One Last Chance to For the Championship 4, Live Martinsville Updates

Sunday's Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway (scheduled to take place at 2:00 PM ET on NBC) marks the final race of three in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 8.

While the six drivers are still fighting for two remaining Championship 4 berths, Sunday's race should provide an ultra-entertaining show as drivers will put everything on the line for a chance at the championship, as we've seen in recent years at Martinsville.

RACE PREVIEW: NASCAR Playoffs Enter Final Elimination at Martinsville

Goodyear has also brought a new left-side tire designed to bring increased tire wear, which should encourage comers and goers throughout the race, and add an element of unknowns to the day.

Welcome to the Racing America On SI live-race updates page for the Xfinity 500. This page will serve as your guide leading up to and throughout Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Playoff event. This page will be updated with key pre-race updates, in-race updates such as lead changes, and video highlights of crashes or incidents. Also included will be stage and race results, and much more. Continue checking back for additional updates.

Final Stage Updates
Stage 2 Updates
Stage 1 Updates
Pre-Race Updates
Starting Lineup
Playoff Picture (Heading Into Race)

Final Stage Updates

CHECKERED FLAG: William Byron wins the XFINITY 500 at Martinsville Speedway -- his 17th victory at NASCAR's top-level. Ryan Blaney finsihed second, with Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain, and Kyle Larson the top-five.

Lap 489: RESTART -- It's William Byron versus Ryan Blaney, and the No. 24 is CLEAR exiting Turn 2. Coming back to 10 laps remaining in the XFINITY 500. Blaney MUST WIN to advance to the Championship 4.

Lap 484: William Byron wins the race off pit road over Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain, and Chase Elliott.

Lap 482: CAUTION! Carson Hocevar has spun around in Turn 3, after contact from teammate Michael McDowell.

Lap 480: William Byron has driven away from Ryan Blaney, with a lead of just about one second. Still lots of lapped traffic, but only 20 laps for Blaney to get back into the fight..

Lap 462: Ryan Preece moves into third-place, getting past Ross Chastain. With so few laps to go, it's unlikely he'll be able to close the four-second deficit to the race leaders, but still a fantastic run for the RFK Racing driver.

Lap 457: NEW LEADER - William Byron makes a three-wide move underneath of Ryan Blaney entering Turn 1, and gets the lead away with 43 laps remaining in the XFINITY 500 at Martinsville Speedway. Now, can the No. 24 Chevrolet hold off Blaney, who has won the last two Fall events at Martinsville.

Lap 446: William Byron has closed within a half-second of race-leader Ryan Blaney. Still 54 laps remaining, with Blaney holding the lead as the leaders run into the tail-end of the field. Ryan Preece has entered the top-five, getting around Chase Elliott.

Lap 427: The top-five remains the same. Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Ross Chastain., Josh Berry, and Chase Elliott. Still 72 laps remaining, as Blaney leads by less than one second.

Lap 405: Back to Green! Ryan Blaney leads the field into Turn 1. With a good restart, he holds the lead by himself over William Byron.

Lap 401: Christopher Bell, Joey Logano, Ty Gibbs, Kyle Busch, Tyler Reddick hit pit road under this caution. They'll have roughly 10 lap fresher tires than the rest of the lead lap cars.

Lap 397: Caution! Carson Hocevar goes for his second spin of the race.

Lap 389: Green Flag! Ryan Blaney brings the field back to green, and William Byron will attempt to get back to the lead from behind him. They are bumper-to-bumper for the lead and a Championship 4 berth.

Lap 388: After free passes and wave arounds, we now have 16 cars on the lead lap, including the six Playoff drivers still running in this race.

Lap 380: It looks like, as NASCAR attempts to sort scoring out, that only Ryan Blaney and William Byron, among the Playoff contenders are on the lead lap. Just seven cars are currently scored on the lead lap.

Lap 377: Caution! After all of the Playoff contenders pitted under green, Erik Jones is sent spinning, and we have a caution that will trap a lot of the contenders a lap down.

Lap 375: Joey Logano kicks off the green flag pit stops for Playoff contenders, and Chase Elliott follows him into the pits.

