It was a wild weekend of short track racing at Martinsville Speedway that saw a three overtime finish, crashing for a win, a fight in the pits, and a last lap record setting run for a spot in Championship Four.
On Saturday afternoon it took three overtimes to settle the win. Brandon Jones was in the lead when teammate Ty Gibbs hit Jones from behind, sending Jones into the wall to win the race.
After the race Austin Hill and Myatt Snider got into an aggressive conversation that ended with Snider lying on pit road. NASCAR is looking into the matter.
In the Cup Series race on Sunday, the race ended on the scheduled 500 laps but the last lap was one for the history books. As Christopher Bell was passing Chase Briscoe to take the lead and crossing the finish line; Ross Chastain was in tenth place in a battle with Denny Hamlin that would decide which driver would be a part of the four drivers in a battle for the championship. Chastain moved up to the wall, put the car in fifth gear and hit the gas. Chastain shot up five positions and earned his place in the final four and setting a new track record with a lap of 18.845 seconds. NASCAR stated that the move was legal according to the rule book but would be speaking with the drivers this week before the final race of the season.
In the post race inspection, NASCAR disqualified RFK Racing’s driver of the number six car Brad Keselowski when they determined that the car violated the NASCAR rule book when it failed to meet the minimum weight. As a result, Keselowski was dropped from his fourth place to last place – 36th.
While it is down to the final race and the four drivers selected for the championship; stage points are still important because they help to determine the final standings for the end of the season.
Cup Series Stage Points:
Chase Elliott – 292
Kyle Larson – 272
Ryan Blaney – 271
Joey Logano – 269
William Byron – 240
Ross Chastain – 233
Martin Truex Jr – 224
Christopher Bell 207
Kyle Busch – 196Denny Hamlin – 195
Daniel Suarez – 149
Chase Briscoe – 125
Tyler Reddick – 122
Erik Jones – 110
Alex Bowman – 104
Bubba Wallace – 99
Kevin Harvick – 90
Brad Keselowski – 77
Kurt Busch – 71
Austin Cindric – 71
Aric Almirola – 67
Ricky Stenhouse Jr – 64
Harrison Burton – 50
Cole Custer – 48
Austin Dillon – 47
Chris Buescher – 41
Ty Dillon – 33
Todd Gilliland – 31
Justin Haley – 28
Michael McDowell – 23
Joey Hand – 14
Corey LaJoie – 8
Cody Ware – 2
Championship Four Set for Final Weekend
