Martinsville Speedway Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – In an extraordinarily wild NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race that saw four of six Playoff drivers have major issues, 19-year-old Todd Gilliland muscled his way past Ross Chastain on Lap 191 and held on to win for the first time in 46 career starts. Just as extraordinarily, a series of wild wrecks that produced 12 cautions for 80 laps did little to affect the Playoff standings, with the Championship 4 drivers still to be settled two weekends hence at ISM RacewayRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Drivers in the Round of 6 endured an accurate depiction of a “Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” in Saturday’s NASCAR Hall of Fame 200 at Martinsville Speedway. Just about everyone who are competing for the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series championship either dealt with truck issues or involved in a series of cautions that ended their race. Only two out of the six finished inside the top-10 while the other four were outside the top-20. Earlier in the race, it was all calm forRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Front Row Motorsports driver Matt Tifft will be replaced by two-time NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series champion Matt Crafton for Sunday’s First Data 500 at Martinsville Speedway. Tifft, who pilots the No. 36 Ford Mustang, was transported to a local hospital Saturday morning due to a medical condition at the track. FRM issued a short statement regarding Tifft’s medical update: “This morning, Matt Tifft was transported to a local hospital in Martinsville, Virginia for further evaluation and tests after suffering a medical condition at the track.Read More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Familiar faces will be the norm for GMS Racing’s NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series program as they announced at Martinsville Speedway Friday their 2020 plans. Current full-time drivers Brett Moffitt (No. 24) and Sheldon Creed (No. 2) will retain their Chevrolet Silverado rides while newly crowned K&N Pro Series East champion Sam Mayer (No. 21) will run six races next season. Moffitt is currently among the six playoff drivers eyeing on making the Championship 4 as a win in Saturday’s NASCAR Hall of Fame 200 willRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The Round of 8 is on. Following a barn burner of a finish at Kansas last weekend, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to Martinsville Speedway for Sunday’s running of the First Data 500. A win by any of the eight drivers still in contention for the title and they punch their ticket to the championship race at Homestead. 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 overRead More

By Jordan Bianchi, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Florida – The schedules for NASCAR’s Xfinity Series and Gander Outdoor Truck Series will have a familiar look in 2020, with both also returning to a track that it had a previous longstanding association with but have not visited for more than a decade. The Xfinity Series will return to Martinsville Speedway for its first event there since 2006, a race that will be part of a triple-header weekend featuring all three of NASCAR’s national series. The Xfinity race will be held on SaturdayRead More

By NASCAR DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A champion crowned in the desert. The Last Great Colosseum becomes a postseason factor. A tricky doubleheader. The birthplace of NASCAR bookends the regular season. NASCAR today announced significant, dynamic changes to the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, with intriguing shifts during both the regular season and the Playoffs. Most notably next season, NASCAR’s championship will transition from the beaches of Miami to the desert near Phoenix, Arizona, following the renovation and reconfiguration of ISM Raceway. These recent changes delivered a new and excitingRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Some season firsts took place for Chase Elliott’s No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 during Sunday’s STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia, including his best track finish after coming up 0.594 seconds short of dethroning the dominant Brad Keselowski, who led 446 of 500 laps. The 23-year-old’s strong result marked Chevrolet’s third top-five of the season, and not only Elliott’s best finish of the season thus far, but Hendrick Motorsports first top-five all season in a track that’s been their yard for well over aRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Brad Keselowski led 446 of 500 laps in winning Sunday’s STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway. An easy victory, right? Well, not exactly. After Keselowski’s pit crew put him in the lead for a restart on Lap 380, the driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford spent the rest of the race fending off a determined charge from Chase Elliott. Ultimately, Keselowski got to the finish line .594 seconds ahead of Elliott and 1.335 seconds in front of Kyle Busch, who wasRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – With surgical efficiency, Joey Logano continued his domination of knockout qualifying at Martinsville Speedway. Saving his car and his tires for the final round of Saturday’s time trials at the .526-mile short track, Logano won the pole for Sunday’s STP 500 (2 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with a lap at 97.830 mph (19.356 seconds). Driving the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, Logano edged Stewart-Haas Racing Ford driver Aric Almirola (97.643 mph) for the top starting spot byRead More