Lap 359: Ryan Preece works past Chase Elliott for the third spot. He sits 4.897 behind race leader Ryan Blaney. William Byron, in second, sits 1.362 seconds behind Blaney.

Lap 345: Ryan Preece has now gotten around Christopher Bell for fourth. The No. 60 RFK Ford is showing great speed right now.

Lap 341: Ryan Preece, who celebrated a birthday on Saturday, is up to fifth position, and could play Playoff spoiler, potentially.

Lap 335: Denny Hamlin appears to have blown an engine! White smoke is shooting out both sides of his No. 11 car, and he goes behind the wall. He was running second.

Lap 333: Blaney continues to lead Denny Hamlin by 1.5 seconds, but William Byron has closed the gap on Hamlin and is threatening to take the second position.

Lap 330: Christopher Bell works his way around Joey Logano for the fifth spot as Riley Herbst goes behind the wall. That's two Toyotas that have gone behind the wall in this Stage.

Lap 322: Blaney has caught up to lapped traffic. This will undoubtedly tighten things up out front.

Lap 315: William Byron completes a pass on Joey Logano, and has now moved into the third spot.

Lap 306: Bell puts the bumper to Chase Elliott as he continues to work his way into the fifth spot. Elliott hangs on to the spot for now.

Lap 297: Ryan Preece has gotten around Kyle Larson for 10th. Larson is all of a sudden struggling, while Christopher Bell moves to sixth. This battle for the final Championship 4 spot, if Blaney or another must-win driver wins, this is going to be a nail-biter.

Lap 295: Chase Briscoe, who is already locked into the Championship 4, has slowed and is coming to pit road on Lap 295. Sounds like it's an engine problem for Briscoe.

Lap 291: William Byron, who has the freshest tires of the leaders, has gotten around Tyler Reddick for the fourth position. Reddick's car is fading.

Lap 288: Blaney clears Hamlin, but Hamlin is still in striking distance.

Lap 286: Back to Green! Ryan Blaney brings the field back to the stripe, and they head to Turn 1. Denny Hamlin is alongside Blaney for the lead.

Lap 282: No takers for pit road under this caution, which means Blaney will continue to lead the Xfinity 500. Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, and Ty Gibbs are the rest of the top-five.

William Byron, Chase Elliott, Austin Cindric, Christopher Bell, and Kyle Larson round out the top-10 on Lap 282.

Lap 278: Caution! Just after Christopher Bell nudged his way past Kyle Larson for ninth, the caution came out for a spinning Josh Berry, who got turned in a three-wide battle with Bubba Wallace and Brad Keselowski.

Lap 271: Back to Green! Tyler Reddick and Ryan Blaney lead the field into Turn 1, and Blaney is side-by-side with Reddick for the lead. Blaney is credited with leading, but they are still side-by-side. Finally, Blaney pulls forward on Lap 274. From 31st to 1st for Ryan Blaney.

Lap 265: William Byron, and the top finishers from Stage 2 come to pit road, and that hands the lead to Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin, and Joey Logano, who all pitted under the Cody Ware caution near the end of Stage 2. Now, we have split strategies that could decide this thing.

Stage 2 Updates

Lap 260: William Byron wins Stage 2!

Stage 2 Results: 1. William Byron, 2. Kyle Larson, 3. Christopher Bell, 4. Chase Elliott, 5. Todd Gilliland, 6. Chase Briscoe, 7. Ryan Preece, 8. Shane van Gisbergen, 9. Tyler Reddick, 10. Erik Jones

Lap 249: Green Flag!

Lap 242: Caution! Cody Ware has gone spinning in Turns 3 and 4. It looks like he lost a wheel. Ryan Blaney had completed the pass on Larson for P2 before Ware's incident.

Lap 238: Back to Green! William Byron leads the field into Turn 1, and he continues his dominant day, but Ryan Blaney is battling Kyle Larson on the outside for the second spot, and as of now, Blaney has a slight edge on him.

Lap 233: Ryan Blaney, who started from the 31st position, has climbed to third, and was looking very sporty on older tires.

