Martinsville Speedway Tag

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 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

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Days after NASCAR decided against penalizing Austin Dillon for his run-in with Cole Custer at Phoenix, penalties were still a hot topic when the drivers arrived at Auto Club Speedway and Danica Patrick, who has felt the wrath of NASCAR in the past, weighed in on the penalties, or lack thereof, from the sanctioning body. In 2015, Patrick was fined $25,000 and penalized 25 points for wrecking David Gilliland under caution at Martinsville and just last year earned a behavioral penalty from NASCAR for leavingRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor *Editor’s note: Motorsports Tribune will be previewing the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season for 24 drivers. We will release one driver preview per day over a 24-day stretch. Age: 35 Years in Cup: 11 Career Wins: One Biggest Accomplishment: First career Cup Series win (Watkins Glen – 2014) For A.J. Allmendinger, 2016 may not have provided a race win or a Chase berth, but the California native was still able to rebound from a down year in 2015 to make some noise in hisRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor One year ago, Jeff Gordon scored a storybook win at Martinsville Speedway to advance to the championship round at Homestead-Miami Speedway in what was his final full-time season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and what everyone thought was his final Martinsville start. With Dale Earnhardt, Jr. being sidelined for the second half of the 2016 season while recovering from a concussion, Gordon made a return to the cockpit in Earnhardt’s No. 88 car and came into Sunday at Martinsville for one last ride atRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Since winning his sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship in 2013, the world has wondered when or if Jimmie Johnson would capture a record-tying seventh championship. On Sunday, Johnson moved one step closer to making that seventh title a reality. Prior to the start of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Johnson and Hendrick Motorsports as a whole were struggling, with his chances of being able to advance through the Chase to the championship round at Homestead being very slim. However, since the startRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor When it comes to racing at Martinsville, the flat half-mile bullring in southern Virginia as about as demanding as it comes on both drivers and equipment. Add in scorching hot temperatures and things get even more difficult for all parties involved. In this week’s “Throwback Thursday Theater,” we’ll look back at the 1998 NAPA Autocare 500 at Martinsville and a gutsy performance by one of the toughest drivers on the circuit, Ricky Rudd. The late October race, which normally saw seasonal fall temperatures greet theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor After the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series made their final visit to a restrictor plate track last weekend at Talladega, the series kicks off the Round of 8 in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup by visiting one of the most historic tracks on the circuit, Martinsville Speedway. Last weekend’s race featured the biggest and fastest track on the circuit at Talladega, but as we fast-forward to this weekend, the series rolls into Martinsville, which is the smallest on the circuit. Racing at the twoRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor The days of Martinsville Speedway fighting daylight to get their races to completion will be a thing of the past in the near future. On Wednesday, the track announced that they would be installing lights around the historic short track following the completion of the October 30th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event. The $5 million dollar project, which will be the first use of LED lighting at a NASCAR facility, will be complete well in advance of the track’s 2017 dates, which will be theRead More