NASCAR viewer's guide for Martinsville Speedway

William Byron is on the verge of making the Cup championship race for the first time. He is five points ahead of Denny Hamlin for last transfer spot. Byron will be making his 10th Cup start at Martinsville Speedway. Hamlins has won five races at the track and finished in the top five in 33 starts. He has run nearly 16,000 laps there. William Byron has only run 4,200 laps. This year Byron won three Late Model races. His success this year was partly due to his experience in Late Models. It was his first in NASCAR. The 24-year-old didn't start racing until a decade ago.

Kyle Larson won the race at Martinsville Speedway. The Next Gen car with a composite body is strong enough for Larson. He was eliminated after the Round of 12 at the Charlotte Roval. His team is still high enough in the owner standings to have a chance at winning the title. The team for Hendrick Motorsports will be in owner's championship race in Phoenix. Larson led 199 of 267 laps and won both stages. It's a credit to the crew chief Cliff Daniels. Jeff Andrews, president and general manager of Hendick Motorsport, praised him for keeping the team focused on the goal.

Martin Truex Jr. was coming down pit road as the leader on Lap 246 and was hit by Kyle Larson. He was forced to pit for more than a minute and finished sixth. TrueX has had a lot of bad luck this season. At Texas, Truey crashed and at Darlington he lost power steering. In Nashville, he was in position to line up next to Chase Elliott on the front row for the final restart but followed his teammates down the pit Road. He restarted 14th and ended up 22nd. at Texas. The last time Trueys could have won, at New Hampshire, the race he won both stages and the first 206 laps, but he had to restart on pitroad.