Last Updated: October 30, 2023, 03:30 IST
Ryan Blaney will race for his first Cup championship after qualifying for NASCAR’s title-deciding finale with a Sunday win at Martinsville Speedway.
William Byron, who led the Cup Series with six wins this season, earned the fourth and last slot in the championship by limping to a Thirteenth-place end. Byron had padded his place with bonus factors earned all season and edged Denny Hamlin, who completed third at Martinsville on Sunday, by eight factors to qualify for NASCAR’s championship.
Blaney and Byron will race Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson subsequent Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, the place the Cup championship will go to the highest-finishing driver.
Larson and Byron gave Hendrick Motorsports a pair of Chevrolets in the ultimate 4, Bell is in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing and Blaney drives a Ford for Team Penske. Blaney may give Team Penske back-to-back titles following Joey Logano’s win for Penske final yr.
Larson is the one driver in the sector with a Cup title and returns to the ultimate 4 for the second time in three years. Bell is again in the championship for the second consecutive yr; Blaney and Byron have by no means raced for the Cup title.
Hamlin was just about in a must-win state of affairs Sunday after a mechanical failure final week induced him to crash and dropped him under the cutoff line for elimination at Martinsville. He wasted no time going after the win and led a race-high 156 laps.
“I’m not counting points. I’m doing everything I can to win. Everything,” Hamlin radioed earlier than the ultimate stage.
But Hamlin misplaced floor after the ultimate spherical of pit stops — when he and Blaney every took 4 tires — and he by no means may work his method again by way of the site visitors to problem for the win. Hamlin was additionally eradicated from championship rivalry at Martinsville final yr on a last-lap Hail Mary transfer by Ross Chastain.
Blaney received for the third time this season, tying his profession excessive, and led 145 laps. He received twice in the playoffs however his win on the Virginia monitor was the primary for Blaney, who hails from High Point, North Carolina, and considers the brief monitor positioned 55 miles away his residence monitor.
Martin Truex Jr., the common season champion and pole-sitter Sunday, was eradicated from title rivalry together with Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing, Chris Buescher of RFK Racing and Hamlin.
CHEVROLET WINS MANUFACTURER TITLE
Chevrolet clinched its forty second producer championship when Sunday’s race started at Martinsville.
It marked the third consecutive yr the title went to the bowtie brigade in NASCAR’s prime Cup Series. Chevy already clinched each the Truck Series and Xfinity Series championships this season for its fifth nationwide sequence sweep — first since 2012 that Chevy claimed all three nationwide titles.
Chevrolet received its first producer Cup championship in 1958 and later recording a streak of 13 consecutive titles between 2003 by way of 2015. Chevrolet has 850 Cup victories and 33 driver championships in NASCAR’s premier sequence, making it the winningest automaker in NASCAR’s 75-year historical past.
“This title is the result of great teamwork by the Chevrolet drivers, crew chiefs and teams working tirelessly throughout the season,” stated Jim Campbell, General Motors U.S. Vice President of Performance and Motorsports.
UP NEXT
The season-ending championship race at Phoenix Raceway, the place Larson, Bell, Blaney and Byron will race for the Cup title. The highest ending driver among the many last 4 claims the championship. Joey Logano received his second title a yr in the past by profitable Phoenix, however has already been eradicated from the playoffs. Byron received in the spring.
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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is printed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)
