Sunday afternoon's Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway is the 35th of 36 races on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, and it's the ninth of 10 postseason races in the first season under the "Chase" format that NASCAR brought back after 12 years of the "win and in", knockout-style setup.
Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin took the pole position for Sunday's 500-lap race around the four-turn, 0.526-mile (0.847-kilometer) oval in Ridgeway, Virginia. He dominated the race at the "Paperclip" back in March, but was left finishing second when a strategy call from Chase Elliott's No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet netted Elliott much-needed track position and the eventual victory.
Hamlin still scored more total points than Elliott in that race, which is extremely hard to do under the new points format since NASCAR boosted the value of wins from 40 to 55.
As for championship leader Kyle Larson, the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports qualified third for Sunday's race. With a 73-point lead over Hamlin and just two races remaining on the 2026 schedule, he's doing exactly what he needs to do to remain in firm control of the championship.
But will that remain true heading to Homestead-Miami Speedway next weekend?
Follow along with our Xfinity 500 race updates from Martinsville.
NASCAR Cup Series at Martinsville: Xfinity 500 Stage 1 results
NASCAR Cup Series at Martinsville: Xfinity 500 Stage 2 results
NASCAR Cup Series at Martinsville: Full Xfinity 500 results
The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season finale is set to be shown live on NBC from Hometead-Miami Speedway beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET next Sunday, November 8. Begin a free trial of FuboTV today and catch all of the action from the Straight Talk Wireless 400!
Add us as a preferred source on Google