Lap 229: Caution! Cole Custer, who has been having a great weekend, as he started inside the top-10, and was running inside the top-15, has been sent spinning after contact from Josh Berry, who was sent into Custer due to contact from Alex Bowman.

Lap 224: Back to Green! William Byron leads the field to green, and gets a good restart. He's out front by himself as teammates Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson battle for second.

Lap 215: Caution! Carson Hocevar has gone for a spin in Turn 2. He may have had help from Daniel Suarez, who will be his teammate next season at Spire Motorsports. Tyler Reddick will recieve the free pass under this caution. That's the second consecutive free pass for Reddick.

Lap 211: Kyle Larson has moved around Joey Logano for the second spot, as William Byron has now gapped them back out after clearing lapped traffic. Larson, you'd expect, would now be a shield for his teammate, who must win to move to the Championship 4.

Lap 202: The gap up front is closing. Joey Logano has closed to less than 0.800 seconds behind William Byron for the race lead. Kyle Larson is also closing the gap in third.

Lap 199: Ryan Blaney gets past Christopher Bell for sixth, and a couple of laps later, Denny Hamlin is now working on getting past him.

Lap 194: Ryan Blaney, who has seen his progress stall out in Stage 2, has finally gotten around Denny Hamlin to move into seventh. Perhaps, he can work his way forward on this long run. William Byron leads Joey Logano by 1.138 seconds.

Lap 173: Bubba Wallace got into Kyle Busch, but Busch was able to hang on to maintain the 23rd position over Wallace. We're seeing some good bumping and shoving going on, which has been missing at Martinsville the last couple of seasons.

Lap 141: Back to Green! William Byron takes the field into Turn 1 with Joey Logano in second. Both drivers must win today to move onto the Championship 4. Same is true for Chase Elliott in fourth, and Ryan Blaney in eighth.

Lap 136: William Byron wins the race off pit road ahead of Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Austin Cindric, and Ryan Preece.

Stage 1 Updates

Lap 130: William Byron takes Stage 1 win over Kyle Larson.

Stage 1 Results: 1. William Byron, 2. Joey Logano, 3. Kyle Larson, 4. Chase Elliott, 5. Ty Gibbs, 6. Denny Hamlin, 7. Ryan Blaney, 8. Christopher Bell, 9. Todd Gilliland, 10. Austin Cindric.

Lap 126: Joey Logano has moved into the runner-up spot! Meanwhile, Ryan Blaney has climbed to seventh. Watch out for the Penske duo.

Lap 116: Joey Logano, like Ryan Blaney, is starting to look good on the long run. The defending series champion, is up to third. William Byron leads by 2.576 seconds over Kyle Larson.

Lap 107: Ryan Blaney has passed Chase Briscoe and now finds himself inside the top-10 after starting 31st. The two-time defending winner of this race, is looking good after starting 31st.

Lap 93: William Byron, who had built a lead of roughly 1.5 seconds, has seen it bleed to under 0.600 seconds over Kyle Larson due to being stuck in lapped traffic. Ryan Blaney has now climbed to 12th.

Lap 79: Ryan Blaney has moved into the top-15. Current top-five: Byron, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, and Ty Gibbs.

Lap 55: William Byron continues to lead, and Ryan Blaney continues his assault on the scoring pylon. Blaney is now up to 18th.

Lap 34: Back to Green! Michael McDowell leads the field to green, but with just two fresh tires, he doesn't stand a chance with William Byron, who regains the lead.

Lap 31: Michael McDowell wins the race off pit road with a two-tire pit stop. McDowell gained 12 spots on pit road. William Byron, Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Cole Custer, Christopher Bell, and Austin Cindric are the remainder of the top-10 after the first pit stop of the day, which came under caution.

Lap 28: Caution! Daniel Suarez goes sideways with contact from Bubba Wallace. It looked like he was going to spin, but saved it. However, the caution was already thrown.

Lap 27: Ryan Blaney is now starting to make some headway as the Goodyear tires begin to wear. He has clawed his way to the 23rd position.

