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MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Alex Bowman was the only driver celebrating after NASCAR set its championship four — and he’s not even racing for the title.

Bowman picked up the victory Sunday at Martinsville Speedway in the final elimination race ahead of the winner-take-all season finale. Bowman wasn’t eligible to make the championship round and his overtime victory denied both Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski the final spot in the field.

The Cup will be decided next Sunday at sold-out Phoenix Raceway between favorite Kyle Larson and reigning champion Chase Elliott for Hendrick Motorsports and Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. for Joe Gibbs Racing. It will pit a pair of Hendrick Chevrolets against two JGR Toyotas.

“I think the four most deserving teams are probably in the final four,” said Larson, the regular-season champion and title favorite. “I’m proud we were able to do it and look forward to battling everybody next week.”

Ford was locked out of the championship when Keselowski and Team Penske teammates Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano failed to advance.

Busch finished second to Bowman and Keselowski at last settled for third after a frantic push through the third stage. Truex’s car was damaged in several incidents and both Busch and Keselowski were trying to bump Truex out of the final transfer position.

It led to spirited racing up and down the grid, especially from Keselowski as he tried to bulldoze his way into the championship round for his final race driving for Roger Penske. He and Busch had hard contact after the checkered flag that caused Busch to spin on the cool down lap, and Busch seethed after that he should beat up Keselowski.

His verbal threats were a milder approach than the one taken by JGR teammate Hamlin after Bowman spun Hamlin from the lead with six laps remaining to send the race into overtime.

Hamlin had led 103 laps with victory in sight when Bowman spun him. Hamlin after the race drove his car to the frontstretch and parked in front of Bowman to prevent Bowman from a proper celebration on Bowman’s fourth win of the season.

Bowman insisted the contact with Hamlin was accidental.

“I just got loose in, I got in too deep, knocked him out of the way and literally let him have the lead back,” Bowman said. “For anybody that wants to think I was trying to crash him, that obviously literally wasn’t that case considering I gave up the lead at Martinsville to give it back to him.”

Bowman was referring to an earlier incident, not the contact that fully spun Hamlin’s car and dropped him to a 24th-place finish.

“He’s been on the other side of that. He’s crashed guys here for wins. I hate doing it. … I just got in, got underneath him, spun him out,” Bowman said. “Regardless, we get a free grandfather clock, which is pretty special.”

Martinsville presents its race winners with a traditional grandfather clock considered one of the most coveted trophies in NASCAR.

Hamlin, who already has five clocks, still advanced into the championship on points. But his JGR crew had to radio Hamlin to back off as he confronted Bowman, who gave Hendrick Motorsports its 16th win in 35 races this season and fourth in a row.

“He’s just a hack, just an absolute hack who gets his ass kicked every week by his teammates,” said Hamlin, a Virginia native who audibly did not have any home crowd support.

The well-filled grandstands erupted in cheers when Bowman spun Hamlin, and then loudly booed him when he was interviewed over the public address system. Asked after if he was surprised by the fan reaction, Hamlin blamed most-popular driver Elliott and predicted the same reaction next week at Phoenix.

“It’s just Chase Elliott fans, man. They don’t think straightly,” Hamlin said. “They’re going to boo the [crap] out of me next week, I can tell you that.”

Elliott shrugged off Hamlin’s critique.

“I’m going to lose so much sleep tonight. I might not sleep at all, that’s how concerned I am,” he smiled. “My fans don’t care either, by the way.”

Hamlin will try for a fourth time to win his first Cup title. Both he and Larson, the heavy favorite and a nine-race winner this season, have never won a NASCAR championship. Elliott is the reigning champion and Truex, who had to nurse a wounded Toyota to a fourth-place finish Sunday to stop teammate Busch from bumping him out of the finale, has one previous title.

But the final four festivities were muted with Hamlin unhappy about the finish, Elliott disappointed he was 16th after leading a race-high 289 laps and sweeping the first two stages and Larson unsatisfied when speeding penalties and silly mistakes snapped his three-race winning streak.

Truex, at least, seemed relieved.

“It’s never an easy situation to be kind of on your last run of the race, be in one minute and out the next,” he said. “You know there’s not a whole lot you can do other than drive.”

