BUESCHER SHOWING TOP 10 CONSISTENCYChris Buescher heads into this weekend’s race at Martinsville Speedway looking to extend a top-10 finishing streak that reached four after his ninth-place run Sunday night in Richmond. After an 18th-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500, Buescher has registered five top 10 efforts in the last six races with Las Vegas being his only hiccup as a wheel issue resulted in him hitting the wall and finishing 37th. Other than that, he’s been a model of consistency at Atlanta (9th), Phoenix (2nd), Bristol (7th), COTA (8th) and Richmond (9th). In 17 career series starts at Martinsville Speedway, Buescher has only a pair of top-10 results, but one of those came on his last visit when he finished eighth.
RYAN BLANEY: “Bristol and Martinsville are the same size, but very different shapes and banking and speed. I feel like at Martinsville I find myself getting into more of a rhythm than Bristol. At Bristol things are happening super quick and you’re always loaded up in the corner. Martinsville is more finesse. You ease it down in the corner and try to find your own rhythm there if you get a little bit of a break from someone pressuring you or you trying to pressure somebody else. You kind of get in this mode at Martinsville 50 or so laps into a run onwards and you just kind of find yourself in a little bit of a trance of making laps and adjusting for what the track wants. It’s a big rhythm racetrack.”
CHASE BRISCOE: “Five hundred laps is definitely a long time at Martinsville. Physically, it’s one of the harder races we go to. When we got done with the fall race there last year I literally couldn’t even bend over to take my shoes off because my back hurt so bad just with all of the braking we’re doing there constantly, so it’s hard from a physical standpoint. Mentally, I feel like it’s harder for some guys than others just to stay mentally focused for that long and just always being around somebody and keeping your emotions in check, but it is a marathon. It’s 500 laps, but it goes by super quick. At the same time it’s super long. There are a lot of opportunities to make mistakes, but you’ve got to be so aggressive there now with this Next Gen car because it is so hard to pass. It’s so hard to get track position that, honestly, you run 500 qualifying laps and it’s a challenge to do that well. I’m looking forward to getting to Martinsville. That’s been a place where I feel like we’ve done everything but win there the last four times, so that’s probably the one race I’ve had circled on the schedule for a while now.”
HARRISON BURTON: “I feel great about Martinsville. It’s always fun to go there because the Wood Brothers have a huge following there and we have a lot of support. I think we’ve run well there at times, but Martinsville is either a good run or a bad run for a lot of people and it all depends on qualifying recently. You’ve got to really qualify well and if you don’t, you can have one of the best cars and still go a lap down. Martinsville, for me, qualifying is everything and it’s going to be half-a-tenth that makes the difference in five or six spots, so we’re gonna have to just really nail that and have a good lap. Once you get in the race, it’s really managing the runs and trying to restart well. I think restarts are really important to get spots early and then hopefully tuck back in line and try to manage your tires and run a little bit. For me, it’s super exciting to go there. I love Martinsville. It’s one of my favorite racetracks.”
KESELOWSKI WINS FIRST CLOCK Brad Keselowski outdueled Kyle Busch down the stretch to win his first grandfather clock after capturing the STP 500 on Apr. 2, 2017. The two drivers waged a memorable battle that saw them swap the lead five times in the last 160 laps, but Keselowski ended up making the decisive pass on lap 458 and led the final 43 circuits to become the first repeat winner in 2017. Prior to winning at Martinsville, Keselowski took the checkered flag at Atlanta in the second race of the season.
A pair of consecutive night races kicks off the first of two NASCAR weekends at Martinsville Speedway as the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series kicks things off on Friday night with the NASCAR Xfinity Series following 24 hours later. The weekend culminates with an afternoon race on Sunday in the NASCAR Cup Series.
CAM WATERS SET TO MAKE NASCAR DEBUTCam Waters, a fixture in the Australian Repco Supercars Championship, is scheduled to make his NASCAR debut in Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway. Waters, who drives for Tickford Racing, has won three races in each of the last three seasons and has 10 career victories overall. He will be in a fifth truck for ThorSport, joining Matt Crafton, Ben Rhodes, Ty Majeski and Jake Garcia.