Lap 12: Ryan Blaney hasn't made a whole lot of ground. After starting 31st, he's only moved to 29th on Lap 12. Meanwhile, Joey Logano, his Team Penske teammate and fellow Playoff contender has gotten around Denny Hamlin for the fifth position.

Lap 2: Byron got a great initial start and is out front by himself. He leads Lap 1 as his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson moves to second. Ty Gibbs has fallen to third.

2:17 PM ET: Green Flag!

William Byron, the polesitter and Playoff contender, leads the field to the green flag with Ty Gibbs alongside. They head into Turn 1 to begin the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville. 500 laps remain to decide the Championship 4 field.

Pre-Race Updates

2:08 PM ET: Engines fired!

After a command to start engines, the field of 37 cars have roared to life on pit road at Martinsville Speedway. The pace laps ahead of the Xfinity 500 are about to begin momentarily.

2:02 PM ET: National Anthem complete

The invocation, which included a nod to those that make the Martinsville Hotdog, and the National Anthem, performed by the Liberty University marching band, have been completed. In minutes, the engines will be fired ahead of Sunday's race.

Xfinity 500 Pre-Race Information

The Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway will be televised on NBC and can be streamed on Peacock and HBO Max. The race broadcast will begin at 2:00 PM ET on Sunday, October 26.

The Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90 will provide the radio broadcast of Sunday's event. For subscribers of the HBO Max streaming service, NASCAR Driver Cam, which streams live in-car camera footage from every car in the field, will be available for today's race.

The overall race purse, which teams will fight for their portion of in Sunday's event in Sin City, amounts to a total of $9,797,935.

The race distance is a total of 500 laps around the 0.526-mile short track affectionately known as the paperclip, which equates to a race distance of 263 miles. The Xfinity 500 will be broken up into three stages. Stage 1 will end at Lap 130, Stage 2 will end at Lap 260, and the final stage of the race will conclude at the end of Lap 500, barring an overtime finish.

Sunday's event is the final race of the three-race Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. At the conclusion of the event, the four-driver field that will battle for the Bill France Cup next weekend at Phoenix Raceway will be decided. Should a playoff-eligible driver win the race, who is not already locked into the Championship 4, they will be automatically locked into the Championship 4.

Ryan Blaney is the defending winner of the NASCAR Cup Series Xfinity 500, and has actually captured the win in this event in each of the past two seasons. Blaney will start from the 31st position after a rough performance in Saturday's qualifying session.

Starting Lineup

William Byron captured his 16th career NASCAR Cup Series pole and will lead the field to green in Sunday's Xfinity 500. The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet finds himself below the cutline heading into the event, so, a win would be season-changing for the regular-season champion.

Pos	Car	Driver
1	24	William Byron (P)
2	54	Ty Gibbs
3	5	Kyle Larson (P)
4	22	Joey Logano (P)
5	11	Denny Hamlin (P)
6	41	Cole Custer
7	8	Kyle Busch
8	9	Chase Elliott (P)
9	19	Chase Briscoe (P)
10	2	Austin Cindric

Click here for the full official starting lineup.

(P) indicates Playoff Driver

Other Playoff Drivers: Christopher Bell (12th), Ryan Blaney (31st)

Playoff Picture (Heading Into Race)

Heading into the final race of the Round of 8 of the Playoffs, two drivers, Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe, have secured their places in the Championship 4 via wins at Las Vegas and Talladega. Christopher Bell sits 37 points above the cutline, while Kyle Larson comes into the day 36 points above.

While the Playoff picture appears to be quite clear, it can get very dirty if one of the drivers below the cutline can win to advance to the Championship 4, and all four drivers below the cutline have great historical performances at Martinsville.

Playoff Standings Heading Into Martinsville:

Rank	Car	Driver	To Cutline
1	19	Chase Briscoe	ADV
2	11	Denny Hamlin	ADV
3	20	Christopher Bell	+37
4	5	Kyle Larson	+36
		CUTLINE
5	24	William Byron	-36
6	22	Joey Logano	-38
7	12	Ryan Blaney	-47
8	9	Chase Elliott	-62