William Byron soared to glory at Martinsville Speedway. Despite being mired below the elimination cutline, he led three times for 304 laps at the Xfinity 500 and reversed his situation. This dominating performance left the rest of the NASCAR Cup Series playoff drivers in a fix. And four drivers could not make it through Phoenix: Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Joey Logano, and Chase Elliott. Let us take a deep dive into why things spiraled for all these otherwise stellar drivers.

Ryan Blaney was dangerously close to winning

Ever since the 2025 Cup Series season started, Team Penske was on a mission. Roger Penske’s side aimed to pick up its fourth consecutive championship – and Ryan Blaney was thoroughly invested. While William Byron dominated, Blaney was right behind him and led the second-most laps – 177. What’s more, he charged ferociously from a 31st-place starting spot and went down swinging with a runner-up finish.

In the end, Ryan Blaney felt that a lack of rear drive cost him the race victory. As he approached lapped traffic with 44 laps to go, he could not maneuver the No. 12 Ford as well as William Byron wheeled the No. 24 Chevy. Blaney reflected, “I just kind of lost rear drive on exit, and his car held on pretty good. And it made it tougher for me to kind of work through lapped cars as I was losing the rear. I couldn’t really fade up and come down across, and he could do that pretty well. That’s kind of how I lost the lead, I slipped, kind of got caught behind a lapper, and he took an opportunity to get underneath me.”

Even after missing the Championship 4 berth by a whopping 57 points, Ryan Blaney felt grateful. “I mean, it stinks, but at the same time, I’m really proud of the effort we put in,” Blaney explained. “I mean, from starting where we did, picking our way through the field as fast as we did earlier was really great.” So what went wrong with his teammate?

Joey Logano admitted to a slow pace

At this time last season, the No. 22 Ford was on fire. Joey Logano had turned the reversal of his elimination into a legitimate NASCAR championship shot – and he won the title too! That is why a lot of eyes were on the clutch-winning racer to shock everybody again. Logano started the Martinsville event strong, rolling off from 4th place. By lap 100, both Logano and Blaney were dominating the front. Logano finished Stage 1 in 2nd place.

Yet soon after, Joey Logano dropped off – after multiple cautions wreaked havoc in stage 2, he was nowhere to be seen in the top ten. “We just weren’t fast enough,” he said. “We pitted in the middle of the second stage there coming to the end when everyone was flipping and all that stuff to the end of the second stage and, I don’t know, I feel like I lost control when the Hendrick cars pulled the okie dokie in front of me and I chose the inside lane, which put me third and that’s what let the 12 get up there and then you just kind of get stuck in dirty air.”

Joey Logano ended up 49 points below the cutline by the end of the race. “There’s no Ford. There’s no Team Penske car in the Championship 4,” he lamented. Meanwhile, even a driver who has two of his fellow OEM teammates locked in was left feeling sad.

Christopher Bell fought tooth and nail

Probably the most exciting face-off at Martinsville was between Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell. The latter had 37 points above the cutline, while Larson had 36. And from the very start, Bell was disadvantaged, as he started in 12th place while Larson started in 3rd. The No. 20 Toyota also slipped back and forth between being too loose and too tight at the tight turns of ‘The Paperclip’. The car also experienced looseness and handling issues. Crew chief Adam Stevens attempted to tighten it up, but in vain.

Christopher Bell reflected on the trouble he faced: “Just seemed like we were lacking a little bit of long run pace. I felt whenever we got the balance close at times, I could take off on tires and do okay and make some passes, maintain my position. Then the consistent theme of the day was just falling backward as the tires got old. We just weren’t strong enough at Martinsville this weekend.” Yet he hailed the four competitors who got into Phoenix.

Christopher Bell finished in 7th place, 7 points below the cutline. He missed the Championship 4 again, while his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe have locked themselves in.

Chase Elliott could not finish what he started

The Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 team was on an encouraging ride this year. Chase Elliott picked up multiple wins for the first time since 2022. However, he was mired deep below the NASCAR Cup Series cutline entering Martinsville and desperately needed a third victory. He started well, climbing up to the top five quickly from an 8th-place starting spot. Elliott worked well in the corners and was audibly happy with how his car was responding. He clung to the top five through most of Stages 1 and 2.

The multiple wrecks, caused by drivers like Erik Jones and Carson Hocevar, shuffled his track position. Eventually, Chase Elliott could finish in 3rd place, not being able to outsmart William Byron and Ryan Blaney. Elliott reflected on the race: “Obviously, those final laps get tough when the guys out front have a big advantage when the track cleans off like that…I was just hoping, in my position, to get to a spot where I could maybe capitalize if something crazy happened. Outside of that, we just got a little too far behind at the three-quarter mark. We got caught a lap down in the cycle, and then from there, we were just kind of playing catch-up.”

Chase Elliott went on to finish last among all four eliminated drivers, 63 points below the cutoff line. With the playoff grid axed down to the final four, it is time to enter the final leg of excitement. Let’s see what unfolds at Phoenix Raceway!