would have won.

Denny wrecking both the leader and then the entire field (coming to the checkers) definitely left a sour note over this race. It's also very weird to see a race where Kyle Busch and MTJ finish 1-2 and no one is whining about the winner.

Cardinals5 wrote:Denny wrecking both the leader and then the entire field (coming to the checkers) definitely left a sour note over this race. It's also very weird to see a race where Kyle Busch and MTJ finish 1-2 and no one is whining about the winner.

Pretty sure it was Ryan Blaney who got into Hamlin first on the last lap crash.

RetrogradeRenegade wrote:

Cardinals5 wrote:Denny wrecking both the leader and then the entire field (coming to the checkers) definitely left a sour note over this race. It's also very weird to see a race where Kyle Busch and MTJ finish 1-2 and no one is whining about the winner.

Pretty sure it was Ryan Blaney who got into Hamlin first on the last lap crash.

Keselowski was at Blaney's door. Blaney was already in the second lane and was inside of Hamlin coming out of four. Then Hamlin cut down across the front of the 11 and got himself sideways.

I'm also pretty sure Blaney didn't force Denny to crank the steering wheel hard to the left and drive them both into the pit wall as they were crossing the line.

What a freaking race. Shows why Denny Hamlin has garnered the hate he has in the past several seasons. Bowls over the 24 after being giftwrapped a good finish by the 18 car holding up the rest of the field at the end of Stage 2 so Hamlin wouldn't go a lap down, then gets shoved out by said 18 car. Upon looking at the replay, Logano cut his own tire down with the aggressive blocks he threw on Kyle, so I'm not as mad about Kyle winning as I was. Hoped for Truex to be a spoiler, but oh well.

Got into a bit of a brew-ha-ha with another member of the community (nobody on here) who called the Hamlin-Elliott encident "karma" for Chase putting Keselowski into the wall earlier trying to defend for the lead. His argument isn't even really valid; Brad VERY nearly cut Chase's left rear down and the only reason nothing came from it was that Logano decided to be a smart person and stay out with a deflating tire. You can call it even between Brad and Chase after that... then Hamlin drives in way too hard and runs over Elliott in Turn 3. Nice.

Busch and Truex Jr. are in the Final Four for certain and we all really could predict that anyway. It's pretty much a 6-car dogfight for two spots. Can't wait for this godawful system to produce yet another unnecessary altercation and/or rivalry because of it too. Still sending my thanks to Brian France.

Can't feel sorry for Chase Elliott after the way he raced Keselowski, and I also can't be surprised or mad at Hamlin. The playoff format encourages that type of racing, and discourages the type of racing Truex Jr. was doing.

The 18 is the championship favorite. Bank on it.

Cynon wrote:Can't feel sorry for Chase Elliott after the way he raced Keselowski

Keselowski was running into the back of Chase every lap just before he took the lead off him and as Casey mentioned, Kes almost cut down Chase's tire. Chase running Keselowski up the track wasn't really that bad considering how he was being raced too. It happens every single Martinsville race but this is honestly the first time I've seen someone call it dirty.

Ben Atkins wrote:

Cynon wrote:Can't feel sorry for Chase Elliott after the way he raced Keselowski

Keselowski was running into the back of Chase every lap just before he took the lead off him and as Casey mentioned, Kes almost cut down Chase's tire. Chase running Keselowski up the track wasn't really that bad considering how he was being raced too. It happens every single Martinsville race but this is honestly the first time I've seen someone call it dirty.

I suspect the contact between the two which led to the tyre rub was more Keselowski being caught out by Elliott making a mistake himself - that sort of thing cam happen when you're totally focused on the car in front of you. As for the other contact, well, it's not like he ever got the 24 properly sideways (at least not more than once), as opposed to when Elliott drove down into turn 1 and never even made an attempt to take the corner properly.

I got to say that I was so bummed for Chase after the way Hamlin just dumped him last week. I always thought that Hamlin was a piece of shit before. He still is today.

The racing was fantastic from start to finish. A 9.5/10 for me. But as Cynon said, NASCAR encourages this type of racing since the playoff format was introduced and it causes nothing but unwarranted chaos since.