Martinsville Speedway Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Don’t tell Ross Chastain that playing video games doesn’t pay off. Using a move that multitudes of NASCAR video game players have used over the years, Chastain kept his foot to the floor on the final lap of Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville, purposefully driving his No. 1 Chevrolet into the Turn 3 wall and keeping it there to advance past Denny Hamlin and take the final transfer spot into the Championship 4. Chastain came into the day with a 19-point advantage over the cut-off line,Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Ty Gibbs took no prisoners Saturday with a race-winning move that dramatically altered the composition of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship 4 field. On the final lap of the third attempt at overtime, Gibbs rammed soon-to-be-ex-teammate Brandon Jones so hard the contact buckled the hood of Gibbs No. 54 Toyota. The contact sent Jones, who had taken the lead on the previous lap, into the outside wall in Turns 1 and 2, and Gibbs had the lead when NASCAR called theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Kyle Larson speeds to pole position for Martinsville elimination race MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Kyle Larson backed up last Sunday’s victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a pole-winning run at Martinsville Speedway. Though Larson has been eliminated from the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, he’ll lead the field to green in the race to decide which three drivers will join Joey Logano in the November 6 Championship 4 event at Phoenix Raceway—Sunday’s Xfinity 500 (2 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). After locking upRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Seven drivers. Three transfer spots into the Championship 4. One race. The Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs all comes down to Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway, a half-mile bullring in southern Virginia where bent sheet metal and hurt feelings are all but inevitable. A mainstay on the schedule since 1949, the historic track, 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 wayRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – The first night race for the NASCAR Cup Series at Martinsville Speedway was a cakewalk for Hendrick Motorsports—until a late caution sent the race to overtime, that is.  But William Byron survived a final restart and a mistake on the white-flag lap to win Saturday night’s Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 at the .526-mile short track.  Byron led 212 of the 403 laps. Teammate and pole winner Chase Elliott led the first 185 circuits, as Hendrick Motorsports surpassed 10,000 laps ledRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILE, Va. – On older tires, Brandon Jones stole an Xfinity Series win from the scion of the owner of his race team on Saturday night at Martinsville Speedway.  Jones dived to the inside of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs as the Call 811 Before You Dig 250 went to a second overtime. Jones cleared Gibbs on the second circuit (Lap 261) and got to the finish line .677 seconds ahead of Landon Cassill, as Sam Mayer bumped Gibbs’s Toyota and squeezed itRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor For the second week in a row, the NASCAR Cup Series stays in the State of Virginia, as it heads down to Martinsville Speedway for Saturday night’s Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400. 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 the course of the evening. Martinsville marks the smallest track the Next Gen car has raced on since the exhibition race at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to kickRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service William Byron proved emphatically Thursday night that he hadn’t forgotten how to drive a truck. Making only his second start in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series since 2016—after a blown engine knocked him out of last year’s Nashville race—Byron parlayed perfect pit strategy into a decisive victory in the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 200 at Martinsville Speedway. In his last full season in the series in 2016, Byron won seven races before moving on to the Xfinity Series and finally to the CupRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Denny Hamlin may be moving on to the Championship 4 to fight for a NASCAR Cup Series championship next week, but after Sunday’s race at Martinsville, it’s clear his focus is currently on Alex Bowman and the late race contact between the two. As the two drivers battled for the lead with less than 10 laps to go, Bowman got into Turn 3 too hot, moving up the track into Hamlin’s left-rear quarter panel, sending him for a spin into the outside wall. While Hamlin wasRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Denny Hamlin provided the perfect capstone to a day of banged-up stock cars, hurt feelings and crushed dreams. Alex Bowman took the checkered flag in Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway after sliding up into Hamlin’s race-leading Toyota on Lap 494 of 501 and knocking Hamlin’s car up the track and into the outside wall. As Bowman tried to start a burnout to celebrate his fourth NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season and his first at the .526-mile short track,Read More