Hendrick Motorsports will have a driver in the final four, but it won’t be either of their champions as both Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott were eliminated Sunday. Denny Hamlin’s title hopes also came to end, leaving the seasoned veteran Cup-less in his 19-year quest for the biggest prize in NASCAR.

All three faced unique challenges at Martinsville, and each one came agonizingly close to the ‘golden ticket’ that would have secured their place in the Championship 4 — a win at Martinsville. No one can say they didn’t have a shot, but the defining moments came during caution period with around 100 laps to go.

Larson chose to stay out on 30-lap old tires while Elliott pitted from the lead, taking four fresh tires and dropping to seventh place for the restart. Hamlin pitted as well, but he only took two fresh right-sides, which allowed him to restart ahead of Elliott in sixth. In truth, Hamlin’s shot was already over as this call ultimately put him in a sort of purgatory where he was able to challenge some of those who stayed out, but didn’t really gain any ground as the fast cars with four fresh tires overtook him as well. 

Three champions fighting for one transfer spot

Elliott, to his credit, marched all the way to the front and was set to challenge his Hendrick Motorsports teammate head-on in the battle for the win. Over the course of the final 87-lap run, Larson faded and Elliott was able to pass him for the lead with just 25 laps to go.

He may have thought this race was his to lose, but another driver with fresh tires was closing fast from several seconds back. Defending NASCAR Cup champ Ryan Blaney had both the best long-run car and better tires in a combination that made him extremely formidable. It was now three champions fighting for one transfer spot. Blaney wasted no time, shoving his way past Larson, and although they were on the same strategy, Elliott could do little to withstand him after burning off his rears in his earlier pursuit of Larson. Blaney snatched the lead away with 14 laps to go and never looked back.

Elliott finished second, Larson third, and Hamlin fifth — all were eliminated.

Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports, NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro

Photo by: Peter Casey – NKP – Motorsport Images

“I was pushing really hard trying to get to the No. 5 [Larson],” said Elliott after the race.”I just felt like Ryan [Blaney] had been really good. I was scared to give him an opportunity to get to the No. 5 first. I just really wanted to try to get the lead. And then you never know, maybe a caution comes out or something. It just didn’t work out for us”

When asked in a later interview what he needed in the closing laps, Elliott quipped:”A new set of rear tires would have done me a lot of good.”

The title favorite falls

While Elliott has been one the most consistent drivers all, it was Larson who asserted himself as the title favorite. But much like 2020 with Kevin Harvick, the driver with the objectively strongest year did not even get a shot at the crown. 

When the final caution flag flew, perhaps Larson should have chosen to pit with Elliott. He was strong enough to hold the lead for as long as he did and perhaps fresh rubber could have salvaged his title hopes.

Larson has more wins than any other driver this year, but we could certainly look back at all of the race wins he almost had as the moments that changed the trajectory of his season. Just two more wins would have granted him enough bonus points to advance into the final four. There’s also the five points left on the table from the regular season title battle, which he only missed out on due to not making it to Charlotte in time after contesting the Indianapolis 500. It’s a lot of little things that added up for the No. 5, and unfortunately for him, the math just didn’t work out.

“This whole Round of 8 has been a fight,” said Larson following the race. “From the first stage at Las Vegas on, it’s been a fight. I feel like we made the right pit call to give ourselves the best opportunity. I’m proud of my team; the car, the pit crew, everyone at Hendrick Motorsports. We just didn’t have enough.”

No matter what happens next weekend, he will end the 2024 season with the most wins and laps led, but he can place no higher than fifth in the standings. 

Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports, HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro

Photo by: Peter Casey – NKP – Motorsport Images

A valiant fight but no reward for Hamlin 

While Larson’s exit is shocking, the end of Hamlin’s title run felt expected. It’s been a bumpy playoffs for the driver of the No. 11 Toyota from pit road errors to conservative strategies that backfired and just a curious lack of race-winning speed. He also had to overcome more than any other playoff driver on Sunday. When a stuck throttle destroyed the rear of his car in Cup practice, the team spent hours making repairs before race day. He charged from the rear of the field in an admirable effort.

“Just a fourth or fifth place car today and that’s kind of where we hung out,” said Hamlin, who will still have a shot at the Bill France Cup on the owner’s side of things. “Even when we were at our best, it was just good enough to keep up.”