BLANEY REPEAT?The last time NASCAR came to Martinsville Speedway, Ryan Blaney passed Aric Almirola with 22 laps to go and never looked back to win the Xfinity 500 and clinch a spot in the Championship 4. Blaney came into the race with a 10-point cushion, but extended that by finishing second in Stage 1 and winning Stage 2. In all, Blaney led four times for 145 laps enroute to his third victory of the year, which matched his career-best for a single season. One week later, Blaney was celebrating his first championship. Overall, Martinsville is Blaney’s best track in terms of averaging finish. In 16 career starts, the Team Penske driver has a 9.0 average finish, which includes a current streak of four consecutive top-10 runs.
LOGANO LIKES MARTINSVILLEOnly one other track on the NASCAR Cup Series circuit has been better for Joey Logano when it comes to qualifying than Martinsville Speedway. Logano enters this weekend with an average starting position of 8.4 at the half-mile facility and is only bettered by his 7.8 average at Las Vegas. He has six poles, including three in a row in 2015-16, and had an active streak of 18 straight top-10 starts (including races where qualifying was rained out) at one point. In 30 career races at Martinsville, Logano has an average finishing position of 10.9 and has been running at the finish of every event. He come into Sunday’s race with a streak of nine straight top-10 finishes, including runner-up finishes in this event each of the past two years.
BUESCHER SHOWING TOP 10 CONSISTENCYChris Buescher heads into this weekend’s race at Martinsville Speedway looking to extend a top-10 finishing streak that reached four after his ninth-place run Sunday night in Richmond. After an 18th-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500, Buescher has registered five top 10 efforts in the last six races with Las Vegas being his only hiccup as a wheel issue resulted in him hitting the wall and finishing 37th. Other than that, he’s been a model of consistency at Atlanta (9th), Phoenix (2nd), Bristol (7th), COTA (8th) and Richmond (9th). In 17 career series starts at Martinsville Speedway, Buescher has only a pair of top-10 results, but one of those came on his last visit when he finished eighth.
RYAN BLANEY: “Bristol and Martinsville are the same size, but very different shapes and banking and speed. I feel like at Martinsville I find myself getting into more of a rhythm than Bristol. At Bristol things are happening super quick and you’re always loaded up in the corner. Martinsville is more finesse. You ease it down in the corner and try to find your own rhythm there if you get a little bit of a break from someone pressuring you or you trying to pressure somebody else. You kind of get in this mode at Martinsville 50 or so laps into a run onwards and you just kind of find yourself in a little bit of a trance of making laps and adjusting for what the track wants. It’s a big rhythm racetrack.”
CHASE BRISCOE: “Five hundred laps is definitely a long time at Martinsville. Physically, it’s one of the harder races we go to. When we got done with the fall race there last year I literally couldn’t even bend over to take my shoes off because my back hurt so bad just with all of the braking we’re doing there constantly, so it’s hard from a physical standpoint. Mentally, I feel like it’s harder for some guys than others just to stay mentally focused for that long and just always being around somebody and keeping your emotions in check, but it is a marathon. It’s 500 laps, but it goes by super quick. At the same time it’s super long. There are a lot of opportunities to make mistakes, but you’ve got to be so aggressive there now with this Next Gen car because it is so hard to pass. It’s so hard to get track position that, honestly, you run 500 qualifying laps and it’s a challenge to do that well. I’m looking forward to getting to Martinsville. That’s been a place where I feel like we’ve done everything but win there the last four times, so that’s probably the one race I’ve had circled on the schedule for a while now.”
