We have arrived at the penultimate race for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season. NASCAR heads to Martinsville Speedway for the Xfinity 500. Homestead-Miami Speedway did not disappoint last weekend. Tyler Reddick went full “checkers or wreckers” on the last lap to win and lock himself into the championship race at Phoenix. That was part of the reason he made the Homestead Preview a week ago. Races like that are exactly why most NASCAR fans want the championship race back at Homestead. But we turn our attention back to the short track package. We’re set for 500 laps around the short, flat half-mile track at Martinsville. Here are the top drivers to look for as part of this week’s Xfinity 500 preview!
Xfinity 500 Preview: The Top Plays
Denny Hamlin (#11 Toyota)
I’ll spare you another week of previewing Kyle Larson, although he is still elite on any track. Instead, we’ll go with Hamlin to kick off the Xfinity 500 preview. Hamlin and Joe Gibbs Racing thrive on short, flat tracks. Moreover, this is considered a “home track” for Hamlin. He has five wins at Martinsville in his career. With that said, the last one came nearly a decade ago. In five NextGen races at this track, he has three top-five finishes and he’s a good candidate to lead over 100 laps. Dominator points are extremely valuable this weekend. With 500 laps on tap, we’ll want every dominator point we can get. There are only two spots available in the championship race in Phoenix and Hamlin currently sits 18 points below the cut line. He arguably needs to win this race to get to race for a championship.
William Byron (#24 Chevrolet)
Byron isn’t as desperate for the win as Hamlin. However, two championship spots have already been claimed by Joey Logano and Tyler Reddick. For that reason, Byron can’t just assume his spot is safe. However, he is seven points above the cut line. Win equity will be important for this race. Fortunately for our Xfinity 500 preview, Byron has won two of the last five races at Martinsville, including this past spring. However, when he hasn’t won at this track, he hasn’t collected many dominator points. We do have to reason with the fact that it’s been months since either Hamlin or Byron went to Victory Lane. So starting this article with these two drivers is going solely off track history.
Christopher Bell (#20 Toyota)
Bell is another playoff driver who sits more comfortably than the last two drivers we’ve discussed. Bell is consistent. Even last week, despite leading just three laps, he did finish fourth and ran in the top five most of the day. He won this race two years ago with 150 laps led. That was the infamous “Hail Melon” move by Ross Chastain. People seem to forget that Bell was running third in that race with 10 laps to go. He managed to get by both Brad Keselowski and Chase Briscoe in the closing laps for the win. It’s mostly forgotten because of Chastain’s big move. But Bell is a JGR driver. Short, flat tracks are their pride and joy. Bell even won at Phoenix and New Hampshire earlier this year. He should be a favorite to win again this weekend.
Xfinity 500 Preview: Wouldn’t Bet Against Them
Chase Elliott (#9 Chevrolet)
If a running theme for the Xfinity 500 preview is going to be all-or-nothing playoff drivers, then Elliott fits the bill. He’s currently 43 points below the cut line for Phoenix. And he did step up and had a good run at Homestead. He started P7 and grabbed a top-five finish. He even added 81 laps led with 29 fastest laps. That means something to me because the team knew they needed a win and brought a fast car. Elliott has a good resume at Martinsville. He won this race four years ago where he led 236 laps. In this race a year ago he led 83 laps and he led 64 laps here in the spring when he finished third. Elliott is NASCAR’s golden boy. So knowing that he needs a win to get to Phoenix, NASCAR could pull some strings for him under the table.
Ryan Blaney (#12 Ford)
It’s hard to believe it’s taken this long to get to the first Ford of the article. Ryan Blaney took the white flag at Homestead last week. He seemed poised to qualify for Phoenix to defend his championship from a year ago. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be as Reddick made the pass in the last two turns to get the win. But Blaney’s track history at Martinsville is still very good. In his last 14 races at Martinsville, he’s finished eighth or better on 11 occasions. In the NextGen era, he’s finished seventh or better in all five races. He won this race a year ago with 145 laps led. Blaney also dominated the inaugural Cup Series race at Iowa this year with 201 laps led. He’s shown he can crush it at these tracks, so we have some confidence in this play at least.
Chase Briscoe (#14 Ford)
Time to go with another Ford, and it’s a driver we alluded to earlier in the article. Chase Briscoe was leading this race two years ago with less than 10 laps to go. Some out-of-this-world racing by Christopher Bell forced him out of the lead. There was some bumping and rubbing, but that’s just short-track racing. In the five NextGen races at Martinsville, he’s finished top 10 at all of them. That’s very impressive. Martinsville is a track where track position matters. You cannot afford a mistake here. The fact he’s finished in the top 10 on five occasions is impressive. And he’s taking over the 19-car in 2025 with Joe Gibbs Racing. He’ll be a nice addition to a team that crushes at this track type. Don’t forget, he also has a win at Phoenix on his resume.
The Values and Sleepers
Bubba Wallace (#23 Toyota)
It feels odd to include Bubba in the Xfinity 500 preview but the results speak for themselves. He’s been pretty good at Martinsville the last handful of races. In the last four races at this track, he’s finished 11th or better. This past spring, he started P2 and finished fourth with a 115.8 driver rating. But he also finished second in the first two stages. Bubba even finished fourth at the second race at Richmond. While North Wilkesboro was an exhibition weekend, he did finish sixth in the All-Star Race as well. 23XI Racing has an affiliation with Joe Gibbs Racing, and we’ve seen some development and growth on the short, flat tracks from Bubba. In last year’s championship race at Phoenix, he was able to grab a top-10 finish.
Todd Gilliland (#38 Ford)
Todd Gilliland hasn’t had many great runs in the playoffs. However, he did get a top-20 finish last week at Homestead. As far as Martinsville goes, Gilliland has finished 13th or better in three of the last four races. 2024 has also delivered good results for Gilliland at the short, flat tracks as well. He finished 17th at both Phoenix and the second Richmond race. To add to that he finished 12th at New Hampshire and Iowa. As long as he doesn’t qualify too high, he’s shown that he can finish well at the comparable tracks.
Ryan Preece (#41 Ford)
We’re running short on opportunities to play Ryan Preece. He isn’t necessarily a “must-play” by any means. I don’t believe an official announcement has been made yet on his 2025 plans. However, there are rumors that he could join RFK Racing next year. Either way, Preece does well on the short, flat tracks. He’s finished top 20 in the last three races at Martinsville. This past spring, he started P22 and finished ninth. In the spring of 2023, he started on the pole and led 135 laps but finished 15th. He also had a very strong run at New Hampshire where he started P31 and finished 11th. He has a little momentum after a top-10 finish last week. Fortunately, we played him at Homestead and we’ll go back to the well for Martinsville to close out the Xfinity 500 preview.