RIDGEWAY, Va. — NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Carson Kvapil was sweating bullets despite the 30-degree weather on Saturday night, Oct. 25, at Martinsville Speedway.
The JR Motorsports driver had just survived a late-race spin and endured a brutal comeback from the back of the field to 18th in less than only 20 laps.
But thanks to that late and chaotic climb through the field, he still survived to contend for a championship at Phoenix Raceway in one week.
“I’m disappointed in our performance in the finish,” Kvapil told media post-race. “It’s not really a great day and Martinsville is the type of track where I’ve won it before in a late model and had a shot to win in the spring. Not really the performance we want, but when we’re racing for the championship like this, we just need to stack the points and get all the points that we can and to put ourselves in position for Phoenix.
“Honestly, I hate to say it, but this race for us, it’s almost a throwaway just to make it into Phoenix. Other than that, though, to make it in [the Championship 4], I’m super ecstatic.”
Kvapil had entered the Martinsville weekend with a small cushion of 11 points separating him and playoff elimination. The No. 1 Chevrolet had to only survive the night without any issues to move on into the Championship 4.
And for the most part, he did. Kvapil was running near the front of the pack for almost the whole night. In stage one, the second-generation NASCAR racer pitted before the end of the segment to set himself up better for the second stage.
It paid off greatly. Not only did Kvapil maintain track position in the stage two, he also went on to win it. It was his second stage victory of the season and the first time he had led any laps at all since EchoPark Speedway in June.
For the final stage, Kvapil ran in the top 10 among his playoff rivals but still with a decent cushion of 19 points between he and the cut line. All Kvapil had to do was survive for the last 130 laps, and he was succeeding.
Until 23 laps to go.
Kvapil had pitted moments before and was in the middle of the pack when there was a stack-up behind him that shoved Ryan Sieg into the back of his Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet. The push sent the No. 1 spinning in turn 3 and immediately to the back of the field.
While Kvapil radio blamed the No. 39 Ford, Sieg’s team clarified immediately that they had been turned from Harrison Burton behind them.
“I know I was checked up and then the [No.] 25 just went down in there, you know what I mean?” Sieg told Frontstretch post-race. “I got into the No. 1, so nothing I could do.
“I was on the brakes. Obviously, you could see the lock up, and then, I just get an extra nudge. Not much I can do. Just along for the ride, pretty much like a roller coaster here, just bumper cars.”
With less than 20 laps to go at one of NASCAR’s shortest racetracks, Kvapil was eight points below the cut line.
“We positioned ourselves pretty well in the stage three before we got turned there,” Kvapil said. “We kind of were in the situation where we just needed to finish where we were and just not make any enemies.”
But he also had a fast car.
With a short green-flag run remaining, Kvapil used his JRM speed to bounce back through the field while the front of the pack beat and banged into one another. When the final caution waved with only four laps to go, he had climbed back into 19th.
“Once we got put back to 30th, man, you just got hammer it,” Kvapil said. “I mean, you hate to do it, right? You hate to go in there and just hammer people out of the way, but I mean, with less than 20 to go, you just got to do what you got to do, right? I know our car has the speed to do it. We were able to get to a good spot.”
Kvapil added one more position to his tally in the final two-lap sprint, and it was enough for him to squeak into the Championship 4 with only four points to spare.
The No. 1 Chevrolet joins his two teammates Connor Zilisch and Justin Allgaier along with Richard Childress Racing driver Jesse Love in the series championship finale.
Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loud column, co-host of the Frontstretch Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.
Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT