{"id":62182,"date":"2026-10-31T18:40:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T23:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=62182"},"modified":"2026-10-31T18:47:52","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T23:47:52","slug":"nascar-saturday-martinsville-notebook-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/31\/nascar-saturday-martinsville-notebook-8\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Saturday Martinsville Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By Holly Cain <\/b>| <\/b>NASCAR Wire Service<\/b><\/p>\n

CHAMPIONSHIP ELIGIBLE CREW CHIEFS DISCUSS TITLE CHANCES<\/b><\/p>\n

MARTINSVILLE, Va. \u2013 The four crew chiefs still bringing a reasonable chance of leading a team to the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series championship met with the media Saturday morning at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in advance of Sunday\u2019s Xfinity 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). And even though three of them go into the race as \u201clongshots,\u201d the competitive vibe was still strong and unmistakable.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Crew chief Cliff Daniels looks on during the NASCAR Cup Series Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on September 21, 2024 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by James Gilbert\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cliff Daniels, the crew chief for the championship-leading No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driven by reigning series champ Kyle Larson, conceded the 73-point advantage his team takes into the season\u2019s final two-race swing looks hard to beat. But the team is taking nothing for granted.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, our game plan hasn’t changed a lot the last handful of weeks, even with the ups and downs, and I think that that’s probably true for all of us sitting here,\u2019\u2019 Daniels insisted. \u201cWe’ve all seen and we’re all very aware of how quickly the points can swing, so every week you’ve just got to be focused on maximizing your day and whatever that’s going to take.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is certainly a race where the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) could go lead all 500 laps and we’ve still got to have a strong day, so our game plan really hasn’t changed much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certainly the points gap plays into the level of comfort, but all four crew chiefs \u2013 Daniels, Chris Gayle (No. 11 Toyota of Denny Hamlin), Adam Stevens (No. 20 Toyota of Christopher Bell) and James Small (No. 19 JGR Toyota of Chase Briscoe) \u2013 go into Sunday’s race with a fighting chance.<\/p>\n

Going into last week\u2019s race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Larson only had a five-point advantage on Bell, but tough luck \u2013 some of their own making, some not \u2013 have turned the standings into a dramatically different situation. Larson\u2019s Talladega win and disappointing finishes for the other three have vaulted the reigning champ into a 73-point lead over Hamlin, 74-point advantage on Bell and 79 points on Briscoe heading into Martinsville\u2019s 500-lapper and then the season finale at 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a 10-race playoff, it’s not a not a nine-race playoff,\u2019\u2019 Stevens reiterated. \u201cSo, you got to bring your best every week. It’s going to be tough for anybody to make up 70 or however many points we have to make up, but it’s not mathematically impossible. I think it’s going to take some special circumstances, but we’ve been a victim to special circumstances plenty this year. Stuff like that can happen.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Three of the four drivers \u2013 Larson, Hamlin and Bell – have previous wins at both Martinsville and Homestead.<\/p>\n

KESELOWSKI\u2019S NEXT CHAPTER<\/b><\/p>\n

Brad Keselowski addressed the media Saturday morning in a lengthy press conference to discuss his future \u2013 a key element of which, he revealed, was settled only in the hour leading up to his appearance behind the microphone.<\/p>\n

Just before his meeting with the media, the 2012 NACAR Cup Series champion and the championship RFK team came to an agreement to part ways in all meaningful aspects going forward, he revealed. While Keselowski finishes out the season in the No. 6 RFK Ford, he reiterated he has no intention of retiring from the driver\u2019s seat and conceded he doesn\u2019t have anything lined up \u2013 yet \u2013 for 2027.<\/p>\n

But, he said, he is open to both ownership and driving opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are really three pivotal next steps for me that we\u2019re working through very hard,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cThe first one for me is, now that I\u2019ve been granted the release, I can meaningfully engage in the opportunities that exist. I was more or less taking phone calls and unable to do much with them until granted that release here just recently. Now I can engage them in a meaningful way. I can also go about the process of finding the right media and marketing partners to take on that challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keselowski reminded that he brings eligibility for NASCAR\u2019s Clash race and would love to compete in the season-opening Daytona 500, a crown jewel he still has yet to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I joined RFK Racing, which would have been about five years ago now, I joined with the idea that it would be my forever home,\u2019\u2019 Keselowski said. \u201cThat would be where I finished my career, transcend into management and ownership for the rest of my professional career in life. That was really where my heart was and it didn\u2019t play out the way that we hoped it would, but there were a lot of good things that did happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say objectively I was able to be a part of taking this team up a level in every measurable way, and I\u2019m proud of the people that I got to work with and that we did that together with. No matter where this goes from here, that doesn\u2019t change.\u201d<\/p>\n