Busch and Keselowski, meanwhile, were also unhappy. Keselowski wanted a shot at winning a second title with Penske, and Busch was upset he didn’t advance with teammates Hamlin and Truex.

“Anytime you go into a season with Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing, this 18, M&M’s team, myself, you expect to be championship four, in contention, eligible,” Busch said. “Anything other than that is a failure. Guess [I] get an F.”

UP NEXT: The championship finale Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, where Elliott won the race last year to claim his first Cup championship. Truex won in March.

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Canes win series, spoil Markstrom 49-save outing

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Canes win series, spoil Markstrom 49-save outing

After the New Jersey Devils saw their season end in double overtime Tuesday night, goaltender Jacob Markstrom wanted to express his frustration via his stick. He thought about boomeranging it to the boards. Instead, he swung it hard against his goalpost, breaking it in half.

Sebastian Aho‘s goal at 4:17 of the second overtime in Game 5 gave the Carolina Hurricanes a 5-4 win and a 4-1 series victory over the Devils. It was the first puck Markstrom had fly by him in 37 consecutive shots on goal, dating to the second period. That included 18 saves he made in overtime, as Carolina marauded a short-handed and exhausted Devils defense but couldn’t solve the 35-year-old goalie.

“That was one of the better goaltending performances that I’ve witnessed,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said of Markstrom, who finished with 49 saves. “He let in a few early that he’d like to have back. But once he got dialed in, you’re thinking it’ll have to bank off somebody, because we’re not beating him.”

Markstrom’s frustration wasn’t just with the overtime goal. The Devils built a 3-0 lead in the first period. Carolina scored three times in the first 5:40 of the second period to erase it. New Jersey responded with a Nico Hischier goal, only to have Aho knot the score at 4 moments later.

“We put up four goals on the road,” Markstrom said. “We should have brought it home. It should have been enough.”

But as his teammates noted, Markstrom’s effort in the overtimes should have been enough to win Game 5.

“We were under siege. He was outstanding. We were reeling,” coach Sheldon Keefe said.

“He played unbelievable. Marky kept us in that first overtime,” Hischier said. “I feel bad for him because he battled his ass off.”

Markstrom was acquired by the Devils last offseason in a high-profile deal with the Calgary Flames that was intended to fix the team’s goaltending, which ranked 30th in 2023-24. He won 26 times in 49 games with a .900 save percentage and a 2.50 goals-against average. He was outstanding, for the most part, in the playoffs: .911 save percentage and a 2.78 goals-against average in five games.

But Markstrom couldn’t overcome two things in the postseason for the Devils. The first were their injuries. Already without star center Jack Hughes, who had season-ending shoulder surgery, the Devils saw defensemen Luke Hughes, Johnathan Kovacevic and Brenden Dillon leave the series with injuries, with defensemen Jonas Siegenthaler and Dougie Hamilton playing at less than 100%.

“We had a few guys go down in the series. A few guys step up and battle. We’ve got to get better. We don’t like the result,” forward Timo Meier said.

The other factor was the Devils special teams. Their power play was officially 0-for-15. Their penalty kill allowed six goals on 19 Carolina power plays.

“That’s why we lost the series for sure. We couldn’t get the power play going. That’s on those guys, including me, that are on the ice. That’s definitely frustrating,” Hischier said.

But the Devils gutted out the series, pushing Carolina to double overtime in an elimination game despite those deficiencies.

“There’s a lot of will in this room,” Markstrom said. “It sucks right now.”

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DeGrom gets 1st win in 2 years as Rangers rip A’s

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DeGrom gets 1st win in 2 years as Rangers rip A's

ARLINGTON, Texas — Everything came together in the same game for two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom and the Texas Rangers batters.

Texas had a much-needed offensive breakout while deGrom struck out seven over six scoreless innings for his first win in more than two years, though he had pitched well enough to win in several other starts this season.

“When was the last one, ’23? Yeah, it’s been a while,” deGrom said after the Rangers’ 15-2 win over the Athletics on Tuesday night.

“He earned it. He had great stuff tonight, he kept us on our toes,” second baseman Marcus Semien said. “We were just talking about how the time of possession was. You know, we were hitting for a long time and he’s getting quick outs. So usually that’s a good recipe.”

