Blaney has been losing sleep since last week’s loss, needing a big performance at Martinsville to defend his NASCAR title

Ryan Blaney had his sights set on the checkered flag and a spot in NASCAR’s deciding race last week on the final lap of a contentious battle.

Then, out of nowhere, Tyler Reddick surged past Blaney in the final turn to take the win.

Reddick will compete for his first Cup Series championship at Phoenix Raceway next week.

Blaney? He needs either a win Sunday at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia or a miracle to have a chance to defend his NASCAR championship.

He admits the loss cost him sleep, especially in the hours after the race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“I looked it up when I got home Sunday night,” Blaney said. “I watched the whole race, I watched the end of it and I lost a little bit of sleep over the end of that race.”

Replays showed Blaney made the wrong defensive move in an attempt to hold off Reddick and Denny Hamlin — and he second-guessed himself for days.

“When I watch a football game, I think, ‘Why didn’t he just do it?'” Blaney said. “The moment you’re that person, you’re an athlete, or living in that moment, it’s a lot harder than being outside and watching TV from different angles and stuff. You do You don’t have time to think about all the options.

“You’re never going to get 1,000 points for the right decision, the right call, and that’s the difficulty of the sport, can you make the right decisions?” And how often do you make the right decisions?”

The loss dropped Blaney to sixth in the playoff standings and made him one of six drivers competing for the two remaining spots in the winner-take-all championship race. Joey Logano and Reddick clinched the top two spots in the title field with wins in this third round of the playoffs. Team Penske’s Blaney is 38 points below the elimination line.

Still, there is a way to go for Blaney, who, if he can make it to the championship, will join teammate Logano with two Ford drivers who have a 50% chance of winning the title. In 2020 at Martinsville, Chase Elliott was below the limit, won the race and won the championship. Ditto for Christopher Bell, who was below the cut line at Martinsville and won the race to advance to the championship.

Blaney is the reigning winner at Martinsville and used the momentum from that victory to win his first NASCAR championship.

“I think the mental aspect is the hardest thing in our sport,” Blaney said. “It’s just how you mentally stay in it and how you adjust to what you need to do week in, week out and in the moment and then going forward. So I try not to dwell too much on the past, and you just learn from it and move on.”

Truex on the pole

Martin Truex Jr., who is coming off a full race in two weeks, won the pole in Saturday’s Martinsville qualifier.

Truex lapped at 95.951 mph, ahead of Hendrick Motorsports drivers Elliott and William Byron. Truex was eliminated from the playoffs in the first round, and Elliott and Byron are trying to make it a four-way championship.

Chase Briscoe in the Stewart-Haas Racing Ford was fourth, followed by Truex’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs. Harrison Burton, who loses his Wood Brothers Racing seat in two weeks, was sixth. Briscoe, Gibbs, Burton and Truex have already been eliminated from the playoffs.

Hendrick’s Alex Bowman was seventh, followed by SHR’s Ryan Preece, Hendrick’s Kyle Larson and Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon.

Already in the top four of the championship, Logano qualified 12th, two places ahead of Team Penske teammate Blaney. Title contender Bell of JGR qualified 16th, Reddick, already locked in the championship race, qualified 31st.

Hamlin crashed in practice and missed the qualifying lap. He starts last.

Hamlin crashes

Hamlin had a short Saturday at Martinsville Speedway when he crashed during practice due to a stuck throttle. The damage to his #11 Toyota was so bad that Joe Gibbs Racing spent the rest of the session deciding whether the car could be repaired or if he needed a backup.

His car was fast for the 33 laps he completed before crashing into the wall, and despite his shortened session, he finished third on the speed chart.

The team decided to repair his car, but in any case, Hamlin was unable to make a qualifying attempt and will start last Sunday.

Hamlin is below the relegation zone and can only reach fourth place in the championship if he wins on Sunday or the drivers ahead of him in the standings fail significantly.

Hamlin is a five-time winner at Martinsville, but hasn’t won since 2015.

“Nothing from the past is guaranteed in the future. In the fall race, it seems like everyone gave it their all and we had some unfortunate circumstances at the end of the race that kept us from winning,” Hamlin said. “This is only part of it. You just hope that the law of averages will work itself out. It’s like anything with data and analytics, one battle, anything can happen. You just never know. You just hope you get lucky, right?”

Hendrik hopes

Hendrick Motorsports finished the second round of the playoffs with all four of its drivers in the final eight. But Bowman’s failed inspection disqualified him and Hendrick moved on with only Elliott, Byron and Larson in the field.

The trio now head to Martinsville, where only Byron is over the elimination mark and Hendrick is not guaranteed to advance even one rider to the final four.

If Byron scores 49 points on Sunday, he’ll be back in the championship regardless of what any other driver does at Martinsville. Larson and Elliott must either win or fall because of the drivers ahead of them in the standings, although Larson is only seven points behind Byron.

Elliot felt confident despite the great task before him.

“Being a must-win in Martinsville isn’t necessarily a good thing, is it?” said Elliot. “You’d better punch your ticket or be in a situation that isn’t the last. The reality is that we have to come out here and perform at an extremely high level. If the weekend isn’t perfect, it should be pretty close.”