MARTINSVILLE, Va.– Kyle Larson topped the chart in the final Sprint Cup Series practice at Martinsville Speedway.
The driver of the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 19.835 and a speed of 95.468 mph followed by Kyle Busch who was second in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 19.862 and a speed of 95.338 mph. Brian Vickers was third in his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet with a time of 19.869 and a speed of 95.304 mph. Ryan Newman was fourth in his No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 19.869 and a speed of 95.304 mph while Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top-five in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota with a time of 19.874 and a speed of 95.280 mph.
Jimmie Johnson was sixth in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Denny Hamlin was seventh in his No. 11 JGR Toyota. Matt Kenseth was eighth in his No. 20 JGR Toyota. Kasey Kahne was ninth in his No. 5 HMS Chevrolet. Ryan Blaney rounded out the top-10 in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford.
Johnson posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 94.866 mph. Larson was second at a speed of 94.842 mph and Truex was third at a speed of 94.836 mph.
With practice and qualifying in the books, all that remains is to run the STP 500 tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. on FS1.
MARTINSVILLE, Va.– Ben Rhodes will lead the field to the green flag for today’s Camping World Truck Series race at the Virginia paperclip.
The driver of the No. 41 ThorSport Racing Toyota scored the pole for the Alpha Energy Solutions 250 at Martinsville Speedway after posting a time of 19.659 and a speed of 96.322 mph. It’s the first career pole for the 19 year old rookie from Louisville, Ky.
Kyle Busch will start second in his No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota after posting a time of 19.730 and a speed of 95.976 mph. Johnny Sauter will start third in his No. 21 GMS Racing Chevrolet after posting a time of 19.753 and a speed of 95.864 mph. Cameron Hayley will start fourth in his No. 13 TSR Toyota. Kyle Larson will round out the top-five in his No. 24 GMSR Chevrolet after posting a time of 19.775 and a speed of 95.757 mph.
Daniel Suárez will start sixth in his No. 51 KBM Toyota. William Byron will start seventh in his No. 9 KBM Toyota. John Hunter Nemechek will start eighth in his No. 8 NEMCO Motorsports Chevrolet. Tyler Reddick will start ninth in his No. 19 Brad Keselowski Racing Ford. Matt Crafton will round out the top-10 in his No. 88 TSR Toyota.
Spencer Gallagher will start 11th in his No. 23 GMSR Chevrolet. Cole Custer will round out the 12 drivers that made the final round of qualifying in his No. 00 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.
The field is set for today’s Alpha Energy Solutions 250 at 2:30 p.m. on FS1.
MARTINSVILLE, Va.– Kasey Kahne topped the chart in second Sprint Cup Series practice at Martinsville Speedway.
The driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was the fastest in the second practice session with a time of 19.710 and a speed of 96.073 mph. Ryan Newman was second in his No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 19.756 and a speed of 95.849 mph. Martin Truex Jr. was third in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota with a time of 19.788 and a speed of 95.694 mph. Brian Vickers was fourth in his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet with a time of 19.795 and a speed of 95.661 mph. Paul Menard rounded out the top-five in his No. 27 RCR Chevrolet with a time of 19.800 and a speed of 95.636 mph.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was sixth in his No. 88 HMS Chevrolet. Casey Mears was seventh in his No. 13 Germain Racing Chevrolet. Matt Kenseth was eighth in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Denny Hamlin was ninth in his No. 11 JGR Toyota. Clint Bowyer rounded out the top-10 in his No. 15 HScott Motorsports Chevrolet.
Vickers posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 95.336 mph. Newman was second at a speed of 95.128. Kyle Larson, who was 15th in practice in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, was third at a speed of 95.003 mph.
The Sprint Cup Series will be back on track this afternoon at 1 p.m. for final practice.
Complete NSCS Second Practice Results at Martinsville Speedway:
MARTINSVILLE, Va.– Critiquing Bubba’s performance with the Vols, Ryan Blaney said his first mistake was “being a fan of the Vols.”
During his media availability at Martinsville Speedway yesterday, the driver of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford was asked if he had gotten around to analyzing Darrell Wallace Jr.’s performance with the Tennessee Volunteers when he was practicing with the team in Knoxville, Tennessee the previous week.
