Saturday at Martinsville Speedway was an action-packed day featuring both the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series as the 0.526-mile oval serves as the penultimate race of the season for both series and the last race for those still alive in the Playoffs to lock into the Championship 4.
The day for the Cup Series featured practice and qualifying to set the field for Sunday’s Xfinity 500, which saw Hendrick Motorsports top the board with Chase Elliott leading practice and William Byron scoring the pole for their race which will go live at 2:00 pm ET on NBC.
Meanwhile, it was race day for the Xfinity Series with the running of the IAA & Ritchie Bros. 250 to determine which two other drivers would be joining Connor Zilisch and defending series champion Justin Allgaier in the championship race next weekend.
When it was all said and done, Taylor Gray claimed his maiden win in the Xfinity Series, just ahead of Sammy Smith, who would miss out on a berth in the championship race as a result. Jesse Love and Carson Kvapil would also punch their tickets to Phoenix.
As is expected on the half-mile bullring, there were tempers flaring both during and after the race when a war of words broke out between Sam Mayer and Jeb Burton for the run-ins they had throughout the night.
Our photographer Will McDermitt was on scene in Martinsville and here is a selection of the shots he was able to capture:
