The NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at Martinsville Speedway is known to create high tension and make blood boil. Sunday’s edition didn’t change that.
In the round of 8 of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, the pressure and the tension escalate.
Just four spots are available for the eight remaining playoff drivers in the Championship 4, and with three races in the round of 8, winning one of these three races is the least complicated way to advance.
That pressure and tension coupled with short track racing at Martinsville Speedway to open up the round makes the 500-lap race around the four-turn, 0.526-mile (0.847-kilometer) oval in Ridgeway, Virginia one in which blood can be expected to boil.
Sunday’s First Data 500 didn’t disappoint; it never does.
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Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. dominated the race, leading all but 36 of its 500 laps, and two of the race’s season-low three lead changes took place because Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle Larson didn’t pit as the end of stage two neared and ended up being passed for the lead by Truex before it ended.
But aside of the fact that Truex locked up his spot in the Championship 4, the average NASCAR fan won’t specifically remember him winning the race when they think of it; they’ll remember the incident between one of his teammates, Denny Hamlin, and Team Penske’s Joey Logano.
They’ll remember the pit road scuffle that ensued and the interview given by Hamlin that brought the crowd to their feet roaring the same way they roared against him two years ago when he was the villain in a late wreck involving fan-favorite Chase Elliott.
Just as it has in the past, the playoff race at Martinsville Speedway delivered high tensions and made blood boil.
At this point, that’s its purpose.
Nobody can forget Matt Kenseth exacting revenge on Logano in 2015, intentionally plowing him into the turn one wall while he led the race and appeared to be on his way to locking up a spot in the Championship 4, a spot he was ultimately unable to claim.
This revenge stemmed from an incident in which Logano spun Kenseth two weeks prior in the round of 12 (then called the Contender Round) race at Kansas Speedway before going on to win.
Nobody can forget the aforementioned run-in between Hamlin and Elliott, when Hamlin robbed Elliott of what would have been his first career victory and a Championship 4 berth in just his second season as a full-time driver when he spun him out in turn three with just over two laps remaining.
Nobody can forget last year when Logano moved Truex out of the way before going on to edge him to the finish line to lock up a Championship 4 berth, an opportunity he capitalized on to become Cup Series champion for the first time in his career.
Now add the Hamlin vs. Logano debacle to that ever-growing list of playoff tension at Martinsville Speedway.
Simply put, the Martinsville Speedway NASCAR Cup Series playoff race never disappoints — unless, of course, it’s your driver on the receiving end of some kind of playoff desperation or late contact — when it comes to delivering drama, high tensions and memorable moments that leave the blood of drivers and fans alike boiling, sometimes even for several years.