The stage is set to decide NASCAR's final four

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the-stage-is-set-to-decide-nascar's-final-four — The stage is set to decide NASCAR's final four

In all likelihood, William Byron has to win at Martinsville Speedway to reach the NASCAR Cup Series final four next week at Phoenix and will lead the field to green on Sunday at Martinsville.

While the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 driver is pleased with the pole, he isn’t points racing on Sunday and feels like it was just more important to have a race winning car and taking care of it regardless of where it landed after time trials.

“It’s funny, I said to myself before I came here, I was like, man, qualifying doesn’t matter as much as it normally does for us because we don’t really need the stage points,” Byron said during a press conference after the session. “So maybe that was the key. Honestly for me, I was like, if I qualify 20th, as long as I keep my nose clean and have a good enough car to drive through the field, I should be okay.”

William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

That’s because, unlike previous races at Martinsville with the NextGen car, the tire fall off is so significant now that this is less and less an extreme track position race.

“If you qualified out of the top 10, it was like doomsday,” Byron said. “So I think that’s changed a little bit with this tire and the fall off but you always want track position and being on the pole is nice and gives us a good pit stall.

“That’s probably the biggest key out of it. It gives us a chance to control the race for a little bit.”

Current Playoff Grid

Chase Briscoe Adv.
Denny Hamlin Adv.
Christopher Bell +37
Kyle Larson +36
—
William Byron -36
Joey Logano -38
Ryan Blaney -47
Chase Elliott -62

What has to be done?

So here’s the dynamic.

Bell and Larson are racing each other for points just in case one of the four below the cutline indeed win their way into the final four. This would move the cutline up and the driver of the two with the fewer points would be the one who misses the cut.

Of the two, Larson had the much better in terms of practice pace. All told, Hendrick Motorsports looked really competitive overall.

Needing to win, Chase Elliott was fastest in practice but also fastest in the 15-lap average and was second-fastest in the 10-lap average. Larson was fifth fastest overall but second-fastest over the 15-lap average and 10-lap average.

Byron was seventh fastest overall but third-fastest over 15 laps and 10 laps before winning the pole.

The Penske championship duo of Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano were not particularly fast in practice at all, but as Ricky Stenhouse Jr. pointed out during media availability, they never are so it’s hard to read into it.

“They’ll be really slow in practice but then all of a sudden they’ll qualify good and race really well,” Stenhouse said. “So I’m not sure what they’re doing. They’re clearly working on something.”

Logano backed that up and will start fourth.

“You’re never satisfied or never happy until we win but that’s a good starting spot for our Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang,” Logano said. “I can see the front from there and hopefully we’ll get one of the pit stalls we’re looking for, but we’re all or nothing.

“You just kind of have to keep that attitude all day and see if we can put it up there. It seems like our short run speed was in the game. Our long run speed was less than great, so we’ve got some work to do there.”

Watch: Logano on doing whatever it takes to make Championship 4: ‘It’s a test of morals’

Blaney qualified very poorly, 31st, and has a lot of work ahead of him.

All told, even Bell and Larson will feel like they’ll need to win on Sunday, because if they finish second, it very could be Logano, Blaney, Byron or Elliott.

They raced it out for the win last year with Blaney emerging victorious.

“Gosh, last year was an awesome finish of the race between me, Chase and Kyle,” Blaney said. “Three guys under a blanket duking it out, and we were able to come out on top. I expect the same thing – hard racing all the way through and fairly clean racing, you hope. There’s going to be contact, but you just hope it doesn’t turn into a cluster like we’ve seen here in the past. I think we’ve been doing it the right way and the way Martinsville is supposed to be raced.

“You know you’re in for a battle. It’s going to be a crazy one tomorrow. Four guys [have to] win. Two guys kind of having their own little points deal going on and battling not to be the bottom seed in case one of us do win, so it’ll be a wild day and hopefully we’re in the mix. That’s all you can ask for.”

Watch: Ryan Blaney shares mentality with his back against the wall at Martinsville