LARSON COULD BE FIRST REPEAT CHAMP SINCE JIMMIE JOHNSON<\/b><\/p>\n

Although Larson is adamant not to \u201ccount his championships before they come,\u201d should his No. 5 Hendrick team claim the 2026 title, he would be the first back-to-back champ since a fellow former Hendrick Motorsports driver, Jimmie Johnson, who won a record five consecutive championships between 2006-2010.<\/p>\n

With the benefit of a victory last weekend at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Larson \u2013 who won the 2021 and 2025 season titles \u2013 holds a hefty 73-point advantage atop the standings as he takes the Martinsville green flag Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it would definitely be an amazing accomplishment, for sure,\u2019\u2019 Larson said, allowing a slight smile. \u201cI think with repeat champions, it was obviously really tough with the previous format, so I think you’ll see more of it now as we get back to The Chase. It’s just easier to put together 10 good races than one.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think if we happen to go back-to-back with it being two different formats, I think that also just shows the resilience of this team. So, yeah, we’ll see. I just want to go race and try and do a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n

BELL RE-SETS CHAMPIONSHIP CHASE AFTER TOUGH TALLADEGA<\/b><\/p>\n

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell was a mere five-points behind Larson when he climbed into his No. 20 Toyota last week at Talladega Superspeedway \u2013 poised to keep the defending series champ honest and hopeful this may well be the year he hoisted a NASCAR Cup Series trophy.<\/p>\n

But a pit road miscue early in the Talladega race put him down a half dozen laps and forced a day of playing catch-up while Larson pulled off an amazing overtime victory passing 11 cars on the final lap for his first ever superspeedway win. Bell finished 35th and now trails Larson by 74 points heading to Sunday\u2019s green flag.<\/p>\n

The upside, however, is the way Bell\u2019s team has handled the disappointment and turned it into \u201cno-pressure\u201d motivation for this final two-race run on the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast week was a trying moment for our team,\u2019\u2019 Bell said Saturday at Martinsville. \u201cI was really happy with how we all came together. It would have been really easy to tear each other down in that moment and none of us did. I was really proud of our group for last week and how we handled it.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, he added, \u201cIt\u2019s certainly a mentality shift. Where we are at now, we know that the only way forward is to go out here and win two stages and a race and go to Homestead and win two stages and a race. In reality, we have nothing to lose, so now the pressure is off. It\u2019s just a matter of going out there and throwing hail mary\u2019s. We\u2019re to that point now, so that\u2019s what we are going to do<\/p>\n

\u201cJust the way we all handled it was remarkable.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Bell won the 2022 Fall race here at Martinsville, was a runner-up in the 2025 spring race and has had seventh-place finishes here in the last two races. He\u2019s also a former winner (2023) with four top-11 finishes in six starts at the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway, where the series goes to conclude the season next week.<\/p>\n

CLEETUS LANDS FULLTIME JOB WITH RCR<\/b><\/p>\n

Championship NASCAR organization Richard Childress Racing announced this week it will field a car fulltime in the 2027 ARCA Menards Series for popular media personality and aspiring racing competitor, Garrett Mitchell better known as \u201cCleetus McFarland.\u201d<\/p>\n

McFarland will drive the No. 33 RCR Chevrolet \u2013 marking the renowned team\u2019s return to ARCA competition and McFarland\u2019s first ever full-time job competing in a major racing series and he called the opportunity \u201ca dream come true.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cCleetus has an undeniable passion for racing and a work ethic that has impressed everyone at our organization,\u201d said President of Richard Childress Racing Mike Verlander. \u201cCleetus is a perfect fit for RCR. He\u2019s earned this opportunity, and we\u2019re looking forward to seeing what he can accomplish over the course of a full season.\u201d<\/p>\n

RCR has a successful history in the series, previously fielding ARCA cars for Kevin Harvick, Mike Skinner and Austin Dillon over the years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain | NASCAR Wire Service CHAMPIONSHIP ELIGIBLE CREW CHIEFS DISCUSS TITLE CHANCES MARTINSVILLE, Va. \u2013 The four crew chiefs still bringing a reasonable chance of leading a team to the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series championship met with the media Saturday morning at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in advance of Sunday\u2019s Xfinity 500 (2 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":48148,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[407,16],"class_list":["post-62182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-martinsville-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-gaW","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/GettyImages-2173632063-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62182","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=62182"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62198,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62182\/revisions\/62198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}