Watch: Denny Hamlin: ‘Overall, I just want to win’ after coming up short of Championship 4

Hamlin, the winningest driver in NASCAR Cup history without a title, hasn’t won a race since April. He feels lack of speed is what cost them more than anything, noting: “That’s something you gotta have at the end of the season.” This is the third consecutive year his playoff run has ended one-race shy of the championship race and at 43 years old, one has to wonder how many more chances he’ll have.

It’s strange to look at the split standings after Martinsville as one might mistakingly believe that those who are eliminated are the real Championship 4 based on the names. They very well could have been, but a surprise fuel-mileage win by Joey Logano in Vegas and a stunning last-lap pass by Reddick at Homestead created a narrow path none of them were able to navigate. Bell certainly tried, but we know how that worked out.

Bob Pockrass

FOX NASCAR Insider

Martin Truex Jr. will retire from full-time Cup Series racing following the season finale Sunday at Phoenix Raceway.

He still plans to race and is expected to attempt to qualify for the Daytona 500 in a fourth 23XI Racing car next year. 

But don’t expect the relatively introverted Truex to be hanging out at the track all that much. The 44-year-old has been racing in Cup full-time since 2006 and values his alone time.

He also values his career with 34 Cup wins and one Cup title — all but two of the wins coming in his 10th Cup season or later. Truex has driven for Dale Earnhardt Inc., Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing, Furniture Row Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing. Four of those organizations (all except JGR) closed while he was driving for them. Truex won back-to-back Xfinity titles in 2004-2005 driving for Chance 2 Motorsports, the precursor to JR Motorsports.

Truex talked with FOX Sports prior to last weekend’s race at Martinsville about his career and semi-retirement outlook: 

Are you getting emotional at all?

No, not at all. I’m excited. I’m feeling good and trying to enjoy these last two weeks (Martinsville and Phoenix).

Is what you want at Phoenix to just have a good day? 

I’d like to spoil the championship party. You’d love to win that thing. It’s happened before. We’ve been pretty good there. And hopefully, we can find something a little bit extra and go there. Going out with a win would be the most amazing thing ever short of a championship, obviously, which is impossible. But just want to go have fun and enjoy the last race with the team.

Is there anything you’re going to do special at Phoenix? 

I don’t know. We’ve been talking about it. Maybe throw an old-school little get-together at the coach after the race or something. I don’t know. We’ll see.

You’re not a guy who usually sticks around after a race.

Usually the first one out. I usually win, always win, the race to the airport.

Do you have extra family or extra people coming to Phoenix or because you know there will be at least one race down the road that it’s not as big a deal?

Nothing crazy. There will be a decent amount there, but nobody out of ordinary I’d say.

Martin Truex Jr. celebrates after winning the 2017 NASCAR championship at Homestead. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

How do you look back at your career overall?

Happy. Thankful. Proud. Just the things we’ve been able to do. If you would have told me after my first couple years in the Cup Series that I would win 30-some races and a championship and had three runner-ups and just be around and be a solid, front-running driver for this long, I would be very excited about that. And so I just feel like I’ve had a great career, more so than I ever thought I could accomplish or would accomplish, especially early on. And I’m just thankful for all the people I got to work with and the fans and all my partners that made it possible. I feel very lucky to be able to get to do what I’ve done.

It hasn’t been easy, especially the first 10 years?

Yeah, not easy at all. There was a lot more tough years than good years. But those tough years kind of make you who you are, and they make you appreciate the good times. And so I wouldn’t change any of it for anything. Definitely feel good about what I was able to do.

You are a guy who hates change, and yet your career has had a ton of change, How’d you handle it all?

Just approach everything with an open mind and try to work with the team and take their information and just try to be a team player — just always come in with a good attitude, work hard and be thankful for everybody’s hard work.

What are you going to do on Sundays? 

I’m not sure yet. Hunt and fish. Enjoy life. I’m sure I’ll watch some racing still, probably won’t be as closely interested in it as I am now. But I don’t know. We’ll see. Time will tell.

What are you going to miss the most?

The team, working with the guys, just having that camaraderie and sharing that passion for trying to win and working hard at it. The relationships are really what you take from here and things that will go on for years to come. You get to keep the trophies, and you get to go back and look at videos and all the stats and all the things — they’re always there to see. But you miss the people, just seeing all the guys at the track every weekend.

What are you going to miss the least?

