Racing returns to the Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia, for the second time this calendar year. The stakes are higher than they were in April, with the final competition and ninth race of the playoffs looming.
Saturday's Xfinity 500, which marks the last race of the Round of 8, features a 0.526-mile paperclip-shaped track, the shortest in the NASCAR Cup Series.
In the race at Martinsville in the first week of April, Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson took pole position with a lap time of 19.718 seconds and a speed just over 96 miles per hour. His teammate William Byron who came away with the win, though, leading for 88 of 415 laps.
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Larson and Chase Elliot filled out the remainder of the podium for a Hendrick sweep on the franchise's 40th anniversary. It was Byron's third win of the season, and it propelled him to third in the Driver's Championship standings tied with Denny Hamlin.
All three Chevrolet drivers qualified for the playoffs and will duke it out in Ridgeway this weekend alongside five other top motorists -- Joe Gibbs' Hamlin and Christopher Bell, Penske's Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano and Tyler Reddick as the lone 23XI Racing contestant.
Reddick is coming off a signature win at Homestead-Miami Speedway, joining Logano in the official Championship 4 field after a controversial disqualification of other Hendrick driver Alex Bowman the week prior in Charlotte after his Chevy was deemed "too light" for competition.
The remaining two spots are still up for grabs at Martinsville, with Bell holding a 29-point lead over the playoff cutline and Byron sitting just inside the threshold. Here's everything to know about this week NASCAR lineup at Martinsville, including the starting order and pole for the 2024 Xfinity 500 based on qualifying results.
MORE: Watch NASCAR at Martinsville live with Fubo (free trial)
Martin Truex Jr. captured pole position in the race, marking the penultimate starting spot of his full-time NASCAR Cup Series Career. The Joe Gibbs No. 19 driver's fastest lap ran 96.190 mph, beating Elliot and Byron by 0.35 and 0.239 mph, respectively.
Ty Gibbs took fifth, rounding out the team's front-line pairing and sandwiching both Hendrick drivers in second and third. Chase Briscoe slots in the fourth spot as Stewart-Haas Racing's lone representative.
Hamlin would have likely been on the line as well with a third-place practice speed of 94.884. But he crashed during Turn 3 after clocking his fastest lap, sending him to the back of the field due to skipping the rest of Saturday's qualifying for repairs.
The driver entered the race 18 points below the line when he spun the back of his car into the wall after telling his crew over the radio his throttle stuck. Joe Gibbs would have had three drivers up front to start had Hamlin avoided the collision.