By David Morgan, Associate Editor
Coming into Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway, the final elimination race of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, Ryan Blaney and Team Penske were backed against the wall once again with only a win guaranteeing them a spot in the championship race at Phoenix.
Not unfamiliar territory for the driver of the No. 12 Ford, who has had to score the Martinsville walk-off in each of the last two seasons to transfer into the Championship 4, with the driver and team looking to make it three in a row.
Despite starting the day all the way back in 31st place, Blaney methodically worked his way through the field, finishing the first stage inside the top-10.
He would hold serve through the second stage before a strategy call brought him to pit road just before the stage end in order to leap frog leader William Byron, who had dominated the day up to that point.
Ascending to the lead at the start of the final stage, Blaney looked to be in the catbird seat as the laps clicked away, but the tide started to turn back Byron’s way inside of 50 laps to go as the regular season champion began to turn up the heat on Blaney as he and the other leaders worked their way through lapped traffic.
Byron made his move heading into Turn 1 with 44 laps as Blaney was battling the lapped car of Ty Dillon, diving low in a bold three-wide move in which he and Blaney made contact and Byron was able to skate by to retake the lead.
Blaney would have one more shot at him on the final restart with 11 laps to go, but Byron was just too strong in the end and he would have to settle for second-place, dashing his dreams of making it to Phoenix to try and go for another championship for team owner Roger Penske.
“It stinks, but, at the same time, I’m really proud of the effort we put in,” said Blaney.
“From starting where we did, picking our way through the field as fast as we did early was really great. Going into this weekend, I just wanted a shot to win the race and we had that tonight and it just didn’t really play out. I know we gave 100 percent of what we had. Nobody left anything on the table with this group and that’s all you can ask for. That’s all you can do.
“The 24 was just a little better than us and they got the job done, so props to them, but, on our side, I’m just proud of the effort. We put up a good fight, but it just wasn’t quite enough.”
THERE'S CONTACT!!@WilliamByron takes the lead! pic.twitter.com/OddwgtXYEk
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) October 26, 2025
Blaney added that he did not fault Byron for making the move on him to re-take the lead and explained he would have done the same if the roles were reversed.
“We were picking through lap traffic and it’s easy to kind of lose momentum and he saw an opportunity and took it. I don’t blame him,” Blaney said.
“I know it was tight. I haven’t really seen a replay of how much room he had or not, I don’t really know, I just knew it was gonna be tight. I got the worst end of it, obviously, but it’s two guys racing for the win.”
With Blaney and teammate Joey Logano both failing to get to Phoenix, it will mean for the first time since 2021, a team other than Team Penske will bring home the crown.
Blaney admitted it was disappointing to not make it through, but his team would just have to reset and make another run at it next year.
“I expect at least one of us to be in there,” said Blaney. “It stinks. It stinks we don’t have a shot to go for four in a row for Roger. Roger was here tonight and was really wanting to see him in Victory Lane and celebrate it with him, but we just weren’t able to get it done and the championship streak at Penske ends.
“That’s the way it goes and we just have to re-rack and try to be better for next year. That’s all you can do.”
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