2024 NASCAR Championship Review – A Crazy Comeback Worth Remembering, Post-Race Rivalries, and Two New Champions

It has been a wild ride, but the 2024 NASCAR season is in the books. After a wild October for the Cup, Xfinity, and Truck series, November started with providing two post-race altercations after the Martinsville cutoff races for Truck and Xfinity and manufacturer manipulation for the Cup series. In the Championship races, the Truck and Xfinity series would crown two new champions, and one of them would lead to one of the greatest comebacks for a championship in NASCAR ever. We will first briefly discuss the events from each Martinsville race before discussing the championship races.

  First, the Truck race. On the last restart, it was Christian Eckes and Taylor Gray on the front row. Eckes was the dominant truck in this race and had already locked up a spot in the Championship 4 on points. Taylor Gray, on the other hand, was in desperate need to win the race because his chances of making the final 4 on points were gone by the end of the race. Gray had the upper hand on Eckes by being on fresher tires. Gray powered by Eckes on the outside lane to claim control of the race, but going into Turn 3, Eckes said it was game on and shoved Gray up the track. Eckes would then hold off a hard-charging Ben Rhodes in a tight battle and go on to win Martinsville. Eckes may have won, but unfortunately, he made a new enemy in Taylor Gray. After Eckes finished his front-stretch interview, Gray stormed to Eckes and had a heated discussion with him on the start-finish line. Eckes defended himself by saying what he did was just Martinsville racing at its finest, but Gray did not take the excuse and warned Eckes of payback for the championship race at Phoenix. Did payback happen? Find out later, because now, let us discuss what rivalry went down in the Xfinity series.

  Speaking of payback, we saw a payback act in the Xfinity Martinsville cutoff race between Chandler Smith and Cole Custer. When the laps were winding down, Custer was the last guy in the Championship 4 on points and Smith was looking for a win to get a berth into the Final 4. Custer and Smith were running second and third while Almirola, a part-time Xfinity racer now, was leading. Smith was fighting to pass Custer for second place but was having a difficult time doing so. After several laps behind Custer, he put the bumper to him and took over second. A caution for Brandon Jones spinning out happened just after Smith moved to second. On the ensuing restart, Smith chose the outside lane on the front row, but Custer was not happy with him. Going back a few weeks to Kansas, Chandler and Cole were battling for the win late in the race, but around 40 laps to go, Smith accidentally squeezed Custer into the wall. This small incident did not hurt them at all, but Custer was not happy with Smith for this and felt it cost him a win as Almirola ran down and passed Smith and Custer for the win. With that race and Smith moving him for second in his mind, he acts by moving Smith up the track, which makes him lose several spots. Smith would drive his way back to third place, but he did not make the Championship 4 since he did not win; Custer, on the other hand, did make the Championship 4. On pit road after the race, Smith marched up to Custer and had a heated argument with him. After they talked for a brief period, Smith would go on the offensive by taking a swipe at Custer. Smith backed away right afterward, which allowed Custer’s crew to keep Smith away from trying to do anything else. Did this altercation lead to any payback in the Championship race and the amazing comeback story? Find out soon!

  Finally, now we get to the biggest controversy of the Martinsville weekend. Towards the end of the Cup race, Byron and Bell were the two guys battling for the last spot in the Championship 4. During the last green-flag run of the race, Byron was running in the Top 5, but he was on older tires than most of the lead-lap guys. Byron started to fade as his car got worse by being on old tires. Byron looked to be in serious trouble of missing the Champ 4, but to his benefit, the two guys that caught him when he was still in the Final Four by a few points were Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain: two Chevy teammates of Byron. When Chastain and Dillon got to Byron, they suspiciously could not even get side-by-side with Byron. That is not where the controversy ends either; Bell and Toyota join in on the party of race manipulation. On the final lap, Bubba Wallace slows down a considerable amount, which allows Bell to pass him in Turn 3, but as Bell passed Bubba, he got loose and rode the wall. Bell would be tied with Byron for the last spot, but since Bell’s best finish in the Round of 8 was a second and better than Byron’s best finish, Bell would be the final guy in on points. After the legendary “Hail Melon” move performed by Chastain two years ago, NASCAR outlawed wall riding from any race as a safety hazard. So, after a half-hour of looking at Bell riding the wall to see if it warranted a time penalty, NASCAR concluded that Bell broke the rules and assessed Bell with a time penalty. Byron would be awarded the last spot in the Championship 4, despite the blatant manipulation from Dillon and Chastain. Not only can one see how Dillon and Chastain were purposely slowing up for Byron, but there was also radio communication from the crew of Austin Dillon where one of the crew members said, “Does the 1 know the deal?”. Why NASCAR did not remove Byron from the Final Four is unclear, but either way, the Championship 4 for all three series was officially set.

