What to Watch: Martinsville

Track: Martinsville Speedway
Location: Martinsville, Virginia
Track length: 0.526 miles
When: 2 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,233,037
Race distance: 500 laps | 263 miles
Stages: 130 | 260 | 500

Sunday’s starting lineup | Pit stall assignments

Signs of the season: Fall color, high postseason stakes

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Martinsville Speedway in the fall has often synced with seasonal traditions — autumn leaves, frost-on-the-pumpkin weather and on some given years, the spooky Halloween scenes that spanned Friday and Saturday preliminaries.

From a racing standpoint, for the second of the NASCAR Cup Series’ two annual visits, it’s meant pressure and in the previous postseason format, eliminations. Though it’s the first year of The Chase presented by Mobil 1 structure, some elements of the former playoff system still apply.

A more clearly drawn picture of the battle lines for this year’s Cup Series championship will be decided after Sunday’s Xfinity 500, the next-to-last race of the season. In previous years in the bracket-style playoff format, Martinsville hosted the race that decided the final four title contenders competing for the Bill France Cup in the season finale. Which championship-eligible drivers will square off in next weekend’s curtain-closer at Homestead-Miami Speedway will still be determined at Martinsville, but also how many of the seven who are still clinging to a mathematical chance.

RELATED: Weekend schedule | At-track photos: Martinsville

That number could be just one. Kyle Larson built a commanding 73-point lead after prevailing in dramatic fashion at Talladega Superspeedway last weekend, notching his third win in what’s been a nearly flawless Chase run. His only blip through eight of the 10 postseason races came in a Phoenix DNF, and avoiding a repeat performance could put the championship out of reach.

“Just continuing to do what we have been doing here throughout The Chase,” Larson said of his Sunday objectives. “We are executing at a really good level and having a solid day from start to finish. That is the hope. You never know how it is going to go. Obviously, there are some really good drivers here, so I don’t anticipate clinching anything. I just want to have a good day and not give up too much before next week.”

Larson will start in a promising spot, placing third in Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session. He’ll be sandwiched between a pair of Joe Gibbs Racing aces in front of him with Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs occupying the front row, and two Team Penske drivers behind him with Joey Logano and Austin Cindric going fourth and fifth in that order.

Saturday marked Hamlin’s series-leading sixth pole position this season, plus his second consecutive and sixth overall at Martinsville, where he is a six-time Cup winner over the course of his career. After claiming the first starting spot, he emphasized that execution will be crucial while acknowledging “the chance is very, very slim,” even with help to erase his 73-point gap. “Obviously, I’m gonna be as aggressive as I can without, you know, being ridiculous,” Hamlin said.

For the rest of the remaining Chase hopefuls, the urgency is also real.

“Oh, we’re 100 (points) out. It’s all or nothing,” said Logano, a three-time champ who slots fifth in the standings. “If you want to win the championship, it’s you must win, and you must win two in a row, and that’s even needing some help on the other end. So yeah, you’re all or nothing. It’s Hail Mary. It’s all you’ve got. You know, if the goal is to win the championship, which it is, it’s going to take a lot to make it happen.”

MORE: Saturday qualifying recap | Cup Series standings

Sunday’s showdown will be a 500-lap affair, 100 laps longer than the springtime event won by Chase Elliott. That result was aided by savvy pit strategy, which should factor again into the high-stakes outcome.

The other major change in the seven months since the circuit’s last Martinsville visit is in the rules, which mandated the removal of energy-absorbing foam in the bumpers to soften the often-jarring impacts from contact, restart bumps and other stack-ups on short tracks.  That rules change, issued in June, promises to make those commonplace bump-ups at the tight 0.526-mile oval less harsh, but with a greater risk of damage since the crush factor increases.

“I’m going to have my spotter remind me of that all day,” said Christopher Bell, 74 points back in third. “That is a super-critical thing that has the potential to be a really big change for Martinsville. The way the restarts happen and the stack-ups, it’s going to have a really big impact on the race. Making sure that you‘re mindful of that is going to be mission critical. I think it‘s going to be a talking point for sure.”

Seek the streak

Consistency sometimes comes in short supply at Martinsville Speedway, where finding a rhythm is a prerequisite and trouble can derail even the strongest runs. One driver, however, has set the recent standard when it comes to collecting top-10 finishes in bunches.

Joey Logano has assembled a brilliant string of top 10s at the tricky short track, spanning two generations of Cup Series cars, leading all active drivers and taking aim at three all-time greats here. The three-time champ is tied with Hall of Famer Lee Petty, and only Jimmie Johnson (17 straight top 10s here from 2002 to 2010) and Jeff Gordon (15 straight from 2003 to 2010) are ahead of him. How Logano and other current drivers stack up at Martinsville:

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

Speed reads

Race-day essentials:

• Martinsville hub: Weekend information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more
• Sunday Setup: Crew chiefs sticking to the Martinsville plan | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh looks for fall in the Virginia hills | View gallery
• Neil Paine: How Larson’s pursuers can close in at Martinsville | Read more
• NASCAR Classics: Rewind with full-race replays from the Martinsville archives | Watch now
• Power Rankings: Larson a clear No. 1 with Chase field on his heels | This week’s ranks