The traveling, just every Thursday getting ready to go. It’s just nonstop. It’s a grind, and it’ll be nice to just not have my schedule printed out for me a year in advance. That’s the biggest thing, really, is just having some time to myself to do what I want and still getting to race some, too. So just doing things on my own terms.

And what do you hope fans remember about you, or when they think of Martin Truex Jr., what do you want them to think about?

I’ve gotten that question a lot lately, and it’s a tough one. Just that I was a good guy, treated people right and hopefully people still think I’m a little bit underrated.

Kyle Busch shares memories of Martin Truex Jr. over the years

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.

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Bob Pockrass

FOX NASCAR Insider

In all three of NASCAR’s national series, will the regular-season champion cap the season with the overall title?

All three – Tyler Reddick in Cup, Cole Custer in Xfinity and Christian Eckes in trucks — are still alive going into the Phoenix Raceway finale weekend.

In each series, four drivers have survived elimination rounds to be eligible for the title. While the races have their full fields, only four drivers compete for the title with the driver among those four who finishes best in the race being crowned the champion.

So here are my picks for the championship weekend, which consists of a 150-lap truck race Friday night, 200-lap Xfinity race Saturday night and a 312-lap Cup championship event Sunday afternoon on the 1-mile oval.

Cup Series

Reddick makes his first Cup championship appearance. It also is the first for his crew chief, Billy Scott. And if that’s not somewhat nerve-racking, it’s hard to ignore that his race team, 23XI Racing, co-owned by Michael Jordan, is in just its fourth year of existence. Not to mention that the team also is suing NASCAR for better charter agreement terms.

NASCAR won’t do anything to keep Reddick from winning the title, but Reddick and the team have done that enough to themselves, at times, this year, to eliminate themselves from contending for wins. Reddick did win the opening stage at Phoenix in the spring and finished second in another stage before placing 10th. 

Ryan Blaney won last year in his first Champ 4 appearance, so Reddick could certainly follow in those footsteps. Or Blaney could go back-to-back — the first driver to do so in the elimination-style playoff era. And Blaney’s two-time Cup champion teammate Joey Logano seems to perform best when it matters most.

William Byron returns to the Champ 4 but takes a 27-race winless streak into Phoenix. So it would seem he doesn’t have a chance.

And that’s why I will pick Byron. This seems to be the season of expecting the unexpected. He’s been through this before. He has a little bit of a chip on his shoulder. He has the full weight of Hendrick behind him. His pit crew seems solid. And he knows how to run in the top 5 at Phoenix. 

This season is about expecting the unexpected. Byron for the win.

Xfinity Series

Custer is looking to go back-to-back in winning Xfinity Series titles before returning to Cup next season as part of the revamped Haas Factory Team.

A fierce competitor, he has Justin Allgaier, AJ Allmendinger and Austin Hill to challenge him.

Allmendinger and Hill have been inconsistent this season when it comes to having fast cars. Allgaier has run fast nearly every week but has had several races where he doesn’t get the finish to match the performance of the car.

So this pick might be from the heart as much as the head — Allgaier has finished top-four in points eight times in the last 13 years. This will be the year the JR Motorsports driver hoists the championship trophy.

Truck Series

Eckes won the regular-season title and won Friday at Martinsville, so he has the momentum as he battles Grant Enfinger, Corey Heim and Ty Majeski for the championship.

Enfinger, who should have won the title last year driving for GMS Racing if not for drivers behind him retaliating against each other and bringing out the caution, won the first two races of the semifinal round but is driving for CR7 Motorsports, an organization in its first playoff run. Majeski has run well at short tracks but execution has not been consistent.

This likely will come down to Eckes and Heim. They have combined for 10 wins this year in the 22 races, with Heim having won six times and Eckes having won four. They both have the ability to dominate.

Giving the nod here to Heim, whose foundation of being primarily a Toyota factory driver and with the resources provided to the Tricon Garage team should give him an edge. 

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.

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Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa finished the opening day of Formula E pre-season testing fastest at the Jarama circuit in Spain, as teams got to grips with the new Gen3 Evo machines.

The Portuguese driver posted a 1m29.220s with more than 60 minutes left on the clock during the three-hour afternoon session, leaving him 0.186s clear of Andretti’s Jake Dennis.

The opening session on Tuesday ran without issue after the all-electric championship opted to move venue following the devastating floods in Valencia, which have so far accounted for more than 200 deaths.

