Saturday's motors: Truex wins pole as he faces championship elimination in NASCAR playoffs

For the third time in this year's playoffs, NASCAR regular season champion Martin Truex Jr. is facing elimination and wondering how his title chances have exploded spectacularly.

Truex heads into Sunday's race at Martinsville Speedway tied with Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin at 17 points below the cutoff line. There are six drivers vying for two spots in next week's championship-deciding finale and Truex needs a rapid turnaround to have any shot at racing for a second title.

He got a boost Saturday with a pole-winning run in qualifying. Truex's lap at 94.153 mph was good enough for his third pole of the season and second consecutive.

Wow, did he need it.

Truex has just one top-10 finish through the first seven races of the playoffs – it forced him to stave off elimination at the end of the rounds of 16 and 12 – and although he started from the pole last week at Homestead-Miami Speedway an engine failure put him in the same spot Sunday at the Virginia short track.

“It’s been really tough, and nothing has really gone right,” Truex said Saturday. “I thought we were sitting in a really good position last week. Things were going pretty well, and then we pit and the bottom falls out. We will reset. We are ready to go again. This is a new week and a new opportunity, and we’ve been in this position before. Let’s just go see what we can do.”

Christopher Bell, his teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, and 2021 champion Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports claimed the first two spots in the final four. William Byron of Hendrick has a solid shot at adding another Chevrolet to the championship field based on his sizeable points margin, which means barring a Byron disaster, there's really only one spot up for grab.

Among Truex's challengers are teammate Hamlin, who leads all active drivers at Martinsville with five career wins, and Ryan Blaney of Team Penske. Blaney is above the cutline and trying to ensure a Ford is represented in the finale.

Also below the cutline is Tyler Reddick, who drives for Hamlin and Michael Jordan at 23XI Racing, and Chris Buescher of RFK Racing. Buescher can only make the championship race with a win at Martinsville.

Hamlin, meanwhile, is trying to balance his own desire to make the championship race with his hopes that Reddick can earn a spot for the team that Hamlin co-owns.

“The way I see it is I’ve got two shots to get into the final four," Hamlin said. "I certainly would rather do it on the driver’s side, because there are going to be far less opportunities to do that, than what it would be on the owner’s side.

"This weekend, (Reddick is) unfortunately competitors, and I will treat them as that.”

Truex will lead non-playoff drivers Ty Gibbs and Chase Briscoe to the green. Hamlin qualified fourth and was followed by Larson, non-playoff driver Bubba Wallace, and Bell.

The remainder of the playoff field was completed by Blaney in 11th, Byron in 16th, Buscher in 18th and Reddick in 19th.

Almirola out at SHR

Aric Almirola announced Saturday that he's not returning to Stewart-Haas Racing next season, a year after he postponed his planned 2023 retirement because sponsor Smithfield elected to remain in NASCAR.

But Smithfield said Saturday morning that “the time has come for Smithfield to end our NASCAR partnership,” and Almirola must now reconsider his immediate future.

Smithfield has sponsored for Almirola since 2012.

“I’d like to not quit cold turkey. I think there are some opportunities, but it’s hard,” Almirola said. "It’s challenging to figure out things that make sense for race teams to do it part-time. Most race teams want somebody to run full-time and race for a championship, so we’ll see if we can get it worked out.

“I’d love to still scratch the itch, but just don’t want to do it like I have been doing it for the last 12 years, where it’s 38 weeks and it’s a grind.”

The 39-year-old did not rule out running Xfinity Series races in the future. Noah Gragson has been rumored to be the top candidate to replace Almirola in the No. 10 Ford at SHR.

Almirola has been with SHR since 2018. He scored two of his three career Cup wins with the organization and finished a career-high fifth in the points in 2018.

Kevin Harvick is retiring from NASCAR at the end of the season and SHR has already said Josh Berry will drive the No. 4 next season.

Xfinity

Justin Allgaier beat Sheldon Creed in a door-to-door demolition derby Saturday that decided the Xfinity Series championship field. Destroyed race cars were parked along the Martinsville Speedway finish line as NASCAR sorted through the carnage and ex-teammates exchanged heated words.

The messy race went into a two-lap overtime shootout after a nearly 30-minute stoppage for the 15th caution. The final restart pitted Richard Childress Racing teammates Austin Hill and Creed side-by-side on the front row with both needing a win to make next week's championship finale.

