Kyle Larson closes in on NASCAR championship as Hendrick teammate William Byron wins at Martinsville

Martinsville, Va. (AP) — Kyle Larson salvaged a nearly disastrous Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, putting him on the cusp of his second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series championship.

With a ninth place at Martinsville, Larson lost only six points off his massive lead in the championship. He leads by 67 points over Christopher Bell (who was 10th) heading into the Nov. 8 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where a pedestrian result should secure a third Cup title for Larson. Bell and Denny Hamlin (sixth at Martinsville) are the only other drivers still in title contention through nine races in the Chase, the 10-race championship run that concludes the season.

While Larson spent the first half of the race rebounding from a strategy call that backfired, his Hendrick Motorsports teammates excelled at the 0.526-mile track. William Byron scored his first win of the NASCAR season, and Chase Elliott made it a sweep of the top two spots for Hendrick, the winningest team in Martinsville history with 32 victories. Ty Gibbs finished third.

Larson started third, but his No. 5 Chevrolet plummeted early because of faulty tactics.

While most of the field pitted for fresh tires after 75 laps, Larson’s team gambled by keeping him on track in hopes of an early yellow flag. But the stage stayed green until the caution that ended the first stage on the 130th lap with Larson in 23rd place and a lap down.

He needed nearly 100 laps to get back on the lead lap, and he spent most of the 500-lap race in heavy traffic.

The strategy also burned Hamlin, who started on the pole position and led 40 laps but ended the first stage in 17th after electing to stay on track instead of pitting.

After entering Martinsville ranked second and 73 points behind Larson, Hamlin missed out on scoring any stage points. He also was involved in an incident with Bell, who spun from contact with Joey Logano after committing a speeding penalty in the pits.

Though Larson failed to become the first driver to clinch a Chase championship before the season finale, he will be a heavy favorite at Homestead to become the third Hendrick driver with three championships, joining NASCAR Hall of Famers Jeff Gordon (four titles) and Jimmie Johnson (seven).

The NASCAR Cup Series will conclude its season at Homestead-Miami Speedway for the first time in seven years. The 1.5-mile oval in South Florida was the season finale from 2002-19 before Phoenix Raceway became the championship track for the past seven seasons. Kyle Larson won the most recent Cup race at Homestead on March 23, 2025.

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