HARRISON BURTON: “I feel great about Martinsville. It’s always fun to go there because the Wood Brothers have a huge following there and we have a lot of support. I think we’ve run well there at times, but Martinsville is either a good run or a bad run for a lot of people and it all depends on qualifying recently. You’ve got to really qualify well and if you don’t, you can have one of the best cars and still go a lap down. Martinsville, for me, qualifying is everything and it’s going to be half-a-tenth that makes the difference in five or six spots, so we’re gonna have to just really nail that and have a good lap. Once you get in the race, it’s really managing the runs and trying to restart well. I think restarts are really important to get spots early and then hopefully tuck back in line and try to manage your tires and run a little bit. For me, it’s super exciting to go there. I love Martinsville. It’s one of my favorite racetracks.”
KESELOWSKI WINS FIRST CLOCKBrad Keselowski outdueled Kyle Busch down the stretch to win his first grandfather clock after capturing the STP 500 on Apr. 2, 2017. The two drivers waged a memorable battle that saw them swap the lead five times in the last 160 laps, but Keselowski ended up making the decisive pass on lap 458 and led the final 43 circuits to become the first repeat winner in 2017. Prior to winning at Martinsville, Keselowski took the checkered flag at Atlanta in the second race of the season.
A pair of consecutive night races kicks off the first of two NASCAR weekends at Martinsville Speedway as the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series kicks things off on Friday night with the NASCAR Xfinity Series following 24 hours later. The weekend culminates with an afternoon race on Sunday in the NASCAR Cup Series.
CAM WATERS SET TO MAKE NASCAR DEBUTCam Waters, a fixture in the Australian Repco Supercars Championship, is scheduled to make his NASCAR debut in Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway. Waters, who drives for Tickford Racing, has won three races in each of the last three seasons and has 10 career victories overall. He will be in a fifth truck for ThorSport, joining Matt Crafton, Ben Rhodes, Ty Majeski and Jake Garcia.
BLANEY REPEAT?The last time NASCAR came to Martinsville Speedway, Ryan Blaney passed Aric Almirola with 22 laps to go and never looked back to win the Xfinity 500 and clinch a spot in the Championship 4. Blaney came into the race with a 10-point cushion, but extended that by finishing second in Stage 1 and winning Stage 2. In all, Blaney led four times for 145 laps enroute to his third victory of the year, which matched his career-best for a single season. One week later, Blaney was celebrating his first championship. Overall, Martinsville is Blaney’s best track in terms of averaging finish. In 16 career starts, the Team Penske driver has a 9.0 average finish, which includes a current streak of four consecutive top-10 runs.
LOGANO LIKES MARTINSVILLEOnly one other track on the NASCAR Cup Series circuit has been better for Joey Logano when it comes to qualifying than Martinsville Speedway. Logano enters this weekend with an average starting position of 8.4 at the half-mile facility and is only bettered by his 7.8 average at Las Vegas. He has six poles, including three in a row in 2015-16, and had an active streak of 18 straight top-10 starts (including races where qualifying was rained out) at one point. In 30 career races at Martinsville, Logano has an average finishing position of 10.9 and has been running at the finish of every event. He come into Sunday’s race with a streak of nine straight top-10 finishes, including runner-up finishes in this event each of the past two years.
BUESCHER SHOWING TOP 10 CONSISTENCYChris Buescher heads into this weekend’s race at Martinsville Speedway looking to extend a top-10 finishing streak that reached four after his ninth-place run Sunday night in Richmond. After an 18th-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500, Buescher has registered five top 10 efforts in the last six races with Las Vegas being his only hiccup as a wheel issue resulted in him hitting the wall and finishing 37th. Other than that, he’s been a model of consistency at Atlanta (9th), Phoenix (2nd), Bristol (7th), COTA (8th) and Richmond (9th). In 17 career series starts at Martinsville Speedway, Buescher has only a pair of top-10 results, but one of those came on his last visit when he finished eighth.
RYAN BLANEY: “Bristol and Martinsville are the same size, but very different shapes and banking and speed. I feel like at Martinsville I find myself getting into more of a rhythm than Bristol. At Bristol things are happening super quick and you’re always loaded up in the corner. Martinsville is more finesse. You ease it down in the corner and try to find your own rhythm there if you get a little bit of a break from someone pressuring you or you trying to pressure somebody else. You kind of get in this mode at Martinsville 50 or so laps into a run onwards and you just kind of find yourself in a little bit of a trance of making laps and adjusting for what the track wants. It’s a big rhythm racetrack.”
