NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Tag

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 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 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

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service It’s a home game for the Wood Brothers. But the April 3 STP 500 is a home game the Wood Brothers haven’t experienced as a full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team with a single driver since Ken Schrader filled the seat of the vaunted No. 21 Ford in 2006. We’re talking about Martinsville, of course, the shortest track on the Sprint Cup circuit at .526 miles, the closest to the Wood Brothers’ family home in Stuart, Va., and the next race on the SprintRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer After four days of deliberations, NASCAR handed down their penalties stemming from the race weekend at Auto Club Speedway on Thursday. For his failure to fulfill his media obligations at the conclusion of the NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday, Kyle Busch was fined $10,000 and placed on NASCAR probation for the next four championship races through April 27th. Danica Patrick also earned a behavioral penalty from NASCAR for leaving her car and walking onto a hot track after her incident with Kasey Kahne inRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Martin Truex Jr. had one of the strongest cars in Sunday’s Auto Club Speedway before close-quarters racing from Joey Logano’s Ford sent him into the outside wall on Lap 152. Truex insisted Logano hit him. Though Truex was able to continue, things went from bad to worse for the driver of the No. 78 Toyota, who was flagged for speeding when he brought his car onto pit road two laps later to deal with the damage. “We had a good run going until theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service FONTANA, Calif. – A collision with Kasey Kahne’s Chevrolet ruined a promising afternoon for Danica Patrick in Sunday’s Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway. Patrick started 31st and had worked her way up to 19th before wrecking hard into the Turn 1 wall on Lap 121 after contact from Kahne’s Chevy. Kahne was a lap down at the time, thanks to an earlier unscheduled pit stop. “We were on a restart, and I had a run on him so I went down low,”Read More