Creed is leaving RCR at the end of the season and has battled Hill on the track all season, so it was no surprise to see the two slamming doors for the two overtime laps around the Virginia short tack.

Sam Mayer was the only driver locked into the final four, and six other drivers were vying for the remaining three spots. As the two RCR cars battled for their season, Allgaier held firm and waited for his chance.

The bad blood between the RCR drivers gave Allgaier his opportunity. The two Chevys slammed into each other on the restart and chased each other around the track, with Hill finally sliding ahead of Creed on the final lap.

But Creed slammed into the back of Hill – he said he doesn't like racing that way and felt he'd been as clean as possible in a must-win situation – and Hill slammed hard into the wall.

“He's going to be mad, but it's for a championship four spot and I'm going to fight for my guys until the end,” Creed said after he was eliminated by finishing second.

Hill said Creed gave him no room on the track.

“Just uncalled for and for that to happen, neither of the RCR guys make it to the final four, it's just frustrating,” Hill said. “Pretty excited for him to go to his next adventure … and I don't have to put up with him no more.”

With Hill out of the way, Allgaier pulled alongside Creed and door slammed him to the finish and grabbed the win by .032 seconds. It will be Allgaier's sixth shot at his first Xfinity Series title.

John Hunter Nemechek, a seven-race winner this season, made the final four on points as did Cole Custer. A two-race winner this season, Custer was wrecked at the finish Saturday and had to await NASCAR scoring to see if he made the final four.

The final four field is represented by a Ford from Stewart-Haas Racing with Custer, Chevrolets from JR Motorsports for Allgaier and Mayer, and a Toyota from Joe Gibbs Racing for Nemechek. The winner will be a first-time Xfinity Series champion as defending champion Ty Gibbs is now completing his rookie season in the Cup Series.

Formula One

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc found some surprising speed on Saturday to earn the pole position for the start of Formula One's Mexico City Grand Prix.

The Italian team even earned a rare 1-2 front row lockout, with Carlos Sainz right next to him.

But lurking behind, of course, is Red Bull's season champion Max Verstappen, who will likely be the race favorite from wherever he starts Sunday. Verstappen finished qualifying in third, but was left waiting to see if he will stay there overnight.

Race officials had announced early in qualifying that Verstappen would be investigated after the session for delaying several cars in pit lane. That left a potential grid penalty that could bump him further back and jumble the starting grid.

“To be honest, I did not expect to be on pole position,” Leclerc said. “Now we need to convert it into the win, and obviously that will be very difficult.”

Leclerc did not do that from pole position last week at the United States Grand Prix. Verstappen charged from sixth to the victory. Leclerc faded to a sixth-place finish and was later disqualified after he and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton were penalized for a technical rules violation with their cars.

Ferrari had struggled for speed in the three practice sessions in Mexico City and figured to be in the middle of the pack until finding the quick laps at the very end.

Both Leclerc and Sainz said Verstappen, who has won four times at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez since 2017, remains the favorite to win again. But they will try to work together at the start to stay in front on him.

In the the previous seven races in Mexico City, only three winners have started from No. 1: Nico Rosberg in 2015, Hamilton in 2016 and Verstappen last year. The track’s exceptionally long straight from the start into the first corner make a start from second or third the optimal position to draft and pass the front car.

Verstappen won from third in 2021 when he passed two cars at the first corner. It won't be easy to pull off the same move again, he said.

“I learned you can never repeat the same start from when I was little. You can look at it, but every year is different,” Verstappen said.

Sainz is the only non-Red Bull driver to win this season, when he won the Singapore Grand Prix. Ferrari's last win in Mexico City was in 1990 with Alain Prost.

Verstappen is chasing a record-breaking 16th victory of the season. He owns the F1 season record of 15 set last season and tied a week ago in Texas. A win would also be career No. 51, tying Prost for fourth-most in F1 history.

Verstappen's Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, was fifth in qualifying as he chases his third win of the season in front of a home crowd that delivers thunderous cheers every time he is on the track.

Red Bull has already won the driver and team championships this season. Perez is currently second and trying to hold off Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton over the final four races of the season. Red Bull has never had its drivers finish 1-2.

“There are two goals remaining this season: One is to keep wining and two is to secure that second place,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said. "We came close last year … (Perez) is in a strong position so it will be a great achievement in the season with the level of dominance that we’ve had”.