By David Morgan, Associate Editor
It all comes down to Martinsville.
Leaving Sunday’s Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead, three spots remain to be claimed in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 among the seven drivers still eligible for the title.
Only Joey Logano has punched his ticket to the season finale at Phoenix, with the remaining title contenders will have varying plans of attack heading into the final elimination race of the Playoffs.
Here’s how they all stack up with one race to go.
Ross Chastain – No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet (+19 points over cut-off)
Chastain is in the best position of the drivers remaining as he carries a 19-point advantage into Martinsville. If he and his Trackhouse Racing team are able to keep up the performance that they have shown thus far, they should be able to race their way into a chance to run for the championship.
Thus far in the Round of 8, Chastain has been strong, finishing second at Las Vegas last week and once again Sunday at Homestead.
“I’ve never been here, and for AdventHealth, Worldwide Express, Jockey, Moose Fraternity and Kubota, we’ve never been here,” Chastain said. “For Trackhouse, we’re learning all this together; we’re experiencing this together.
“We’ve got a lot of knowledge in our shop and I’ll lean on a lot of teammates, both in the GM camp and inside our shop of how to approach it. But I’m a racer. We’re just going to race. Go practice as well as we can; we’ll go qualify as best we can. And I’m late all the time, so a grandfather clock might do me a little good for the rest of my life.”
Chase Elliott – No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet (+11)
The points buffer that Chase Elliott has carried throughout the Playoffs as the regular season champion has kept him safe thus far, but a stretch of bad races in the Round of 8 leaves him just 11 points to the good heading to Martinsville.
A 21st place finish at Las Vegas was followed up by a 14th place result Sunday at Homestead, which came as a result of getting buried down the leaderboard when he was caught on pit road late in the race when the caution came out.
“We were playing defense all day, but we were doing a pretty good job of it and staying inside the top-five there, so that was great. But that’s what happens when you’re playing defense and you have something like that happen to you.. you just get stuck. The other guys that got buried; they drove right back…
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