NASCAR at Martinsville: NBC’s Steve Letarte on why short track is special. How to watch

NASCAR fans are used to watching their favorite drivers fly around 1.5- and two-mile ovals, but those iconic superspeedways don’t resemble the kinds of tracks where many get their start racing.

Most drivers cut their teeth on short tracks, like Martinsville Speedway, where the Cup Series will hold its penultimate race Sunday (2 p.m., NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR, NBC Sports App) and determine the Championship 4.

“Sometimes, we all like to be reminded of our youth, and mostly every person in racing grew up at a short track somewhere around the country,” NBC Sports analyst and former crew chief Steve Letarte told The Observer in a phone interview. “While the speed of Daytona and Talladega is breathtaking and worth seeing, and the high banks of Bristol, Martinsville is just old-school.

“From the fans’ point of view, it’s much easier to see the human aspect of it — the pushing, the beating, the banging — and I think that’s why it’s the absolutely perfect race to finish this round.”

Two of the four spots in the Championship 4 are up for grabs after Kyle Larson won at Las Vegas and Christopher Bell took the checkered flag at Homestead-Miami.

William Byron leads the Cup Series with six wins, but his last one came at Texas in the first race of the Round of 12. Still, the Charlotte native has finished in the Top 10 in every race since and sits 30 points above the cut line.

Since emerging victorious in a caution-filled race at Talladega, Ryan Blaney’s 12th-place finish at the Charlotte Roval is his only outside the Top 10. His No. 12 Ford Mustang was initially disqualified after Blaney’s sixth-place finish at Las Vegas before NASCAR rescinded its decision.

“We’ve put together a really good eight weeks to put us in this position, especially in the last two weeks at Miami and Vegas,” Blaney, who enters an elimination race above the cut line for the first time in his career, told reporters Wednesday on a video call. “All you can ask for is putting yourself in a position to try and win the race, and being competitive enough to run up front, lead laps and give yourself a shot to win.”

Blaney enters Martinsville 10 points above the elimination line. Tyler Reddick is 10 points below, Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin each find themselves 17 points south of the cut line, respectively, while Chris Buescher faces a 43-point deficit.

Letarte, a former crew chief for Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr., feels the tight corners at the 0.526-mile track that opened in 1947 create for more authentic racing. While he has predicted that Truex and Hamlin, season-long favorites, would reach the Championship 4, the reality of sports is that the playoffs will showcase the stars who rise to a particular occasion.

And he feels there’s no better track than Martinsville that exposes weaknesses.

“It’s punishing if you don’t do it right,” Letarte said. “That’s the biggest thing. We’re gonna take 36 cars and smash them onto a half-mile paperclip where there’s nowhere to hide.

“And if you don’t do it right, if you’re not on your game, someone will be passing you every minute of every lap all day long for 500 laps. No better track shows when you’re bad and you’re panicking.”

Odds for the Cup Series Xfinity 500

Denny Hamlin is the favorite to win Sunday’s race at +250 odds, according to BetMGM. Kyle Larson, William Byron and Brad Keselowski are tied for the second-best chances at +700, followed by Martin Truex Jr. at +900.

How to watch the NASCAR playoffs at Martinsville

Place: Martinsville Speedway (Ridgeway, Va.)

Race: Xfinity 500

Date: Sunday, Oct. 29

Time: 2:30 p.m. ET

TV: NBC, 2 p.m. ET

Streaming: NBC Sports App, NBCSports.com and Peacock

Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Distance: 0.526 miles

Stages: Stage 1 ends on Lap 130; Stage 2 ends on Lap 260; and the Final Stage ends on Lap 500