Martinsville takeaways: Kyle Larson unable to clinch NASCAR title but still has huge edge

MARTINSVILLE, VA — A Hendrick Motorsports driver celebrated a meaningful victory on Sunday, Nov. 1 at Martinsville Speedway, except it wasn’t the one everyone expected.

While Kyle Larson was unable to clinch the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series title in the Xfinity 500, he maintained a comfortable lead over contenders Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell. Meanwhile, Larson’s teammate William Byron drove into victory lane for the first time this season, ending a 35-race winless streak.

The race at the short track that has hosted top-tier NASCAR races since 1949 featured some beating and banging, as a pair of Team Penske drivers found out what it meant to be the victim of brake-checking. Elsewhere, amidst the field of 37 cars, road-course ace Shane van Gisbergen continued to show improvement on the series’ traditional ovals, notching his seventh top-10 on that style of track this season by placing fifth in his Wendy’s-sponsored No. 97 Chevrolet.

Here are takeaways from the iconic track in southern Virginia:

Kyle Larson and his challengers unable to capitalize at Martinsville

There was a real chance that Kyle Larson could have been celebrating his third NASCAR Cup Series championship on Sunday, Nov. 1 at Martinsville Speedway.

Larson entered the race 73 points ahead of Denny Hamlin, and needed to finish the Xfinity 500 77 points clear of Hamlin and the rest of the Chase field to wrap up the title. Had the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet done so, he would’ve been the first driver since Matt Kenseth in 2003 to clinch the championship a week early.

But that didn’t happen. Larson’s team was watching his closest competitors – Hamlin, Bell and Chase Briscoe – closely in the opening stage and opted for a strategy to not pit during the first 160 laps. That caused Larson to fall back and lose track position, and the opportunity to score stage points.

The good news for him was Hamlin’s team had the same strategy and suffered a similar fate. Bell scored points in Stages 1 and 2, but his No. 20 Toyota was mired by other issues – a speeding penalty on pit road and getting spun out by Joey Logano. Neither Bell, Hamlin or Larson ever seriously contended for the win.

All in all, Bell gained seven points on Larson and Hamlin gained three. The pair of Joe Gibbs Racing drivers kept their championship hopes alive heading into Homestead-Miami next weekend – and kept Larson from clinching the title at Martinsville – but failed to put a significant dent into his advantage.

“I absolutely will feel some pressure.”@KyleLarsonRacin heads to @HomesteadMiami with a 67-point lead in the championship standings. pic.twitter.com/axvTiaq4S8

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) November 1, 2026

“I’m happy, but I’m also bummed because there’s a lot of opportunities there in the stages. We were just on the wrong side of the strategy,” Larson said. “It all could have been a lot worse tonight. Look at the positives from that, go to Homestead next week with a comfortable gap, but still not locked up. We’d love to get a couple good first stages, then pound it in the third stage.”

To pull off an upset of Larson in South Florida, Hamlin or Bell would need to win at Homestead, score big stage points, and need Larson to have a disastrous day.

“I feel confident that I’ll be able to go (to Homestead) and contend. I’d love to get another win before the end of the year. I thought it was going to come today,” Hamlin said. “We’ll have to get one more shot at it next week and see if we can’t get one more win.”

After a year of disappointments, William Byron gets something to build on

After winning the regular season championship in the Cup Series last season and making the Championship Four in the old playoff format, expectations were high this year for William Byron.

Instead of enjoying multiple trips to victory lane, his team struggled with ups, downs and inconsistencies. Byron has had five DNFs this season and four other finishes of 30th or worse. He still made the Chase, but it was a grind for the No. 24 Chevrolet to get into the field. When the postseason began, he only had four top-five finishes.

Then last weekend at Talladega, he finished as the runner-up to Larson in a photo-finish. On Sunday, he kept that momentum rolling, dominating the competition at Martinsville. The 28-year-old from Charlotte, North Carolina led 362 laps – which is more laps led for him across 34 previous races combined this season – and went on to win at the paperclip-style short track for the fourth time in his career.

Byron beat another Hendrick teammate, Chase Elliott, by more than two seconds for his first victory of the season. He also logged the fastest lap of the day at 19.82 seconds.

Mr. Paperclip, William Byron, dominates Martinsville and picks up his first win of the 2026 season pic.twitter.com/dMG4T5hYqc

— Steven Taranto (@STaranto92) November 1, 2026

For Byron, getting his first victory of the year was a weight off his shoulders and gives his team something to hang their hat on while also looking forward to next season.

“It’s the hardest I’ve worked ever in my career. It’s the most I’ve been at the shop, most I’ve been in the sim, most meetings we’ve had,” Byron said. “I’m proud of the fact that no one quit. Just that we could continue to kind of put our heads together.”

Byron has now won at least won race in seven consecutive Cup Series seasons. The victory at Martinsville was the 17th of his career in the top level of NASCAR.

He has a unique problem now: Byron has to figure out where he’ll put a fourth handmade grandfather clock in his home.

“I don’t know. It’s a good thing. A good problem,” Byron said while cracking a grin. “I’ll figure it out.”

Will NASCAR do anything about brake-checking?

In June, ahead of the Cup Series’ return to North Wilkesboro Speedway, NASCAR made a rule change for short track racing, banning the use of energy-absorbing foam in the front or rear bumper structure of the race cars.

It was a move to discourage drivers from running into the back of another car to move them out of the way. With the foam, a car could drive into the rear of another with no real damage occurring to either car.

This was mostly a non-story at North Wilkesboro, Richmond and Bristol, but Martinsville is different. It’s a one-groove track with tight confines. Drivers are constantly battling for the bottom lane going into corners. It’s impossible to race at the old-school short track without contact.

“I think you still can use it a little bit,” Denny Hamlin said Saturday of the softened bumper. “You have to be careful, though, in my mind, to not give someone an egregious bump because then they typically brake check you, and then that’s when you can really end up doing quite a bit of damage. So you just have to be as courteous as you can with your bumps I think.”

Cindric’s view of the incidents with Hocevar. pic.twitter.com/wByqF9DclY

— Bozi Tatarevic (@BoziTatarevic) November 1, 2026

Hamlin’s warning proved to be foreshadowing for two Team Penske drivers, Austin Cindric and Ryan Blaney. Carson Hocevar brake-checked Cindric’s No. 2 Ford multiple times in Stage 2, ultimately destroying the nose of Cindric’s car and forcing him to retire from the race. Cindric left the track without commenting, while Hocevar played it coy when asked about the incident.

“It’s just Martinsville,” Hocevar said. “Everybody’s running hard and making moves and stuff. So, yeah, I don’t know, I mean, it’s just Martinsville. Sometimes you’re getting hit, sometimes you’re causing it, vice versa, so I don’t know. I had fun.”

Ryan Blaney was brake-checked twice by Josh Berry too, forcing his No. 12 Ford to the garage for repairs. Blaney returned, but finished 35th, 59 laps down. The incident ended his hopes of competing for a championship at Homestead.

“(Berry) decided to slam on the brakes and end our day,” Blaney told USA Network. “Don’t really know why after a tiny little bit of contact, not even on purpose. Lost his mind and ended our day.”

Berry, who is leaving the Penske-aligned Wood Brothers at the end of the year and driving for Legacy Motor Club next season, finished fourth.

Will NASCAR make adjustments to the bumpers for next season? Will they call Hocevar and Berry to the hauler at Homestead? Or is this what the rule was designed to do?

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Martinsville takeaways: Kyle Larson unable to clinch NASCAR title but still has huge edge