“The first thing he made a mistake on was being a fan of the Vols,” said Blaney, who is an adamant fan of the Ohio State Buckeyes. “I haven’t critiqued him yet. I saw a video of him completely miss a pass. I don’t think he got a hand on the ball or it went right through his hands, so that was funny – how terrible of an athlete he is (laughing). No, he’s a pretty good athlete. That’s cool. I saw him do that and I’m like, ‘Man, I’d like to do that with Ohio State,’ so maybe that will kind of sway me to go do it, but I haven’t critiqued him yet. I haven’t given him too hard of a time for it.”
During the session, he also spoke of what it was like for the Wood Brothers to be back at the track for the first time since 2011.
“It’s nice to be back at Martinsville with the Wood Brothers team. It’s nice to be back at pretty much their home track. Stuart, Virginia is only 20 miles away from here, not even, so it’s cool to be back here and with those guys and kind of have everybody out and see everything. I think Glenn (Wood) is gonna be able to make it on Sunday, which it’s really gonna be nice to get him to another race, so hopefully, that will go well for him.”
Speaking on his two top-10 finishes this season, Blaney said he “set a goal at the beginning of the year to run all the laps and that hasn’t come true, so that goal is kind of out the window. It’s good to have a couple top-10’s and have some strong runs. I always say there are some races you wish you could take back, like Atlanta and Fontana a couple of weeks ago. We blew a tire, but those are just problems you have to minimize and it stinks; you have two of them early off in the year, but you try to learn from them as much as you can and try to grow from them and try to not have those happen again. We’ll do our best to try to make that happen, but it’s nice to know we have fast race cars.”
“We’ve had fairly good cars every single weekend,” he continued, “and we’re just getting better every single weekend. As we work together, as this team kind of bonds – this is a fairly new team. We brought on a handful of new guys in the beginning of the season. We kept most of the Wood Brothers personnel that has been there for a long time, but we brought in some new people just to help out with the full-time gig because it’s a lot more work. They’re just kind of getting acclimated to each other. They do a great job of working together already, but just the more they work together the stronger that relationship is gonna be and I think it will get a lot smoother from there on out, but it’s been a good start to the year so far.”
MARTINSVILLE, Va.– In case you missed it, Cole Custer topped the chart in final Camping World Truck Series practice at Martinsville Speedway.
The driver of the No. 00 JR Motorsports Chevrolet was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 19.788 and a speed of 95.694 mph followed by John Hunter Nemechek in second in his No. 8 NEMCO Motorsports Chevrolet with a time of 19.826 and a speed of 95.511 mph. Ben Rhodes, who topped the speed charts in the second practice, was third in the final session in his No. 41 ThorSport Racing Toyota with a time of 19.837 and a speed of 95.456 mph. Kyle Busch was fourth in his No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota with a time of 19.863 and a speed of 95.333 mph while Spencer Gallagher rounded out the top-five in his No. 23 GMS Racing Chevrolet with a time of 19.881 and a speed of 95.247 mph.
Daniel Suárez was sixth in his No. 51 KBM Toyota while Kaz Grala was seventh in his No. 33 GMSR Chevrolet. William Byron (fastest in the first practice) was eighth in his No. 9 KBM Toyota. Kyle Larson was ninth in his No. 24 GMSR Chevrolet and Johnny Sauter rounded out the top-10 in his No. 21 GMSR Chevrolet.
Busch ran the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 93.793 mph. Larson was second at a speed of 93.416 mph. Nemechek was third at a speed of 93.394 mph.
The Truck Series is back on track this morning at 11:15 for qualifying.
MARTINSVILLE, Va.– Joey Logano will lead the field to the green flag on Sunday at the Virginia paperclip.
The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford scored the pole for the STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway with a time of 19.513 and a speed of 97.043 mph.
“Todd does a great job with this Shell/Pennzoil Ford,” Logano said. “I get to drive this thing and it’s so much fun every time we come here to Martinsville, especially in qualifying. We’ve got to figure out the race part. We haven’t got that grandfather clock yet, but qualifying is something that Todd and I have wrapped our heads around and really understand what we have to do inside the race car and outside the race car. I couldn’t be more proud of these guys. I say all the time that Martinsville is the most important track to start up front and that’s when you’ve got to come here and really show what you’ve got. Everyone back at the shop, the way they build these cars, they did a great job for us today.”
This is his 15th career pole in the Sprint Cup Series and third-consecutive at Martinsville. He joins Jeff Gordon as the only drivers to accomplish this feat.
