Elliott must start from back at Martinsville

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Chase Elliott had just one plan after his engine failed in the opening minutes of practice for the playoff race Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.

“It’s pretty simple, we need to try to win,” NASCAR’s most popular driver said.

The engine made by Hendrick Motorsports failed just five laps in to the first of Saturday’s two practice sessions for the opening race in the third round of NASCAR’s playoffs. Elliott was pragmatic as the No. 9 team made the engine change that will send him to the back at the start of Sunday’s race.

Elliott is now susceptible to dropping a lap down at NASCAR’s shortest track if his Chevrolet is not perfect at the start. The paperclip-shaped 0.526mile oval takes under 20 seconds per lap, and the leaders could be on Elliott’s bumper in no time.

Elliott completed 58 laps in the second and final practice session before Saturday afternoon qualifying, then later redeemed his day by qualifying second behind Denny Hamlin. Although Elliott will forfeit that starting positon, he still got secondchoice of pit stall, and that positioning should aid his efforts to salvage a strong finish.

The round of eight began with strategical changes from Team Penske, which swapped the overthe-wall pit crews for contender Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski, who was eliminated last week. The jackman from Blaney’s crew went to reigning series champion Joey Logano. The jackman was part of Logano’s race-winning, championshipclinching team at Homestead last year.

Logano led the first practice session followed by the title threats from Joe Gibbs Racing. Martin Truex Jr. and Hamlin were second and third.