The 36-year-old deGrom (1-1) had gone 737 days since also beating the A’s on April 23, 2023, then made only one more start in his debut season with Texas before Tommy John surgery.

He scattered four singles and didn’t walk a batter in a 65-pitch outing (47 strikes). It was only that short since the right-hander didn’t return after an eight-run outburst in the Rangers sixth that matched their previous season high for runs in an entire game and put them up 12-0.

So just how efficient was deGrom? The right-hander honestly thought he was “probably in the 70s or something to 80,” as did catcher Jonah Heim.

“A lot a strikeouts that I feel like he just overpowered a lot of hitters, which is who he is. He’s got that electric fastball,” Heim said.

“My mechanics were pretty good,” said deGrom, a meticulous worker who was feeling good after a side session the day before the game. “I’m constantly trying to perfect it and get in the best positions that I can get based on performance and health.”

Texas entered the night last in the majors with 91 runs scored, and only 12 combined the previous six games. DeGrom had gotten only nine runs of support in his first five starts.

The Rangers snapped a three-game losing streak while setting season highs for runs, hits (18) and walks (nine). They had three bases-clearing doubles in the same game for the first time in team history – Adolis García and Wyatt Langford each had one during a four-batter stretch in that big sixth, and Kyle Higashioka added his three-run double in the eighth.

Their offensive outburst came after the full squad was required to be on the field for batting practice before the game.

“Good to see you guys break out and have a good game. … Some success, it’s contagious,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “You’re hoping this is something these guys can build on, build some confidence.”

For deGrom, he improved to 3-1 with a 2.55 ERA in his 15 starts for the Rangers since signing a $185 million, five-year contract in December 2022. He is 85-58 in 224 career starts, the first 209 with the New York Mets from 2014-2022.

“He was really good tonight. You know, I said when season started, it’s just going to get better with him as he builds up his strength and stamina,” Bochy said. “Really good command tonight, really good stuff. And it’s just getting better with him.”

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Yanks make history by again opening with 3 HRs

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Yanks make history by again opening with 3 HRs

BALTIMORE — The New York Yankees became the first team in major league history to open a game with three consecutive home runs more than once in a season when Trent Grisham, Aaron Judge and Ben Rice went deep off Baltimore‘s Kyle Gibson in the first inning Tuesday night.

New York started the bottom of the first of its March 29 game against Milwaukee with three homers in a row. In that game, Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger and Judge needed only three pitches to hit three homers.

The Yankees added a fourth home run later in the first inning of both that game and Tuesday’s game, making them the first team to belt four in the first inning twice in a season.

On Tuesday night, the Yankees hit three of the game’s first five offerings out to right field.

“Grish got it going for us and set the tone for us early on,” Judge said after the 15-3 win. “When he goes up there and … sends one to Eutaw Street, it’s pretty impressive and gets you going.”

It was an ugly return to the majors for the 37-year-old Gibson, who made 30 starts for the St. Louis Cardinals last season before Baltimore signed him to a $5.25 million, one-year contract in late March. He’d been working in the minors since then before being called up before Tuesday’s game. He was finally pulled with two outs in the fourth after allowing nine runs and 11 hits.

“He gave up four homers in the first inning. That’s kind of a telling sign,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “At that point I’m just trying to figure out how we’re going to get through the game.”

After Rice’s home run made it 3-0, Gibson retired Goldschmidt on a grounder before Bellinger also homered. Anthony Volpe‘s RBI double made it 5-0 before the first inning was over.

Rice homered again in the second to make it 6-0. Austin Wells hit New York’s final home run — all six came with nobody on — with two outs in the ninth.

“It just shows that we’ve got a lot of depth in the lineup,” Rice said.

Not all the news was great for the Yankees, however. Jazz Chisholm Jr. left the game with right flank discomfort in the first inning.

Chisholm, who is hitting .181 with seven home runs this season, appeared to have hurt himself while he was batting. After being checked on, he stayed at the plate and hit a double, advancing to third on an error by right fielder Ramon Laureano.

Chisholm said he wasn’t worried about needing to go on the injured list.

“I’m really not as concerned as everybody else,” Chisholm said. “I tore my oblique before. I know it’s not torn or anything.”

The Associated Press and ESPN Research contributed to this report.

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