CHASE BRISCOE: “Five hundred laps is definitely a long time at Martinsville. Physically, it’s one of the harder races we go to. When we got done with the fall race there last year I literally couldn’t even bend over to take my shoes off because my back hurt so bad just with all of the braking we’re doing there constantly, so it’s hard from a physical standpoint. Mentally, I feel like it’s harder for some guys than others just to stay mentally focused for that long and just always being around somebody and keeping your emotions in check, but it is a marathon. It’s 500 laps, but it goes by super quick. At the same time it’s super long. There are a lot of opportunities to make mistakes, but you’ve got to be so aggressive there now with this Next Gen car because it is so hard to pass. It’s so hard to get track position that, honestly, you run 500 qualifying laps and it’s a challenge to do that well. I’m looking forward to getting to Martinsville. That’s been a place where I feel like we’ve done everything but win there the last four times, so that’s probably the one race I’ve had circled on the schedule for a while now.”
HARRISON BURTON: “I feel great about Martinsville. It’s always fun to go there because the Wood Brothers have a huge following there and we have a lot of support. I think we’ve run well there at times, but Martinsville is either a good run or a bad run for a lot of people and it all depends on qualifying recently. You’ve got to really qualify well and if you don’t, you can have one of the best cars and still go a lap down. Martinsville, for me, qualifying is everything and it’s going to be half-a-tenth that makes the difference in five or six spots, so we’re gonna have to just really nail that and have a good lap. Once you get in the race, it’s really managing the runs and trying to restart well. I think restarts are really important to get spots early and then hopefully tuck back in line and try to manage your tires and run a little bit. For me, it’s super exciting to go there. I love Martinsville. It’s one of my favorite racetracks.”
KESELOWSKI WINS FIRST CLOCKBrad Keselowski outdueled Kyle Busch down the stretch to win his first grandfather clock after capturing the STP 500 on Apr. 2, 2017. The two drivers waged a memorable battle that saw them swap the lead five times in the last 160 laps, but Keselowski ended up making the decisive pass on lap 458 and led the final 43 circuits to become the first repeat winner in 2017. Prior to winning at Martinsville, Keselowski took the checkered flag at Atlanta in the second race of the season.
A pair of consecutive night races kicks off the first of two NASCAR weekends at Martinsville Speedway as the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series kicks things off on Friday night with the NASCAR Xfinity Series following 24 hours later. The weekend culminates with an afternoon race on Sunday in the NASCAR Cup Series.
CAM WATERS SET TO MAKE NASCAR DEBUTCam Waters, a fixture in the Australian Repco Supercars Championship, is scheduled to make his NASCAR debut in Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway. Waters, who drives for Tickford Racing, has won three races in each of the last three seasons and has 10 career victories overall. He will be in a fifth truck for ThorSport, joining Matt Crafton, Ben Rhodes, Ty Majeski and Jake Garcia.
BLANEY REPEAT?The last time NASCAR came to Martinsville Speedway, Ryan Blaney passed Aric Almirola with 22 laps to go and never looked back to win the Xfinity 500 and clinch a spot in the Championship 4. Blaney came into the race with a 10-point cushion, but extended that by finishing second in Stage 1 and winning Stage 2. In all, Blaney led four times for 145 laps enroute to his third victory of the year, which matched his career-best for a single season. One week later, Blaney was celebrating his first championship. Overall, Martinsville is Blaney’s best track in terms of averaging finish. In 16 career starts, the Team Penske driver has a 9.0 average finish, which includes a current streak of four consecutive top-10 runs.
