Ryan Blaney Wins at Martinsville, Advances to Round of 4 - Speedway Digest

Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney won Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway, earning a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Round of 4. This past weekend’s win marked Blaney’s third win of the season and 10th of his career.

“Congratulations to Roger, Tim, Jonathan, Ryan, and everyone at Team Penske on the race win at Martinsville,” said Doug Yates, President and CEO of Roush Yates Engines. “Jonathan and Ryan have worked well together throughout the regular season and earned the opportunity to race for Ryan’s first NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) Championship”.

“I thought we put together a really strong playoffs, especially the Round of 8. We had a good Round of 8, so just really proud of the whole effort. Proud to have Discount Tire on the car, Menards, Ford, Advance Auto Parts, Body Armor. RP couldn’t be here unfortunately, but I know he’s watching and this is awesome stuff. I can’t wait to get to Phoenix next week,” commented Blaney.

Four Ford Performance drivers qualified and started Sunday’s race in the top 10: Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe in P3, Kevin Harvick in P8, Ryan Preece in P9, and Roush Fenway Keselowski (RFK) Racing’s Brad Keselowski in P10. Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney qualified in P11 and was fourth in the standings at the beginning of the race; 10 points ahead of Tyler Reddick, 17 points ahead of Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr, and 43 points ahead of RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher.

At the end of Stage 1, Blaney had worked his way to the front of the field to finish in P2. After a back-and-forth battle with Denny Hamlin, Blaney took the lead to win the second stage. The race featured a total of seven cautions, the most of any race at Martinsville since the introduction of the Next Gen car. During a 168-lap green-flag run to the finish, Blaney passed Stewart-Haas Racing’s Aric Almirola on Lap 478 of 500. Twenty-two laps later, Blaney took the checkered flag 0.899 seconds ahead of Almirola and advanced to the Championship 4. Blaney joins fellow Round of 8 winners Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell along with William Byron in the race for the 2023 NCS title.

A total of seven Ford Performance drivers finished in the top-10: Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney in P1, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Aric Almirola and Chase Briscoe in P2 and P4, Team Penske’s Joey Logano in P5, RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher in P8, Team Penske’s Austin Cindric in P9, and Front Row Motorsports’ Todd Gilliland in P10.

The Xfinity Series also raced at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday where Stewart-Haas Racing’s Riley Herbst finished in P4 and Cole Custer finished in P19. Cole advances on to the NASCAR Xfinity Series Round of 4 and races for the championship this upcoming weekend.

Both the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series head to Phoenix Raceway for the final race of the 2023 season.

RYE PR