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2024 National Debt Relief 250
32nd race of the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The 2024 National Debt Relief 250 was the 32nd stock car race of the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series, the sixth race of the Playoffs, the final race of the Round of 8, and the fifth iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, November 2, 2024, at Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia, a 0.526 miles (0.847 km) permanent paper-clip shaped racetrack. The race took the scheduled 250 laps to complete. In an action-packed race with numerous cautions, Aric Almirola, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, would put on a dominating performance, winning both stages and leading a race-high 150 laps to earn his eighth career NASCAR Xfinity Series win, and his third of the season. He would also lock the No. 20 team into the Championship 4 of the owner's playoffs.[9] To fill out the podium, Sammy Smith, driving for JR Motorsports, and Chandler Smith, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, would finish 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
Following the race, Chandler Smith and Cole Custer confronted each other on pit road, with Smith taking a swing at Custer before being pulled away by track officials and pit crew members.[10] Chandler, Jesse Love, Sam Mayer, and Sammy Smith were eliminated from playoff contention following the race. Austin Hill, A. J. Allmendinger, Custer, and Justin Allgaier would advance into the Championship 4.[11]
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Background
Martinsville Speedway is an International Speedway Corporation-owned NASCAR stock car racing track located in Henry County, in Ridgeway, Virginia, just to the south of Martinsville. At 0.526 miles (0.847 km) in length, it is the shortest track in the NASCAR Cup Series. The track is also one of the first paved oval tracks in NASCAR, being built in 1947 by H. Clay Earles. It is also the only race track that has been on the NASCAR circuit from its beginning in 1948. Along with this, Martinsville is the only NASCAR oval track on the entire NASCAR track circuit to have asphalt surfaces on the straightaways, then concrete to cover the turns.
Entry list
- (R) denotes rookie driver.
- (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.
- (P) denotes playoff driver.
- (OP) denotes owner's playoff car.
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Practice
For practice, drivers were separated into two groups, Group A and B. Both sessions were 15 minutes long, and was held on Friday, November 1, at 3:35 PM EST.[12] Jesse Love, driving for Richard Childress Racing, would set the fastest time between both sessions, with a lap of 20.454, and a speed of 92.579 mph (148.991 km/h).
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Qualifying
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Qualifying was held on Friday, November 1, at 4:10 PM EST.[12] Since Martinsville Speedway is a short track, the qualifying system used is a single-car, two-lap system with only one round. Drivers will be on track by themselves and will have two laps to post a qualifying time, and whoever sets the fastest time will win the pole.[13]
Parker Retzlaff, driving for Jordan Anderson Racing, would score the pole for the race, with a lap of 19.901, and a speed of 95.151 mph (153.131 km/h).[14]
No drivers would fail to qualify.
Qualifying results
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Post-race fight
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During the race, both Chandler Smith and Cole Custer were racing each other hard for 2nd. The two had been racing each other hard during the course of the year including at Kansas a month before where the two had a conversation about the incident after the race. During one of the early stages of the race, Smith moved Custer to take the position from him. On a restart with 29 to go, Smith was in 2nd with Custer right behind him when Custer bumped Smith into turn 1 sending him up the track. But Custer also slid up the track and both lost 2 positions in the process. This angered Smith as Smith said on the radio "What he is gonna do is get his fucking ass beat after the race if he keeps fucking around little punk ass bitch!" Both were able to get top 5 finishes after another late race restart with Smith finishing 3rd and Custer finishing 4th, but this eliminated Smith from contending for the Championship as he needed a win to do so as he was 28 points behind Custer for the last spot in the Championship to end the race. After the race, the two parked on pit road behind one another and got out of their cars. Smith and Custer got into an intense screaming match at one another for about 10 seconds before Smith slapped Custer across the face in the process. Custer's team ran over to the scene and were immeadietly there and shoved Smith back to protect their driver with NASCAR officials and security there to break up the fight. In his interview, Custer said, "Obviously he's not happy but at the end of the day, he's put us in the wall a few times this year and his mistakes caught up with him. He used the bumper on me. I used the bumper on him. So what comes around goes around in this deal. I don't know how we're not even. Then, he punches me in the face. I can't even tell if he really punched me in the face, it was so soft." When asked about the slap, Smith said, "I was planning to do more than that. I was extremely pissed off. I gave him five laps before that caution came out and beat his bumper off and never shipped him or anything like that. Then finally, it's like, alright, the laps are winding down. I’m in a must-win. The 20's [Almirola] starting to drive away. He was really good all day. I can't waste any more time with him. So I finally had a good enough run and pushed him up the racetrack and went on our way." He also mentioned he was surprised Custer chose the outside for the restart despite being in 3rd. He finished his interview saying, "He's got more stakes than I do next weekend."[15] Eventually, NASCAR fined Smith $10,000 for the slap.[16]
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Race results
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Stage 1 Laps: 60
Stage 2 Laps: 60
Stage 3 Laps: 136
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Standings after the race
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References
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