By Roy J. Akers — www.skyviewsports.net
Unlike Talladega,w here seven drivers were within 54 points of Kyle Larson for the Chase points lead, the win by Larson has basically eliminated all but three drivers. While the Spoiler did not reduce the carnage of two massive multi-race car accidents, Martinsville will not provide the upside-down wrecks we saw in Alabama last weekend.Today,only threedrivers are left to win the 2026Chase with Kyle Larson needing a poor finish and only Denny Hamlin or Christopher Bell could catch him.
Chase Briscoe leads the field to green as four Toyota’s qualify in the top-six.
Stage 1 (Laps1-80)
Briscoe and most ofthe fieldisriding the preferred top line.Kyle Busch flags are waved on lap eight.Around, they go with Tyler Reddick taking second from Bell.Reddick and a few other cars pitonlap32.Reddick inherits the lead.Hepitsonlap40andmostof the key pit stops have cycled and Christopher Bell, leads Denny Hamlin and Reddick on lap 40 of 80. Reddick and Bell battle for P1, and the #45 has the lead. The field is in cruise control, with Reddick up by over3.6seconds. Ryan Blaney,Bell, Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin round out the top five.The final laps bring outa smokin Chase Briscoe in front of the grandstands. This brings the end of S1 with Reddick your winner. Larson earns seven S1 points and is now two away from clinching his third NASCAR regular season championship. UPDATE Below on Larson
Stage 2 (Laps 81-167)
With Hamlin and Bell NOT earning max stage points, Larson is your NASCAR 2026 CUP Champion.Reddick survives the pit cycle between the stages but not Bell, who takes the high line to the lap 89 lead.Bell and Reddick run 1- 2 until green-flag stops cycle Hamlin outfront.Cindric is 4th and Larson 5th. With a lack of passing,there have been only six different leaders at Homestead. Two of those drivers went out of the race by the end of S1. Hamlin dominates the Stage and Toyota makes a clean sweep of 1-2-3.
Twenty-Eight of 40 drivers are on the lead lap, with only Corey Heim and Briscoe finished for the day.
Final Stage (Laps 168- Finish)
Hamlin takes the green flag on lap 172, and the hard-charging William Byron is second with Blaney third.The big surprise is DanielSuarez running fourth. The race is running ata blistering pace with essentially only Stage breaks accounting for slowdowns. (True Briscoe blew an engine with three to go in S1, but the field was stopping anyway. Hamlin leads the firsthalf of S3 before pitting. Blaney-Reddick and Bubba are 1-2-3 with final pit stops looming. Byron is the recipient of the pit stop cycle, and after winning at Martinsville in week 35, one week later he has woken up and may go B2B. Larson played hookie from racing after clinching the championship. Multiple scrapes on the outside wall wounded his machine but not his championship.
The first caution for cause not centered on the end of the stage happens with 15-to-go as Noah Gragson gets into Daniel Suarez battling for 11th.The only real drama left is who wins the race. Byron holds hisspot and now looks to hold off four Toyota’s and Ryan Blaney with eight to go. Byron chooses the inside line, and it pays off until a high-side pass by Reddick on lap 260.Blaney joinsthe Byronpartywith threetogohoping tomountpressureonReddick.Reddick goes low, and Blaney measures theleader andgoesbywithone togo.BlaneywinswithReddick,Byron, Bell and Wallace 2-5.
Checkered Flag
Funny sight: watching Larson pulling upto thepitwallinfrontofhis pitstall.Blaney passes on the burnout as the race winner and Larson assembles with his team.
RACE WInner
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Dutch Boy Ford Mustang Dark Horse – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – WALK US THROUGH THE FINAL RESTART. “We restarted third and went to fourth, so I just tried to pick the lane I thought was gonna go the best. We did a good job getting to second. I was able to wrap the bottom really well on both ends and was able to inch up on some guys and I got a really good corner of one and two. The 45 protected on the bottom and I was able to get to his right-rear and hold him off for the last lap. It’s was some really cool fight by this team for coming back the way we did and just bringing a really fast car and working on it all night. That’s a fun end to the season.”
They Said It…
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing- inishing Position: 39th
Did you have any indication from the car that it was expiring?
“No. We were really good there pace wise, and then in the middle of (turns) three and four, we had a little bit of a vibration and then obviously it blew up there on the front straightaway. Sure unfortunate, I felt like we were going to be in the mix. That pit stop kind of set us back, but I felt like we were going to be back up there and contend with our Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Toyota. Just unfortunate. Hopefully somehow we can get lucky and still finish fourth in points, but I don’t know what happened. Toyota will go back and look at it. I appreciate everything they’ve done all season long. We’ve won a lot of races, and they do everything they can to give us the best engines they can, sometimes stuff like that just happens. That’s racing. Instead of going on to next week, we will go to next year.”
Fantasy Results
We are coming down to the end of the NASCAR season and this team has taken a beating losing our spot from 94-percent to 86-percent. A few drivers took a dump and we were on the road when the second stage cut off hit. That happened last week with Chase Briscoe not getting in by the end of S2 in Charlotte. You will notice Blaney and Buscher in the lineup. Blaney is on the pole. Buescher has qualified 17th. His record is too strong at Phoenix to ignore. Logano is a great third Ford pick. There is no Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin as they each have one start left and I have plans for them before the end of the season.
Final race: 274 points and no Denny Hamlin who Ifinished up with last week at Martinsville.
Tale of the Tape
Factoids that May Interest Only Me
Denny Hamlin -No DNF’s all season
Hendrick Motorsports has won 16 Titles in the last32 NASCAR CUP season
Check out these High Banked Fury Zoomcast Archives
What’s Next
The Daytona 500 in February 2027.
Roy J. Akers covers motorsports including NASCAR, NHRA, Indy Car and more and is the host of High Banked Fury, the Zoom/podcast.Motorsports newsmakers, media of the sport with expert analyst guests, stories, and opinions are found on the podcast and http://www.skyviewsports.net. Subscribe to all of it today!