A minute’s silence was held on the grid prior to any running by all drivers and teams, with the decision taken only on Thursday to move the test from the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia to Jarama, just outside Madrid.

The 2.43-mile circuit previously held Formula 1 racing nine times between 1968-1981, and more recently has hosted bike and truck action, having remained largely unchanged during its 57-year tenure.

Maximilian Guenther was the first man to go below the 1m30s barrier, posting a 1m29.661s before the halfway point of the session as he prepares for his first season with DS Penske, having moved across from Maserati MSG in the off-season.

The German finished the session third, 0.441s off the quickest time and ahead of Mahindra’s Edoardo Mortara and Stoffel Vandoorne, the Belgian having directly swapped with Guenther and taken the vacant seat at Maserati MSG.

Car of Pascal Wehrlein, TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

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The second Andretti of Nico Muller finished sixth, the Swiss driver having joined from Abt, ahead of the second Maserati MSG of Jake Hughes, who joins the Trident from McLaren.

Da Costa’s team-mate and reigning champion Pascal Wehrlein finished eighth, having set the pace in the early running, as Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Penske) and Abt’s Lucas di Grassi – with Lola/Yamaha power for the first time – completed the top 10.

Neither Jaguar drivers Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy nor Nissan’s Oliver Rowland and Norman Nato completed any running during the session.

This was due to the sporting punishment which was handed out to both teams after each were found to have breached the championship’s cost cap limit for the 2022-23 season.

Further running is due to take place on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, with a simulation race due to be held on Wednesday afternoon, where the pit boost technology will be trialled ahead of being possibly implemented this season.

An all-female test is also due to still go ahead on Friday afternoon, with Indy NXT driver Jamie Chadwick and F1 Academy championship leader Abbi Pulling set to drive.

Johnny Herbert has insisted he is entitled to his opinions on reigning Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen as a response to criticism from the Dutchman’s father, Jos.

The two former F1 drivers are at loggerheads after Herbert initially remarked that the time penalties dished out to the Red Bull driver during the Mexico Grand Prix “would not stop [him] from pushing Lando Norris off the track in the future”.

Jos was livid that Herbert, who was acting as an FIA race steward at the Mexican Grand Prix, was airing his views in public having administered the penalties, insisting that “a steward shouldn’t talk to the press at all and just deliver work all the time”.

The bitterness continued at the Brazilian Grand Prix when Max Verstappen, who was also heavily criticised by Sky F1’s Damon Hill for his manoeuvres on Norris, claimed: “I’ve got the wrong passport for this paddock”.

However, Herbert – who was again an FIA race steward in Brazil last weekend – has insisted he is not biased.

And in a barb aimed at Jos, he questioned his position to be critical of Red Bull’s operations, having been outspoken against his son’s team on a number of occasions this year.

“I am Johnny Herbert the steward and the professional during a race weekend and Johnny Herbert a pundit at other times, who expresses what he thinks,” Herbert told SafestBettingSites.co.uk.

“When I am a steward, I do not express any opinions.

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“Everyone has an opinion. [Sky Sports F1’s] Martin Brundle has an opinion. Why can’t I when I am not at the race track? The race track has been my world for 50 years. If I don’t quite agree with what I see on the race track I will say so. It is not just Max. I’ll criticise anyone if I feel it is warranted.

“I understand it from Jos’s point of view because it is his son. Is there any bias? No, of course not. I wasn’t the only one to think that Max was over the top in Mexico. Lando Norris and [McLaren boss] Zak Brown thought so too.

“When I do speak to people on a Monday or Tuesday that is outside my stewarding responsibilities.

“Jos has always been very outspoken about what is happening at Red Bull. Is that his position to be? It is all very similar. If you have an opinion and you want to make it, then you can.”

Meanwhile, Herbert says that Norris, who trails Verstappen by 62 points in the drivers’ championship with just 86 available in the final three races, will learn from his title fight.

“McLaren and Lando missed out on seven points in Hungary because they let Piastri win and it’s those things they need to be conscious of going into next season,” added the three-time F1 race winner.

“Will they lose the championship this year? No, because they were always on catch-up. They could have got more points, but that is racing. Max had the clear lead and then didn’t win after June.

“McLaren will learn for next year and have a stronger mindset. Lando will go into 2025 knowing he can beat Max.”

Quotes credit: SafestBettingSites.co.uk

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