  The Truck and Cup Championship Races were fairly straightforward as season finale races. Taylor Gray was never around Christian Eckes enough to get payback on him for ruining his Championship chances, so there was never any payback in this race. The two guys in the Final Four that dominated the race were Corey Heim and Ty Majeski. Heim occasionally put up a fight with Majeski, but he was no match for him. Majeski led most of the race and pulled away from Heim by several seconds at times. The race did not develop into a wreck fest like last year meaning Majeski would have no issue cruising to the victory and picking up his first Championship in NASCAR. In the Cup Championship Race, the race would play out in a very straightforward way like the Truck race; the race would be calm for the most part without any surprises. Similar to the Truck finale, two guys in the Championship 4 would be some of the best in the race: Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano. Bell led a lot of the race, but Logano and Blaney put up a fight and would be the two drivers battling it out for the win. On the final restart, Blaney would get stuck behind the Hendrick guys of Byron and Larson while Logano would retake the lead. Blaney would work his way around the two and run down Logano before the checkered flag flew. By the time Blaney caught Logano, he would get stuck behind him in dirty air since dirty air with the Gen 7 car is a huge issue and Phoenix is a flat track. Blaney could not overcome the dirty air, and Logano would make it to the line to win the race and his second Championship. Even though the Truck and Cup series did end memorably, the Xfinity series did for sure.

  In the Xfinity Series, the four guys battling for a championship were Justin Allgaier, Austin Hill, Cole Custer, and AJ Allmendinger. There was no payback with Chandler Smith and Cole Custer because the story of this race was Allgaier. Towards the end of Stage 2, Allgaier made it three-wide in the middle with Riley Herbst and Allmendinger, which caused him to have a tire starting to go down. Luckily for him, the Stage ended shortly after the incident, but unfortunately, things went south for Allgaier even more on the Stage 3 restart. Right before Allgaier hit the start-finish line, he jumped out of the restart line, which is a violation of the rules. Allgaier had to serve his penalty by driving down the pit lane, but once he did, he then SPED on the pit road. Allgaier was down a lap due to both penalties and his Championship run looked like it was over halfway into the season finale. The moment everything changed for Allgaier was during the final set of green-flag pit stops when he stayed out to catch a lucky break with a caution and be on the lead lap again. With 45 laps to go, Allgaier caught a lucky break when Anthony Alfredo went into the wall and brought out the caution. Allgaier pitted during the caution and had fresher tires than the leaders. Allgaier clawed his way into the Top 5 and drove past Custer to take the lead in the Championship with under 10 to go. It was shaping up to be an all-time battle for the Championship between Allgaier and Custer UNTIL the caution flew with 3 to go! Everyone came in to pit during the caution and Austin Hill came out of the pit road with the lead by taking two tires. On the ensuing restart, Allgaier powered by Hill and Custer to take over the Championship lead, but the caution came out again. On the final restart, Allgaier got the race lead, but he let Herbst pass him in Turn 3 so as not to risk getting wrecked. Herbst would win the race and Allgaier, after 15 years of trying and 15 years of frustration, would finally win the Xfinity Series Championship! After having a tire go down at the end of Stage 2, getting a restart violation, speeding on pit road, and in danger of losing the race on pit road when Hill took two tires, Allgaier overcame all these obstacles to win his first-ever Championship! There have been some impressive comebacks in NASCAR history, but to have this kind of comeback in the Championship Race is remarkable and one to remember.