By: Zach Arnold

Martin Truex Jr. earned the pole a day prior and led the field to the green flag. The regular season champion has struggled all throughout the 2023 Playoffs, and spent 48 laps out front before his teammate Denny Hamlin passed him for the lead.

Hamlin led the next 63 laps, then the first caution flag flew. Alex Bowman, Harrison Burton, Austin Dillon, and Corey Lajoie crashed out of turn two; Burton and Bowman received the most damage. Every car was able to continue on, however, was significantly slower due to damage. The rest of stage one was led by Hamlin as he went on to win the first stage. Four playoff drivers earned points in the opening stage: Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, and Truex Jr.

Hamlin and Blaney drag-raced into turn one to open up stage two with the No. 11 able to clear the No. 12 and pull away for many laps. It wasn’t until later in the stage that Blaney caught back up to Hamlin and took the lead from him on Lap 194. 

The race restarted with 35 laps remaining in stage two, Blaney and Hamlin battled hard into turn one, as both cars were side-by-side for a few laps until the No. 12 was able to clear the No. 11. Blaney would lead the rest of the stage and earn ten more points. Blaney, Hamlin, and Bell were the only drivers who earned points in stage two.

Stage three began with a wreck a few laps in, as Joey Logano pushed Ty Gibbs into Hamlin. All drivers received little damage to their racecars and were completely fine to continue on. Another restart with Blaney and Hamlin on the front row resumed the race, and Blaney cleared. A couple of spins happened shortly afterward, which forced teams to make strategy decisions. With some teams only deciding to take two tires, this jammed previous race leaders, Blaney and Hamlin, to restart the race in the middle of the field just outside of the top ten.

As the field was about to restart the race, the pace car had an issue, yes, the pace car. This added a caution lap and NASCAR brought out a backup pace car. When was the last time NASCAR needed to go to the backup pace car?

Chase Elliott was the new race leader, the No. 9 team stayed out during the caution and picked up valuable track position. The No. 9 was very fast, and almost had a half-straighaway lead a few laps into the run. Aric Almirola was the next driver to lead the Xfinity 500 as he caught the No. 9 of Elliott on lap 411 and passed him. Almirola would lead until 23 laps were remaining, and a hard-charging Blaney made his race-winning pass then.

Hamlin, Truex Jr, Tyler Reddick, and Chris Buescher were the four drivers whose championship hopes ended at Martinsville. On the other side, Kyle Larson, Bell, Blaney, and William Byron will have an opportunity to win the 2023 title next week at Phoenix Raceway.

“It’s awesome. I grew up in High Point, not too far from here. High Point is closer to Martinsville than it is to Charlotte, so it’s really cool. I’ve been wanting to win here for a long time. We’ve been super close for many years and awesome to close it out,” Blaney said in his press conference post-race.

The NASCAR Cup Series champion will be decided next weekend at Phoenix Raceway. Tune into NBC Sports next Sunday at 3:00 p.m. to witness the final event.