LOGANO LIKES MARTINSVILLEOnly one other track on the NASCAR Cup Series circuit has been better for Joey Logano when it comes to qualifying than Martinsville Speedway. Logano enters this weekend with an average starting position of 8.4 at the half-mile facility and is only bettered by his 7.8 average at Las Vegas. He has six poles, including three in a row in 2015-16, and had an active streak of 18 straight top-10 starts (including races where qualifying was rained out) at one point. In 30 career races at Martinsville, Logano has an average finishing position of 10.9 and has been running at the finish of every event. He come into Sunday’s race with a streak of nine straight top-10 finishes, including runner-up finishes in this event each of the past two years.
BUESCHER SHOWING TOP 10 CONSISTENCYChris Buescher heads into this weekend’s race at Martinsville Speedway looking to extend a top-10 finishing streak that reached four after his ninth-place run Sunday night in Richmond. After an 18th-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500, Buescher has registered five top 10 efforts in the last six races with Las Vegas being his only hiccup as a wheel issue resulted in him hitting the wall and finishing 37th. Other than that, he’s been a model of consistency at Atlanta (9th), Phoenix (2nd), Bristol (7th), COTA (8th) and Richmond (9th). In 17 career series starts at Martinsville Speedway, Buescher has only a pair of top-10 results, but one of those came on his last visit when he finished eighth.
RYAN BLANEY: “Bristol and Martinsville are the same size, but very different shapes and banking and speed. I feel like at Martinsville I find myself getting into more of a rhythm than Bristol. At Bristol things are happening super quick and you’re always loaded up in the corner. Martinsville is more finesse. You ease it down in the corner and try to find your own rhythm there if you get a little bit of a break from someone pressuring you or you trying to pressure somebody else. You kind of get in this mode at Martinsville 50 or so laps into a run onwards and you just kind of find yourself in a little bit of a trance of making laps and adjusting for what the track wants. It’s a big rhythm racetrack.”
CHASE BRISCOE: “Five hundred laps is definitely a long time at Martinsville. Physically, it’s one of the harder races we go to. When we got done with the fall race there last year I literally couldn’t even bend over to take my shoes off because my back hurt so bad just with all of the braking we’re doing there constantly, so it’s hard from a physical standpoint. Mentally, I feel like it’s harder for some guys than others just to stay mentally focused for that long and just always being around somebody and keeping your emotions in check, but it is a marathon. It’s 500 laps, but it goes by super quick. At the same time it’s super long. There are a lot of opportunities to make mistakes, but you’ve got to be so aggressive there now with this Next Gen car because it is so hard to pass. It’s so hard to get track position that, honestly, you run 500 qualifying laps and it’s a challenge to do that well. I’m looking forward to getting to Martinsville. That’s been a place where I feel like we’ve done everything but win there the last four times, so that’s probably the one race I’ve had circled on the schedule for a while now.”
HARRISON BURTON: “I feel great about Martinsville. It’s always fun to go there because the Wood Brothers have a huge following there and we have a lot of support. I think we’ve run well there at times, but Martinsville is either a good run or a bad run for a lot of people and it all depends on qualifying recently. You’ve got to really qualify well and if you don’t, you can have one of the best cars and still go a lap down. Martinsville, for me, qualifying is everything and it’s going to be half-a-tenth that makes the difference in five or six spots, so we’re gonna have to just really nail that and have a good lap. Once you get in the race, it’s really managing the runs and trying to restart well. I think restarts are really important to get spots early and then hopefully tuck back in line and try to manage your tires and run a little bit. For me, it’s super exciting to go there. I love Martinsville. It’s one of my favorite racetracks.”
KESELOWSKI WINS FIRST CLOCKBrad Keselowski outdueled Kyle Busch down the stretch to win his first grandfather clock after capturing the STP 500 on Apr. 2, 2017. The two drivers waged a memorable battle that saw them swap the lead five times in the last 160 laps, but Keselowski ended up making the decisive pass on lap 458 and led the final 43 circuits to become the first repeat winner in 2017. Prior to winning at Martinsville, Keselowski took the checkered flag at Atlanta in the second race of the season.
Toyota
LANO, Texas (April 3, 2024) – NASCAR heads to Martinsville Speedway this weekend for the first of its two visits this season as all three national series are in action. NHRA goes to Firebird Motorsports Park near Phoenix for the Arizona Nationals, while also completing the Winternationals from Pomona two weeks ago.
