Xfinity 500 - Martinsville Speedway
Martinsville, Va. - October 26, 2025
AUSTIN CINDRIC No. 2 MENARDS/RICHMOND FORD MUSTANG DARK HORSE
START: 10TH
STAGE 1: 10TH
STAGE 2: 17TH
FINISH: 15TH
POINTS: 14TH
RACE RUNDOWN: Austin Cindric and the No. 2 Menards/Richmond Ford Mustang Dark Horse recorded a 15th-place finish in Sunday's Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway, capping a day in which the Team Penske driver was a steady presence inside the top 10 for much of the race. After starting 10th, Cindric quickly settled into a comfortable rhythm near the front of the field, maintaining position inside the top 10 throughout the opening segment and crossing the line 10th at the conclusion of Stage 1. He reported the car was a bit tighter that run and that he struggled with drive. The team made a routine stop for four tires and fuel, sending Cindric back out ninth for the restart. The 26-year-old continued to manage a car that was trending to the tight side but maintained solid pace as the laps clicked off. With less than 20 laps remaining in the segment, a caution for the No. 51 brought varying strategies across the field. The No. 2 team elected to pit for service and lined up outside the top 15 for the restart with 11 laps to go, ultimately finishing Stage 2 in 17th. Having recently pitted, the Menards/Richmond crew opted to stay out to gain track position and restarted sixth to open the final segment. Cindric continued to show competitive pace among the leaders until a caution during green-flag pit stops disrupted the cycle. A speeding penalty on pit road forced the team to restart at the tail and Cindric took the checkered flag in 15th.
CINDRIC'S THOUGHTS: "I'm proud of the effort by everyone on this Menards/Richmond team. We had good speed and executed well for most of the race. It's unfortunate that the speeding penalty set us back late, but we learned a lot. I'm looking forward to getting to Phoenix next weekend and finishing the season on a high note."
RYAN BLANEY No. 12 DISCOUNT TIRE FORD MUSTANG DARK HORSE
START: 31ST
STAGE 1: 7TH
STAGE 2: 11TH
FINISH: 2ND
POINTS: 6TH
RACE RUNDOWN: Facing a must-win situation Sunday at Martinsville, Ryan Blaney and the No. 12 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse team came up one spot short of advancing to the Championship 4 for the third-consecutive season, bringing the 12 team's run in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs to an end. Blaney overcame a 31st-place starting position and charged his way up to seventh by the end of Stage 1, proving to be one of the strongest cars in the field on the long run. With track position in his favor, Blaney maintained top-10 pace while managing tire wear during the opening run of the second segment before working his way up to second in the running order at the time of the caution with 18 laps to go in Stage 2. Blaney was one of a handful of the leaders brought to pit road under yellow in order to flip the stage, resulting in an 11th-place finish in the segment. After the remainder of the leaders pitted between stages, Blaney cycled to second to take the ensuing restart from the outside of row one and took his first lead of the day on lap 274 - the first of Martinsville-best 177 laps led on the afternoon. Crew chief Jonathan Hassler called Blaney to pit road during the green flag cycle on lap 377 and as he was making his way off pit road the caution flag flew, trapping all but seven cars a lap down in the process. Blaney was one of those seven and ultimately assumed the lead when the remaining cars pit under caution, allowing him to maintain control of the race when the field took the green with 111 laps to go. The Discount Tire Ford continued to pace the field over the course of the final run before lapped traffic allowed the No. 24 to cut into Blaney's lead with just under 50 laps remaining. The No. 24 made what turned out to be the race-winning move with 44 laps to go, making contact with Blaney's left rear quarter panel at the entry to turn one and moving him out of the way as Blaney worked to take back the top spot with the laps winding down. A caution with 19 laps to go set up one final round of pit stops with the 12 team getting Blaney off pit road second prior to the final restart with 11 laps left, but he was unable to regain the lead in the closing laps, culminating in a second-place effort.
BLANEY'S THOUGHTS: "We just came up short. We did a good job and we got control of the race for a bit, but, gosh, [William Byron's] car was really fast. My rears started to go away pretty big on that long run and working through lapped traffic [Byron] was able to get by me. Then he got control of the race from there and his car was really fast. I never really thought I had much for him, especially as I think it got cooler I feel like his car got even better, so he just had great rear drive and they were able to utilize it. I'm proud of our effort. I'm proud of coming from where we qualified and getting to lead and leading laps and had a shot at the win. It stinks to come up short, but I'm really proud of the effort and proud of our year."
JOEY LOGANO No. 22 SHELL-PENNZOIL FORD MUSTANG DARK HORSE
START: 4TH
STAGE 1: 2ND
STAGE 2: 13TH
FINISH: 8TH
PLAYOFF POINTS: 8TH
RACE RUNDOWN: Joey Logano and the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse team saw their 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Championship defense come to an end Sunday at Martinsville as an eighth-place finish came up short of advancing to the Championship 4. Logano maintained top-five pace for the entirety of the opening stage, battling his way to second in the running order with 10 laps to go in Stage 1 and holding the position through the end of the segment. Logano took the ensuing restart from the outside of row one and settled into third on the leaderboard during the opening run of Stage 2. A caution with 18 laps remaining in the segment prompted Logano and a handful of the leaders to hit pit road in order to flip their track position for the final stage that led to a 13th-place finish in Stage 2, but allowed Logano to cycle to fourth after the remainder of the leaders pit in between the stages. Logano fought a lack of front turn during the ensuing run and was one of the first to pit during the green flag cycle on lap 374, but a caution five laps later trapped all but seven cars a lap down forcing him to take the wave around to rejoin the lead lap. As a result, Logano took the green flag from 14th with 111 laps to go and a caution on lap 397 saw crew chief Paul Wolfe bring the Shell-Pennzoil Ford to pit road for four fresh tires to chase down a majority of the leaders that opted to stay out. Logano went on to work his way into the top-10 by lap 419 and, following the final restart with 11 laps remaining, raced his way to eighth by the time the checkered flag flew, marking Logano's 13th-consecutive top-10 finish at Martinsville.
LOGANO'S THOUGHTS: "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 [Ryan Blaney] get up there and then you just kind of get stuck in dirty air. I'm kind of kicking myself on that decision, but, outside of that, we just weren't fast enough. That's the bottom line. We weren't good enough to drive back through either way, but I thought I would have had a chance if maybe I could have made that better earlier in the race."
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Phoenix Raceway for the championship race on Sunday, November 2. Live coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.