Kasey Kahne will start second in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet after posting a time of 19.515 and a speed of 97.033 mph.
“It feels good,” Kahne said. “The car was really fast, this Great Clips Chevrolet. The guys did a nice job in practice and in qualifying. I just kept getting better with my laps…The car is fine. Just let me get my laps a little better.
“I feel good about it (the car). We had a top-10 here the last race, last year; with the backup car because I crashed it in qualifying and this car is better than our primary car was last time.”
Brian Vickers will start third in his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet after posting a time of 19.549 and a speed of 96.864 mph. Paul Menard will start fourth in his No. 27 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet after posting a time of 19.551 and a speed of 96.854 mph as Ryan Newman rounds out the top-five in his No. 31 RCR Chevrolet after posting a time of 19.575 and a speed of 96.736 mph.
AJ Allmendinger will start sixth in his No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet. Kyle Busch will start seventh in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
“We were okay, we’ve just been lacking a little bit overall all day and that’s just kind of what we missed it by there,” Busch said. “Overall, we have decent speed, we just need some more.”
Denny Hamlin will start eighth in his No. 11 JGR Toyota. Matt Kenseth will start ninth in his No. 20 JGR Toyota. Chase Elliott will round out the top-10 in his No. 24 HMS Chevrolet.
Brad Keselowski will start 11th in his No. 2 Penske Ford as Ryan Blaney rounds out the 12 drivers that made the final round of qualifying.
“It’s nice to get to the third round, but it didn’t go the way we wanted it to,” Blaney said. “We didn’t really have good speed that last round, but it’s nice to get a decent starting spot. It’s on the outside, though, so that kind of stinks, but we’ll see how our car is tomorrow.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who just missed the cut into the final round after getting bumped from the transfer spot in the closing seconds of round 2, will start 13th.
“We just got a little bit tight on the lap that I thought was our best lap and I thought it could have been a little bit better,” Stenhouse said. “We didn’t need much, but I was happy with the Fastenal Ford. This is our best qualifying effort at Martinsville. It will give us a good starting spot for Sunday’s race.”
Carl Edwards will start 25th after not making it out of round 1.
“It’s frustrating for me because these JGR Toyota’s are so fast and for me to run 25th is pretty frustrating,” Edwards said. “I think we’ll race well and I ran enough laps that I got a pretty good view of what race true will be like.”
MARTINSVILLE, Va.– Brian Vickers posted the fastest time in first Sprint Cup Series practice at Martinsville Speedway.
The driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet was fastest in the first practice session with a time of 19.485 and a speed of 97.182 mph. Denny Hamlin was second in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 19.500 and a speed of 97.108 mph. Joey Logano was third in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford with a time of 19.504 and a speed of 97.088 mph. Ryan Newman was fourth in his No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 19.511 and a speed of 97.053 mph. Kyle Larson rounded out the top-five in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet with a time of 19.517 and a speed of 97.023 mph.
Kasey Kahne was sixth in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Ryan Blaney was seventh in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford. Matt Kenseth was eighth in his No. 20 JGR Toyota. Paul Menard was ninth in his No. 27 RCR Chevrolet. Jamie McMurray rounded out the top-10 in his No. 1 CGR Chevrolet.
Larson posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 94.369 mph.
Trevor Bayne crashed his car after locking up the brakes going into turn 1.
“We had a really good car in race true and the long run,” Bayne said. “It was lacking short-run speed and I felt like I was really being held up on my brakes. I was having a lot of rear wheel hop getting into the corner. We were giving up two to three-tenths into both corners and I tried to just push the braking zone a little bit more and it started wheel-hopping really bad. There was nothing I could do about it. Once it started bouncing, I tried to save it and once it got backwards stood in the gas and it just backed in. You never want to tear one up, especially not in practice, but maybe that rear wheel-hop won’t be in our backup car and we can go qualify OK.”
The team opted to roll out the backup car. Because this took place prior to qualifying, the driver of the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford won’t be required to drop to the rear of the field.
The Sprint Cup Series will be back on track later this evening for qualifying at 4:15.
NSCS Complete Practice 1 Results – Martinsville Speedway
MARTINSVILLE, Va.– Ben Rhodes topped the chart in the second Camping World Truck Series practice at Martinsville Speedway Friday.
