Byron outduels Blaney for victory at Martinsville and NASCAR Championship 4 berth

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MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) — With a Championship 4 spot on the line Sunday, William Byron put the bumper to Ryan Blaney to win at Martinsville Speedway in the third-round finale of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

Byron made his winning move with 43 laps remaining, seizing the bottom lane in Turn 1 and moving Blaney up the track by tagging him in the left rear.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver led the rest of the way and fended off Blaney on a restart with 11 laps remaining. Starting from the pole position, Byron led a race-high 304 of 500 laps for his third victory this season in the No. 24 Chevrolet.

“I thought William drove the race of his life,” said Hendrick vice chairman Jeff Gordon, a four-time Cup champion and nine-time winner at Martinsville himself.

It was the first win in 11 races since August at Iowa Speedway for Byron, who won the regular-season championship despite a six-month drought after opening the year with his second consecutive Daytona 500 victory.

He had one top-five finish (a third at New Hampshire Motor Speedway) in the previous eight playoff races and opened the third round with a 36th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and a 25th at Talladega Superspeedway that left him in a win-or-else position to make his third consecutive Championship 4 appearance.

Byron delivered with his 16th career Cup victory — his first in a playoff elimination race and third at Martinsville.

“Damn, I got a lot to say,” Byron said. “Things have a way of working out. God really tests your resilience a lot of times. We’ve been tested. Just unbelievable. We just worked so hard, and you put everything into Sundays. Sometimes you don’t get anything in return. That’s been the last couple of weeks and honestly throughout the year. But sometimes life is that way. You just got to keep being resilient. We were. Just feels damn good.”

Blaney also was in a must-win situation to advance to the championship round. Trying to win his third consecutive playoff race at Martinsville, came up one spot short despite qualifying 31st and leading 177 laps on the 0.526-mile oval.

There were no hard feelings afterward as Blaney congratulated Byron in victory lane.

“That’s just two guys going for it, I don’t blame him for taking that,” Blaney said about the contact with Byron on the pass for the lead. “I would have done the same thing. I knew it was going to be tight. I tried to crowd him as much as I could. Just proud of the effort from the team. They gave 100% of what they had, and that’s all you can ask. Wasn’t quite enough.”

Kyle Larson, Byron’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, captured the final championship-eligible berth in the season finale with a fourth-place finish that put him seven points ahead of Christopher Bell, who was seventh.

“What a performance by William,” Larson said. “Happy for Hendrick Motorsports. This win is as good as it could have been for us to score more points than Christopher then have William win, too. Hopefully one of us can win it.”

Bell again was the first driver left out of the Championship 4, but he could live with the outcome more than last year’s race when he was bounced by Byron in a finish tainted by manipulation.

“I feel content with the results,” Bell said. “The four are legitimate contenders. Whoever the champion is, it’s going to be well-deserving.”

Byron and Larson advanced to face Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe in the title round Nov. 2 at Phoenix Raceway. The championship will be awarded to the driver with the best finish of the four drivers who are split evenly between Joe Gibbs Racing (Briscoe and Hamlin) and Hendrick Motorsports (Byron and Larson).

Along with Bell and Blaney, third-place finisher Chase Elliott and defending series champion Joey Logano (eighth) also were eliminated from the playoffs.

With Blaney and Logano locked out of the Phoenix title race, Team Penske’s streak of three consecutive Cup championships was snapped.

The two Joe Gibbs Racing drivers who already were locked into the Championship 4 both suffered engine failures.

Hamlin, who opened the third round with a Las Vegas Motor Speedway victory to advance to the title race, was running second on the 334th lap when he pulled his sputtering No. 11 Toyota into the garage. Martinsville marked the third race during the playoffs with a mechanical problem for Hamlin, who also needed a push from team members Saturday when his car failed to start in qualifying.

“I felt like the car was coming to us and was just starting to close in on Blaney,” said Hamlin, who finished 35th after winning at Martinsville in March. “I didn’t feel anything. The engine was running and then not. We’ll work on it. I’m obviously concerned, but obviously nothing I can do about it. So we’re going to have to live with it and hopefully we get lucky next week. I’m confident on speed we’ll be good next week. We’ll bring our best and hopefully it lasts.”

Briscoe finished last when his No. 19 Toyota lost power after 295 laps, but the JGR driver already had locked into the Championship 4 with his Oct. 19 victory at Talladega Superspeedway.

“Went to upshift and something happened,” said Briscoe, who was running 12th before the failure. “Not really sure but next week is what it's all about anyway.”

Hamlin, who co-owns 23XI Racing with Michael Jordan, said the team’s antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR won’t be a distraction to pursuing his first Cup championship.

Hamlin spent Tuesday through Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina, courtrooms for mediation sessions and a summary judgment hearing, and he worked nightly at Joe Gibbs Racing until as late as 10 p.m.

“I’m tired, but I didn’t stop working,” Hamlin said Saturday. “I go from court to the shop. We don’t stop. I’m prepared.”

Hamlin said the settlement talks went “OK the first day, not great the second day” and seems resigned to a trial that is scheduled to begin Dec. 1. “I think both sides probably feel strong about their case,” he said. “You heard the arguments. I’ll let you form your own opinion, but I think one of us is on a suicide mission.”

The Championship 4 season finale of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs will be held Sunday, Nov. 2 at Phoenix Raceway. Joey Logano won at the mile oval in Avondale, Arizona, last November to claim his third Cup championship. Christopher Bell won the March 9 race at Phoenix with a last-lap pass of teammate Denny Hamlin.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing