NASCAR Fantasy Fusion: Xfinity 500 at Martinsville

After 59 tries, Kyle Larson finally got his first Talladega win last weekend and first superspeedway win overall. Larson wheeled the No. 5 from 11th place to first in the closing lap of the overtime race, proving once again what a wheelman he is. Great for the fans, not so great for the competition. 

The win was Larson's third victory of the season and third win in the 2026 Chase. While the win was exciting for Larson, his three children--Audrey, 8, Owen, 11, and Cooper, 3--didn't miss a second of the celebration. As we come to Martinsville Speedway this weekend, all eyes are on the No. 5 team who could potentially clinch the championship.

 

This Week's Pick Strategy: Although calculators will be burning up with the Larson clinch scenario, I will not be selling the rest of the field short this weekend. While Chasers like Denny Hamlin, 73 points behind Larson, Christopher Bell, one point behind Hamlin, and Chase Briscoe, two points behind Bell, will no doubt be running hard trying to beat the odds, there are great non-Chasers who can win on Sunday.
 

I will go heavy on Martinsville masters and add in two or three drivers who run well at Martinsville, but who perhaps didn't get the finishes they deserved. Road course racers tend to be very competitive here due to the heavy braking zones, so show them some love when making your picks. I will then look at drivers who can earn me qualifying points, and finalize my picks based on practice.

 

Active NASCAR Cup Series Drivers with Most Top 10s 

2022 to 2025 (4 races)
By Race 

All with 4 - Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson and Joey Logano 
All with 3 -   Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Christopher Bell and Ross Chastain 

By Track
2022-2026 (9 races)
Joey Logano - 9
Both with 8 - Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson 
Chase Elliott - 7
All with 6 - Denny Hamlin, William Byron and Chase Briscoe

 

Active NASCAR Cup Series Drivers with Most Top 5s 
2022-2026 (9 races)

Both with 6 - Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson 
Both with 5 - Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott
Both with 4 - William Byron and Joey Logano

Last Year's Pole Winner: William Byron

 

Last Year's Race Winner: William Byron

 

The Likely Suspects: My Martinsville elite drivers include Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bel, and Chase Briscoe.

My Two Cents: My no-brainer pick this week is a tie between Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott. My next picks are Joey Logano, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Preece and Ross Chastain. I will round out my roster with Todd Gilliland and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

 

My Final Four: Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Ross Chastain and Todd Gilliland.

Second-Look Driver: This week's sleeper pick is Josh Berry. Martinsville Speedway is Berry's eighth-best track on the circuit. He has piloted the Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 Ford to a 10th-place finish in each of his last two races here. Berry is a short-track master who has earned Top 10s in three consecutive short-track races, making him the first Wood Brothers Racing driver to achieve that milestone since Neil Bonnett in 1989. This season Berry has been showcasing his driving acumen impressively in the second half of the season. Can he close it out with a win at Martinsville? Stay tuned.

Points to Ponder:

• More than a third (34.84%) of NASCAR Cup Series races at Martinsville Speedway (54 races) have been won from the first three starting positions. And 23.87% of the wins (37 races) have come from the front row.
  
• Hendrick Motorsports leads the NASCAR Cup Series in wins at Martinsville Speedway with 31 victories. Joe Gibbs Racing ranks second with 15.
• Ten of the 59 NASCAR Cup Series Martinsville Speedway race winners are active this weekend: Denny Hamlin (6 wins); Ryan Blaney, William Byron and Brad Keselowski, (each with two wins); and Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott and Joey Logano (each with one win). 
• Denny Hamlin leads all active Cup Series drivers with four runner-up finishes at Martinsville as well as in Top 5s with 22, and in Top 10s with 28. Hamlin leads all active drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series in laps led at Martinsville Speedway with 3,014 laps led in 41 starts (14% of his laps completed at the track).
• Ryan Blaney (21 starts) leads the NASCAR Cup Series among active drivers in average finishing position at Martinsville Speedway with an 8.048, followed by Denny Hamlin with a 10.220 (41 starts).

Remember, if you're playing Driver Group Game, make your initial picks by 1 p.m. ET on Saturday, October 31st and your final picks by 2 p.m. ET on race day Sunday, November 1st.

Enjoy the race!

 

Note: Most of us will get an extra hour of sleep on Sunday as Daylight Savings Time ends. Remember to set your clocks back one hour before you go to sleep on Saturday.

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Carol D'Agostino has been playing Fantasy NASCAR for 19 years. She launched NASCAR Fantasy Fusion for Skirts & Scuffs in October 2011. Each week, Carol pores through statistics and combs through her personal notebooks to arm fans with analysis and picking strategies that will leave their friends wondering how they got so smart. Carol also does race coverage for Skirts & Scuffs at Richmond Raceway and occasionally at her home track, Dover International Speedway. She is also part of the distinguished NASCAR Expert Picks panel at frcs.pro. formerly called Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet. When she isn’t wielding her fantasy-racing superpowers, you’ll find Carol hammering out a news release or creating a marketing strategy at a small niche public relations firm she founded called Purple Cat or executing downtown revitalization projects for a small town on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.