The driver of the No. 41 ThorSport Racing Toyota was the fastest in the second practice session with a time of 19.839 and a speed of 95.448 mph. William Byron was second in his No. 9 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota with a time of 19.856 and a speed of 95.367 mph followed by Cole Custer in third in his No. 00 JR Motorsports Chevrolet with a time of 19.901 and a speed of 95.151 mph. Tyler Reddick was fourth in his No. 29 Brad Keselowski Racing Ford with a time of 19.905 and a speed of 95.132 mph as Spencer Gallagher rounded out the top-five in his No. 23 GMS Racing Chevrolet with a time of 19.915 and a speed of 95.084 mph.
Kaz Grala was sixth in his No. 33 GMSR Chevrolet, Matt Crafton was seventh in his No. 88 TSR Toyota and Timothy Peters was eighth in his No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota. Daniel Hemric was ninth in his No. 19 BKR Ford while Daniel Suárez rounded out the top-10 in his No. 51 KBM Toyota.
Custer posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 93.570 mph. Ben Kennedy, who was 11th in his No. 11 RHR Toyota, posted the second best average at a speed of 93.286 mph.
The Truck Series is back on track for final practice at 3:00 p.m.
NCWTS Complete Practice 2 Results – Martinsville Speedway
MARTINSVILLE, Va.– William Byron headed the field in first Camping World Truck Series practice at Martinsville Speedway.
The driver of the No. 9 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 19.868 and a speed of 95.309 mph. Timothy Peters was second in his No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota with a time of 19.995 and a speed of 94.704 mph followed by Kyle Busch who was third in his No. 18 KBM Toyota with a time of 20.104 and a speed of 94.190 mph. Johnny Sauter was fourth in his No. 31 GMS Racing Chevrolet with a time of 20.106 and a speed of 94.181 mph as Cole Custer rounded out the top-five in his No. 00 JR Motorsports Chevrolet with a time of 20.107 and a speed of 94.176 mph.
Tyler Young was sixth in his No. 02 Young’s Motorsports Chevrolet. Matt Crafton was seventh in his No. 88 ThorSport Racing Toyota. Daniel Hemric was eighth in his No. 19 Brad Keselowski Racing Ford. Ben Rhodes was ninth in his No. 41 TSR Toyota and Kyle Larson rounded out the top-10 in the No. 24 GMSR Chevrolet.
Christopher Bell, who was 17th in his No. 4 KBM Toyota, posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 92.676 mph.
The next Truck practice will start at 12:30 p.m.
NCWTS Complete Practice 1 Results – Martinsville Speedway
MARTINSVILLE, Va.– NASCAR is back from the left coast and ready to go bumping and banging at the Virginia paperclip.
This week, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series comes off the Easter holiday and rolls into Ridgeway, Virginia to run the STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway. The 500 lap race on the .526 mile (.847 km) short track will be the sixth race of the 2016 season.
After spending the previous month on the western end of the United States, Martinsville is the first stop of what I like to call the short track gauntlet. Over the course of April, the Sprint Cup Series will also visit Bristol Motor Speedway and Richmond International Raceway with Texas Motor Speedway sandwiched between Martinsville and Bristol.
Opened in 1947, Martinsville Speedway is the last remaining track from the NASCAR’s first season in 1948. It’s a throwback to a bygone era when race tracks were located in the middle of nowhere in the most remote parts of America. During that stretch of 68 years, many tracks have come and many more have gone. The only two constants in NASCAR are change and Martinsville. In a way, Martinsville serves as a bridge that connects the past to the present.
When people say Martinsville never changes, they’re right to a very large degree. Nine-time Martinsville winner Jeff Gordon once said that of all the tracks he’s raced at in his entire 23-year Sprint Cup Series career, Martinsville was the one track that changed the least. He said the way you drove the track in 1993 was virtually the same as the way he drove the track in his last start at the Virginia paperclip in 2015.
At Martinsville, the outside line is the kiss of death. Photo: Jeff Zelevansky/NASCAR via Getty Images
Martinsville is a rhythm-heavy race track. Once you figure out the rhythm, you can conquer all who race on it. You run against the wall on the straights and hug the yellow curb in the turns. Protecting the inside line is vital at Martinsville. You pass someone by diving underneath them going into turn 1 or turn 3 or you use your chrome bumper to gently nudge them out of the way. If you’re caught on the outside line, you’d better fall behind another car and get to the bottom or you’ll drift towards the back.