NASCAR National Series – NCS | NXS | NCTS
Truex leads strong Camry stable … Martin Truex Jr. comes to Martinsville Speedway still atop the NASCAR Cup Series points standings after a strong run at Richmond last weekend. The Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) driver finished fourth Sunday night and extended his points lead to 14 over Kyle Larson. Truex’s Toyota teammates Denny Hamlin (third), Ty Gibbs (fourth), Christopher Bell (sixth), Tyler Reddick (10th) and Bubba Wallace (14th) join him inside the top 16 in the standings.
Toyota aims to continue short track prowess … With Hamlin’s victory Sunday night at Richmond, Toyota Camry XSEs have won, and dominated, all three short track races so far in 2024. Hamlin captured victory at Bristol two weeks ago, along with his Richmond triumph, and his Toyota and JGR teammate, Bell, took the checkered flag at Phoenix in early March. This weekend offers another opportunity for Camry XSE drivers to showcase their short track performance at the half-mile Martinsville Speedway.
Hamlin seeking another strong Martinsville performance … Coming into this weekend fresh off his second win of the season, Hamlin is also going for another solid performance at Martinsville Speedway. The Virginia-native has three consecutive top-five finishes at Martinsville, in which another would bolster his rise up the Cup Series points standings. Hamlin will also go for his sixth career victory at the famed short track.
Smith reclaims Xfinity points lead … After his second win of 2024, and repeat win at Richmond Raceway, Chandler Smith is back atop the Xfinity Series points standings six races into the season. The Georgia native has finished inside the top-10 each race so far this season, with top-five finishes in all but one race. He makes his third start at Martinsville this weekend, where he claimed a top-10 finish in the first of two races last year.
Toyota seeks four wins in five races at Martinsville … A victory by a Toyota GR Supra this weekend would be the fourth in five Xfinity Series races at Martinsville Speedway. John Hunter Nemechek is the most recent winner for Toyota at the Virginia track, capturing victory in the spring race last season. A triumph for Team Toyota would also be the fourth in five races in 2024 following Smith’s two victories in three races and Nemechek’s win at Las Vegas in March.
Heim, Gray lead Toyotas in the Truck Series … Back in action this weekend, Corey Heim and Taylor Gray are the lead Toyota Tundra TRD Pros in the NASCAR CRAFSTMAN Truck Series points standings. Heim comes into Martinsville fresh off his dominant victory at COTA two weeks ago, the sixth of his career, and now leads the Truck Series standings by 10 points. Gray has had a stellar start to his 2024 season with four consecutive top-10s, including tying his career-best finish of second at COTA. Both drivers will also run the Xfinity Series race, with Heim again piloting the No. 26 GR Supra for Sam Hunt Racing and Gray making his second career Xfinity Series start with JGR in the No. 19 GR Supra. Both are coming off top-five finishes last weekend at Richmond.
Heim seeks Martinsville repeat … Not only would a win this weekend be Heim’s second in a row so far in 2024, it would also mark his second straight at Martinsville Speedway as the Georgia native captured victory last April. This was the first of Heim’s three wins in 2023 that propelled him to the regular season championship.
BUESCHER SHOWING TOP 10 CONSISTENCYChris Buescher heads into this weekend’s race at Martinsville Speedway looking to extend a top-10 finishing streak that reached four after his ninth-place run Sunday night in Richmond. After an 18th-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500, Buescher has registered five top 10 efforts in the last six races with Las Vegas being his only hiccup as a wheel issue resulted in him hitting the wall and finishing 37th. Other than that, he’s been a model of consistency at Atlanta (9th), Phoenix (2nd), Bristol (7th), COTA (8th) and Richmond (9th). In 17 career series starts at Martinsville Speedway, Buescher has only a pair of top-10 results, but one of those came on his last visit when he finished eighth.
