Busch wins title shot
MARTINSVILLE, N.Y. — Chase Elliott could have won at Martinsville Speedway. Same for Brad Keselowski, and Denny Hamlin, too.
It was Kyle Busch, though, who punched his ticket into NASCAR’s championship race with the victory.
Busch moved Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Hamlin out of his way in overtime to win at Martinsville and earn a spot in the championship race for the third consecutive year. He won the series title in 2015.
It was a ho-hum race that got very intense, very quickly, in the waning laps.
Keselowski was in position to win when Joey Logano developed a tire problem with about 10 laps remaining in regulation. Had his Team Penske teammate pitted under green to fix the tire, Keselowski likely would have coasted to the win and earned the spot in the finale.
Instead, Logano spun and brought out a caution.
Keselowski was moved out of the way by Elliott after a restart, and Hamlin spun Elliott out of the lead with two laps remaining in regulation. Elliott wrecked, chased Hamlin down on the cool-down lap to show his displeasure, and the drivers had a heated exchange after they climbed from their cars.
It was a disastrous result for Elliott — from potential race winner to 27th, lowest of the eight remaining playoff drivers.
Keselowski wound up fourth in a race his team believed he had to win. Instead, he was simply darting his way around a huge pileup on the final lap that ended an emotional opening race of the third round of the playoffs.
“Yeah, everybody is just desperate,” Keselowski said.
Martin Truex Jr. wound up second in a 1-2 sweep for Toyota. The favorite to win the title, he said he is confident enough he will make it to next month’s finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway without having to bump Busch out of his way to grab the automatic berth.
“I don’t know that I would have done anything differently,” Truex said. “I think we can get to Homestead without making too many enemies. We’ll let everybody else fight and we’ll try to do our own thing.”
Clint Bowyer, not eligible for the playoffs, was third.