Martinsville Speedway Tag

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer After some impressive driving from the 2016 rookie class in the first five races of the season, their biggest challenge thus far would be Sunday’s trip to Martinsville Speedway for the STP 500. As the smallest track on the circuit, Martinsville is one of the toughest tracks, with the long straightaways and flat hairpin turns making for a long, grueling day with 39 of your closest friends.  The half-mile track is tough for even the most seasoned veterans, but for rookies making their first startRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Going into Sunday’s STP 500 at Martinsville, it looked like Kyle Larson was in the middle of a lost season. Through the first five races of the season, Larson had just one top-10 finish and sat 24th in the championship standings. There wasn’t much reason for optimism heading into this week’s race either, as Larson had struggled through four previous starts at the half-mile paper clip track. His best finish at the shortest and oldest track in NASCAR was 19th in the fall of 2015.Read More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Denny Hamlin headed into Martinsville Speedway with high hopes to overcome mistakes from recent visits at the half-mile oval, but Sunday’s STP 500 proved no different for the defending Daytona 500 champion. Hamlin, 35, had five wins in 20 previous races at Martinsville, including 16 top 10 finishes, but he acknowledged earlier in the week that recent mistakes have hurt his chances to secure wins. Sunday proved to be no different. From the start of the race Hamlin was a man on the move, but itRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Kyle Busch, come get your clock. Leading a race-high 123 of 255 laps, Kyle Busch pulled off an overtime victory in Saturday’s Alpha Energy Solutions 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway and filled a major hole in his resume by securing the coveted grandfather clock that goes to the victor. “I’ve got a couple owners’ ones, but never one of my own,” said Busch, who got an excellent launch on the final restart and won the two-lapRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Who provides Denny Hamlin his most formidable competition at Martinsville? No, it’s not Jimmie Johnson, who has won eight times at the fabled short track. And it’s not Joey Logano, who has won the last three poles at Martinsville. Denny Hamlin’s stiffest competition at the .526-mile speedway is Denny Hamlin, because, all too often, the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has beaten himself. “I don’t know how many pit road penalties I’ve had here at this race track, or whyRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – If there’s anyone who should know just how much racing at Martinsville has changed over the years, the man with all the answers is the King. The unparalleled master of short track racing in NASCAR’s premier series, Richard Petty accumulated the most wins (15), most top fives (30) and most top 10s (37) at the .526-mile speedway. But in Petty’s day, success at Martinsville — site of Sunday’s STP 500 (1 p.m. ET on FS1) — was as much about runningRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – The third time was the charm for Joey Logano. Then again, so were the first and second. The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford dominated qualifying for Sunday’s STP 500 (1 p.m. ET on FS1), topping the speed chart in all three sessions of Friday’s knockout qualifying at Martinsville Speedway. The Coors Light Pole Award was the third straight for Logano at the .526-mile paper-clip-shaped short track, marking the first time a driver has won three consecutive poles atRead More

By NASCAR Wire Service At the beginning of 2015, Ben Rhodes’ NASCAR future looked as bright as any other of the sport’s young prospects. The then 18-year-old Louisville, Kentucky native, fresh off a dominant run to the 2014 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East championship that included five wins and 11 top fives in 16 races, inked a deal with stalwart JR Motorsports to compete in 10 NASCAR XFINITY Series races. With the talent he showed in the NKNPSE and the power of the JRM cars, Rhodes was expected to succeedRead More

By NASCAR Wire Service Chase Elliott would probably like to forget his first career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start. Debuting in the 2015 STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway with much fanfare, Elliott was forced to take his No. 25 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to the garage on the 74th go-around of the 500-lap race after sustaining heavy damage from two separate wrecks. His crew feverishly worked to get him back out on the track where he battled his way to a 38th-place finish. “This is a different ball-game,” Elliott said afterRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series gets back to racing this weekend at Martinsville Speedway and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is worried about some recent changes made by the sanctioning body. Earnhardt, 41, has recorded 13 top-five finishes at Martinsville, including a win in 2014 and addressed his apprehensiveness over NASCAR’s recent gearing adjustment for the .526-mile short track oval. “I think NASCAR took a little bit of the gear away at Martinsville,” said Earnhardt. “That concerns me a little bit because you don’t have the throttle responseRead More