🏁 Martinsville: No Clinch Yet — But My Guy's 9 Points Away

 

Okay, y'all — I need to talk about Sunday at Martinsville before I come completely unglued, because that race took me on a whole emotional rollercoaster and I am still not over it.

My guy Kyle Larson went into Martinsville leading the championship. He came OUT of Martinsville still leading the championship. And in between those two facts? My stomach was in knots for about four hours straight.

That's Martinsville for you. That little paperclip track does not care one bit about your feelings.

🏆 Byron. Ugh. Fine. He Was That Good.

Look, I hate giving credit where it's due when it's not my guy, but I gotta be honest with y'all: William Byron was gone. Just GONE.

362 laps led out of 500 — a career high for him — swept both stages, and beat Chase Elliott by 2.049 seconds for his first win of 2026. Fourth win at Martinsville, 17th of his career, and it snapped a 35-race winless drought.

Thirty-five races without a win! That's a long-ass time to wait, and Byron ended it by just being better than everybody else all day. When somebody leads 362 laps at a short track, that ain't luck. That's a fast car, a team that doesn't screw up, and a driver who doesn't blink. I don't have to like it to respect it.

Elliott finished second, and honestly, second was about all anybody else was racing for most of the day. Ty Gibbs third, Josh Berry fourth, Shane van Gisbergen fifth. Every last one of them spent the afternoon staring at the back of Byron's No. 24.

😬 And Then My Guy Decided to Give Me a Heart Attack

Now. Larson started third, and early on his team made a call that I am STILL thinking about.

Most of the field pitted for fresh tires after lap 75. Larson's team stayed out, gambling that a yellow flag would come out quick and make it all work. Well. The yellow did NOT come. The stage stayed green all the way to lap 130, and by the time that caution finally flew, my guy was sitting 23rd — a whole lap down — with ZERO stage points.

Zero! Leading the championship, and zero!

And Denny Hamlin? Same exact gamble, same exact disaster. Started on the pole, led 40 laps, stayed out just like Larson, ended the stage 17th with nothing to show for it either. I guess misery loves company, but it sure didn't make watching it any easier.

Here's the thing about a gamble like that. When it works, you're a genius. When it doesn't? You spend the next hundred laps clawing your way out of a hole while everybody watches. Larson spent nearly 100 laps just fighting to get back on the lead lap, buried in traffic at a track where passing is already like trying to squeeze a couch through a doorway.

But y'all — he DID it. Lap by lap, car by car, he clawed his way back, and in the closing laps he passed Christopher Bell for ninth. Ninth! After being a lap down in 23rd!

Ninth is not the result anybody dreams about. But from where he was at the end of Stage 1? I'll take ninth and be grateful for it, honey.

🏁 Nine Points. That's It. Nine!

So here's where we stand, and this is the part that matters:

Larson did NOT clinch at Martinsville. That gamble cost him too many points. BUT he leaves Virginia still holding the lead — 2,469 points, 67 ahead of Bell (2,402) and 70 ahead of Hamlin (2,399). Hamlin finished sixth Sunday; Bell finished tenth.

One race left. The season finale is Sunday, November 8, at Homestead-Miami Speedway, on NBC. And all my guy has to do is score 9 points — or finish 28th or better — to lock up his third championship.

Nine points! After a day like Sunday, that number feels tiny AND huge at the same time. Tiny, because he's SO close. Huge, because anything can happen in a finale, and we literally just watched a sure thing turn into a hundred-lap recovery drive.

But here's why I'm not panicking: this team has been here before, and Larson just proved — again — that he does not fold when a race goes sideways. A driver who can go from a lap down in 23rd to a top-ten finish? That driver can handle one more Sunday with everything on the line.

So that's the deal. Byron gets his Grandfather Clock and ends his drought. My guy gets one more week of waiting, one more race to close it out, and a 67-point cushion to do it with.

I'll be a nervous wreck for Homestead, same as I was for Martinsville. Loud, pacing, completely unable to sit still. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Until next time, Happy Treasure Hunting.

~ Cheryl and Clucky Diva