RYAN BLANEY: “Bristol and Martinsville are the same size, but very different shapes and banking and speed. I feel like at Martinsville I find myself getting into more of a rhythm than Bristol. At Bristol things are happening super quick and you’re always loaded up in the corner. Martinsville is more finesse. You ease it down in the corner and try to find your own rhythm there if you get a little bit of a break from someone pressuring you or you trying to pressure somebody else. You kind of get in this mode at Martinsville 50 or so laps into a run onwards and you just kind of find yourself in a little bit of a trance of making laps and adjusting for what the track wants. It’s a big rhythm racetrack.”
CHASE BRISCOE: “Five hundred laps is definitely a long time at Martinsville. Physically, it’s one of the harder races we go to. When we got done with the fall race there last year I literally couldn’t even bend over to take my shoes off because my back hurt so bad just with all of the braking we’re doing there constantly, so it’s hard from a physical standpoint. Mentally, I feel like it’s harder for some guys than others just to stay mentally focused for that long and just always being around somebody and keeping your emotions in check, but it is a marathon. It’s 500 laps, but it goes by super quick. At the same time it’s super long. There are a lot of opportunities to make mistakes, but you’ve got to be so aggressive there now with this Next Gen car because it is so hard to pass. It’s so hard to get track position that, honestly, you run 500 qualifying laps and it’s a challenge to do that well. I’m looking forward to getting to Martinsville. That’s been a place where I feel like we’ve done everything but win there the last four times, so that’s probably the one race I’ve had circled on the schedule for a while now.”
HARRISON BURTON: “I feel great about Martinsville. It’s always fun to go there because the Wood Brothers have a huge following there and we have a lot of support. I think we’ve run well there at times, but Martinsville is either a good run or a bad run for a lot of people and it all depends on qualifying recently. You’ve got to really qualify well and if you don’t, you can have one of the best cars and still go a lap down. Martinsville, for me, qualifying is everything and it’s going to be half-a-tenth that makes the difference in five or six spots, so we’re gonna have to just really nail that and have a good lap. Once you get in the race, it’s really managing the runs and trying to restart well. I think restarts are really important to get spots early and then hopefully tuck back in line and try to manage your tires and run a little bit. For me, it’s super exciting to go there. I love Martinsville. It’s one of my favorite racetracks.”
KESELOWSKI WINS FIRST CLOCK Brad Keselowski outdueled Kyle Busch down the stretch to win his first grandfather clock after capturing the STP 500 on Apr. 2, 2017. The two drivers waged a memorable battle that saw them swap the lead five times in the last 160 laps, but Keselowski ended up making the decisive pass on lap 458 and led the final 43 circuits to become the first repeat winner in 2017. Prior to winning at Martinsville, Keselowski took the checkered flag at Atlanta in the second race of the season.
BLANEY REPEAT?The last time NASCAR came to Martinsville Speedway, Ryan Blaney passed Aric Almirola with 22 laps to go and never looked back to win the Xfinity 500 and clinch a spot in the Championship 4. Blaney came into the race with a 10-point cushion, but extended that by finishing second in Stage 1 and winning Stage 2. In all, Blaney led four times for 145 laps enroute to his third victory of the year, which matched his career-best for a single season. One week later, Blaney was celebrating his first championship. Overall, Martinsville is Blaney’s best track in terms of averaging finish. In 16 career starts, the Team Penske driver has a 9.0 average finish, which includes a current streak of four consecutive top-10 runs.
LOGANO LIKES MARTINSVILLEOnly one other track on the NASCAR Cup Series circuit has been better for Joey Logano when it comes to qualifying than Martinsville Speedway. Logano enters this weekend with an average starting position of 8.4 at the half-mile facility and is only bettered by his 7.8 average at Las Vegas. He has six poles, including three in a row in 2015-16, and had an active streak of 18 straight top-10 starts (including races where qualifying was rained out) at one point. In 30 career races at Martinsville, Logano has an average finishing position of 10.9 and has been running at the finish of every event. He come into Sunday’s race with a streak of nine straight top-10 finishes, including runner-up finishes in this event each of the past two years.
jouemumy 