NASCAR Category

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Polesitter Chase Elliott held off defending NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Johnny Sauter after a restart with 12 laps left and pulled away to win Saturday’s Alpha Energy Solutions 250 at Martinsville Speedway by 1.865 seconds. Elliott grabbed the lead from third-place finisher Christopher Bell on Lap 234, when Bell’s Toyota tangled with Austin Cindric’s Ford through Turns 1 and 2. Bell lost the top spot, and Sauter charged past into the second position before NASCAR threw the 10th andRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Late in the going in Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville, Christopher Bell looked to be in the catbird seat with the lead in the waning laps, but after contact with a truck at the tail-end of the lead lap, Bell’s shot at the win was gone and he had to settle for a third-place finish. After winning at Atlanta, Bell was looking to make it two wins in a row by adding a Martinsville grandfather clock to his trophy case. StartingRead More

By April Furst, Staff Writer In what certainly has to be the most ambitious announcement in racing history, Team Penske announced that not one, but two, of their drivers will attempt the Indy-Charlotte Double on Memorial Day Weekend. Monster Energy NASCAR Series regular, Brad Keselowski and Verizon IndyCar Series driver, Josef Newgarden will attempt to qualify for, and compete in, both the 101st Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte scheduled for May 28, 2017. Both drivers will be sponsored by MillerCoors and allRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – For the second straight week, Kyle Larson will start on the pole for a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series event. He can only hope the result of the race is the same, too. Last week, Larson won the pole at Auto Club Speedway and went on to win last Sunday’s race at the two-mile track. On Friday, when rain washed out time trials at Martinsville Speedway, Larson earned the top starting spot for Sunday’s STP 500 (2 p.m. ET on FS1)Read More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer While the 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season started last month at Daytona International Speedway for most competitors, 17-year-old Justin Haley’s season starts this weekend in the Alpha Energy Solutions 250 at Martinsville Speedway. This is because NASCAR’s rulebook only allows drivers that are 16 and 17 years of age to compete on road courses and tracks 1.1 miles or smaller. Haley’s 18th birthday is April 28, which will allow him to compete for the complete 2017 NASCAR Camping Word Truck Series season. NASCARRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After winning his seventh championship last fall, Jimmie Johnson and his No. 48 team haven’t exactly been setting the world on fire through the first five races of 2017, but this weekend’s trip to Martinsville Speedway could be just what the doctor ordered. Entering Sunday’s STP 500 at Martinsville, Johnson has only finished in the top-10 once this season and sits 17th in points. However, Martinsville ranks as one of his best tracks on the circuit, second only to Auto Club Speedway in average finishRead More

By Beth Lunkenheimer, NASCAR Contributor Dale Earnhardt Jr. just completed his 600th career start in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series last weekend at Auto Club Speedway. During that time, the 42-year-old has 26 career victories, including two Daytona 500 wins. Oh, and that doesn’t include that he is also a 14-time Most Popular Driver. “I just wanted to drive. I wanted to race cars for a living. I wanted to do it well enough to be able to afford to make a living doing it,” Earnhardt said. “I didn’tRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer The last time the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series visited Martinsville Speedway, Johnny Sauter took home the victory in thrilling fashion, holding off Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regular Chase Elliott by just 0.316 seconds. Matt Crafton, Sauter, and Timothy Peters are the only former winners in the Truck Series at Martinsville in the field this weekend. There is only one Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regular entered in Saturday’s race, Chase Elliott. NASCAR Xfinity Series regular Ross Chastain is also entered in the race.Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor A fixture on the NASCAR schedule since 1949, Martinsville Speedway has provided numerous memorable moments over the years and in this week’s edition of “Throwback Thursday Theater”, we’ll take a step back three decades to the running of the 1987 Goody’s 500 and the wild finish that would follow. Geoff Bodine would start the 500 lap event on the pole and held onto the point for the first 71 laps before ceding the lead over to Darrell Waltrip. Waltrip would lead 21 of the nextRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor After completing the Western swing, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads back east this weekend and straight to the first short track race of the season, with Sunday’s running of the STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway. A mainstay on the schedule since 1949, the historic half-mile, which is also the smallest on the circuit, will test both man and machine over 500 grueling laps. The track has basically one groove, meaning the only way to pass will be the move we all know andRead More