{"id":48876,"date":"2024-11-02T22:00:40","date_gmt":"2024-11-03T03:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=48876"},"modified":"2024-11-03T08:54:54","modified_gmt":"2024-11-03T14:54:54","slug":"nascar-saturday-martinsville-notebook-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/02\/nascar-saturday-martinsville-notebook-6\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Saturday Martinsville Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service <\/em><\/p>\n

Chase Elliott enters Martinsville elimination race brimming with confidence<\/strong><\/p>\n

MARTINSVILLE, Va. \u2014 NASCAR\u2019s most popular driver is looking for a popular victory in Sunday\u2019s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway (2 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\"\"

Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, drives during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway on November 02, 2024 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by David Jensen\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Though Chase Elliott\u2019s triumph at Texas in April is his lone win of the season so far, the driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet enters the Round of 8 elimination race exuding confidence, despite sitting eighth in the standings in a win-or-bust frame of mind.<\/p>\n

For one thing, Elliott\u2019s cars have shown excellent speed the past two weekends at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway.<\/p>\n

For another, Elliott has been in this position before. In 2020, he won at Martinsville to secure his bid for the Championship 4 and a week later claimed the series title with a victory at Phoenix Raceway.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just feel good about where we\u2019re at,\u201d Elliott said before Saturday\u2019s practice at the 0.526-mile track. \u201cI think we\u2019ve run really well the last two weeks. I thought our team was operating at an extremely high level last weekend across the boards, so it\u2019s a great time to be doing that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re all in a really good place. I\u2019m in a good place with everything. And, yeah, just proud of how we\u2019ve been running. We\u2019ve been right in the thick of it; right in the mix. When you\u2019re giving yourselves those opportunities, why wouldn\u2019t you be confident in coming to a place that we\u2019ve been able to run well before?<\/p>\n

\u201cEven more so, leaving two places that we have not run well at, historically, and came off with two good weekends. So, yeah, I\u2019m really looking forward to it; try to get going and get to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christopher Bell\u2019s position in standings shapes strategy for Sunday<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a definite upside to Christopher Bell\u2019s position in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff standings\u2014he\u2019s the only one of six drivers still competing for a Championship 4 spot in total control of his own destiny.<\/p>\n

If Bell scores 34 points in Sunday\u2019s Xfinity 500\u2014a third-place finish with no stage points\u2014he will advance to the Championship 4 race for the third straight year.<\/p>\n

However, that makes Bell\u2019s strategy a bit more complicated than that of his competitors, the majority of whom realistically are in must-win situations\u2014as was Bell when he won at Martinsville to advance in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely putting us in an interesting position,\u201d Bell said, \u201cbecause one thing that my team does really well is just focus on ourselves and doing the best that we can for ourselves that day.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut with the points situation, I think it makes a little bit of sense to kind of see what the competition\u2019s doing. Myself, William (Byron) and (Kyle) Larson, we\u2019re in a points battle amongst the three of us, and the thing that\u2019s playing against that is I\u2019m sure William and Larson are going to be racing for the win, and that means we\u2019re going to have to be racing for the win as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if the yellow flags kind of make the strategy wonky, maybe it\u2019s a situation where we just do whatever they do and just try to stay on the same strategy as them and either lose together or win together. What you don\u2019t want to happen is be on the losing side of it when they\u2019re on the winning side of it and give up a bunch of points.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bell enters the race 29 points above the current elimination line. He\u2019s 22 points ahead of Byron and 29 ahead of Larson.<\/p>\n

New tire combination is \u201cX\u201d factor in NASCR Cup elimination race<\/strong><\/p>\n

NASCAR Cup Series drivers and crew chiefs will have to make a major adjustment to a new tire combination Goodyear has provided for Sunday\u2019s Xfinity 500 (2 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

The right sides are the option tire used at North Wilkesboro and Richmond earlier this year\u2014with a different tire code based solely on a change in the color of the lettering of the sidewall.<\/p>\n

The left-side tires are the softest Goodyear has ever brought to Martinsville, designed to add grip and increase fall-off, which is expected to be approximately one second per lap under race conditions\u2014a significant number give that Cup cars cover the 0.526-mile distance in just over 20 seconds.<\/p>\n

The new combination\u2014tested by Cup drivers Bubba Wallace, Kyle Busch and Todd Gilliland in August\u2014is a marked departure from the tries used in the spring, when fresh rubber made a minimal difference in performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt adds another element, for sure,\u201d said Chris Gabehart, crew chief for Playoff driver Denny Hamlin, who leads all full-time active Cup drivers with five victories at the venerable short track. \u201cWithout it, you look at the last several Martinsville races, and you know kind of how they\u2019re going to play out. They\u2019re going to be about staying out and minimal time on pit road and keeping track position.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx One Rate Toyota, reacts in the garage area after an on-track incident during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway on November 02, 2024 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019ve certainly seen Martinsville of old where handling, tire fall-off and tire management matters a lot. When a caution comes out just 15 laps into a run, you come in and you get more tires.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we all know what Martinsville\u2019s capable of, but we know what it\u2019s been lately. Will this tire make the difference and (make us) have to adjust? We\u2019ll see. But it\u2019s definitely an added element.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamlin, however, will face an unwanted, unexpected element in Sunday\u2019s race. After he set what turned out to be the third-fastest time in Saturday\u2019s 45-minute practice session, the throttle on his No. 11 Toyota stuck entering Turn 3 on his 33rd lap.<\/p>\n

Hamlin\u2019s car broke loose and spun, and the rear end slammed into the outside wall, damaging the Camry extensively and eliminating the possibility of a qualifying run. Accordingly, Hamlin will start from the rear on Sunday and likely will have a less-than-desirable pit stall.And what made the throttle stick? A chunk of rubber from degrading tires lodged within the throttle body.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service  Chase Elliott enters Martinsville elimination race brimming with confidence MARTINSVILLE, Va. \u2014 NASCAR\u2019s most popular driver is looking for a popular victory in Sunday\u2019s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway (2 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Though Chase Elliott\u2019s triumph at Texas in April is his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":48918,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[407,16],"class_list":["post-48876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-martinsville-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-2182513720-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1748&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-cIk","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48876"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48919,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48876\/revisions\/48919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}