Amidst all the champagne showers, smoky burnouts, and high-fives echoing down pit road Sunday night, there were four drivers with very little to celebrate. While Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing were busy carving their names into the 2025 Championship 4, a few big names were left standing in the haze wondering what might have been.
For Team Penske, the streak is over. No blue ovals, no title shot, no confetti. Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney both swung hard, but the bat came up empty this time. Christopher Bell couldn’t quite keep pace, and Chase Elliott—yes, the people’s champion—will have to settle for being the world’s most polite cheerleader in Phoenix while his Hendrick teammates chase the big shiny thing without him.
Ryan Blaney came the closest. He started 31st, dug through the field like a caffeine-fueled miner, and somehow found himself leading late in the going. But when it mattered most, he came up one spot short.
“I just got loose,” Blaney said, replaying the moment William Byron got by him on that final long run. “My rear drive was fading quick. I was trying to protect, but that’s just two guys going for it. I’d have done the same thing. I’m just proud of this whole 12 group. They gave me a great car. Wasn’t quite enough tonight.”
It was a valiant effort, but NASCAR doesn’t do participation trophies—especially not at Martinsville.
Christopher Bell, who’s been knocking on the championship door for what feels like forever, was once again left with a helmet full of what-ifs. His Toyota was decent early but wilted on the long runs.
“We just weren’t strong enough,” Bell admitted. “I feel content with the results. The four who are going are legitimate contenders. The 20 team just wasn’t good enough.”
It’s not that he’s wrong—it’s just not the kind of thing anyone wants to say after 500 laps of getting battered by Martinsville’s concrete and outgunned by Hendrick horsepower.
Then there’s Joey Logano, the reigning champion turned reluctant philosopher. He arrived at Martinsville hoping to defend his third title, only to leave wondering where the speed—and the magic—had gone.
“We weren’t fast enough,” Logano said flatly. “I kind of lost control when the Hendrick cars pulled the okie-dokie in front of me and I chose the inside lane. I’m kicking myself for that one. We just couldn’t get the job done today—or really the last three races. The four there deserve to be there. We didn’t.”
It’s rare to see Team Penske shut out of the finale—this is the first time in years a Ford won’t be part of the Phoenix title fight. And it’s even rarer to hear Logano sound that defeated.
And then there’s Chase Elliott. Third place on the day, but just off the list that matters. He drove a smart, patient race—the kind that wins titles if the math adds up. But this time, it didn’t.
“We just got a little too far behind at the three-quarter mark,” Elliott said. “We got caught a lap down in the cycle, and from there we were just playing catch-up. We just weren’t quite good enough, truthfully. William and the 24 team did a great job and capitalized on a fast Saturday; put themselves in a good spot and got it done.”
Still, Elliott isn’t sulking—at least not publicly.
“I feel like we’ve had some of our best races over the last month,” he said. “I’m proud of the fight and the effort everybody at Hendrick put into these cars. We just came up short. But we’ve got two cars in the Championship 4, and hopefully one of them can get it done.”
For these four, Martinsville ended not with fireworks but with the long, echoing walk back to the hauler—dusty, sore, and painfully aware that in NASCAR, “almost” might as well be a mile.
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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