While you could run a 500 lap event on just three or four pit stops with a fuel window of 130 laps, you’ll be stopping for tires at least double-digit times. If you’re the race leader when the caution flies and forces overtime, you’re pretty much a sitting duck. If you pit, everybody behind you stays out. If you stay out, everybody behind you pits. To put it shortly, you have to pick your poison.
Carnage lurks around every turn at Martinsville. Photo: Rob Carr/Getty Images
Like most short tracks, the tight confines and low banking means passing is at a premium at Martinsville. As I mentioned earlier, there are two primary ways to pass someone at Martinsville; dive underneath someone going into turn 1 and/or turn 3 or use the chrome bumper to nudge someone out of the way.
Many times in a race, one driver will nudge another out of the way, collect another driver and cause a multi-car pileup. Other times, one car will dive too deep into turns 1 or 3, hop the curb, slam into another car and cause a chain-reaction crash that way. This type of accordion-effect wrecking will happen multiple times in a 500 lap race at Martinsville.
Controlling your temper is vital at Martinsville. Photo: Jeff Zelevansky/2015 Getty Images
With all the bumping and banging, it’s very easy to lose your composure. Keeping your temper in check is important to success at Martinsville.
Most of the time, it leads to a lead lap car forcibly nudging a lapped car out of his or her way. Sometimes, it can give us classic Martinsville moments like Brad Keselowski rubbing up against Kurt Busch for about five laps.
Other times, though, it can lead one driver who’s running nine laps down losing focus of reality, intentionally taking the race leader and getting that driver parked for two races.
I believe we’re going to see our first real test of the updated NASCAR behavioral policy this weekend in Martinsville. While I doubt we’ll see a repeat of what happened last November, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of drivers taking out one another at Martinsville.
Now let’s talk about drivers to watch this weekend.
Few drivers have mastered the Virginia paperclip like Jimmie Johnson. Photo: Sal Sigala Jr.
The odds-on favorite at 9/2 is Jimmie Kenneth Johnson (Vegas Insider).
In his 28 career starts at Martinsville, the driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has eight wins, 18 top fives (64.29 percent) and 22 top-10s (78.57 percent). He’s led nearly 3,000 laps (2746) and has a 7.5 average finish.
However, he hasn’t led a single lap at the Virginia paperclip since 2014 and has finished second, 32nd, 35th and 12th. That’s a 20.3 finishing average in the last four races.
I don’t see this trend continuing for a few reasons. First, the 48 team is on a roll right now having won 40 percent of the races so far this season. Second, Johnson is historically no slouch when it comes to Martinsville. Finally, his mentor was Jeff Gordon who made Martinsville his playground through his 23-year career.
I expect Johnson to be up front and contending for the win on Sunday.
Denny Hamlin has also found success at Martinsville. Photo: Nick Laham/NASCAR via Getty Images
Next, at 6/1 is James Dennis Alan “Denny” Hamlin.
In 20 career starts at Martinsville, the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has five wins, 11 top fives (55 percent) and 16 top-10s (80 percent). He’s led over 1,000 laps (1315) and has an average finish of eighth.
Unlike Johnson, the last four races have been kind to the Virginia native with finishes of 19th, eighth, first and third. That’s a 7.8 finishing average.
He’s also the defending race winner having led 91 laps on his way to scoring his first checkered flag of the 2015 season. He enters Martinsville with a win in the Daytona 500 and three top-10s. He’s finished on the podium in the last two races and looks to continue that run this weekend.
I expect Hamlin to contend for the win on Sunday.
Joey Logano looks to continue his strong runs this weekend at Martinsville. Photo: Todd Warshaw/NASCAR via Getty Images
Next, at 6/1 is one Joseph Thomas Logano.
Since 2014, the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford has been arguably the best at the Virginia paperclip with finishes of fourth, fifth, third and 37th. In those four races, he led 39, 60, 108 and 207 laps.
In the last visit to Martinsville, he and teammate Brad Keselowski had the field in check the entire afternoon before Keselowski suffered a suspension failure and crashed out of the race. Logano was in total control with 47 laps remaining, but then he was eliminated from the race after being intentionally wrecked by Matt Kenseth.
Both drivers are smart enough to know that it wouldn’t be in the best interest of either of them to re-light that fire and force NASCAR to step in again, so I don’t expect anything to come about from it this time around.
I see no reason as to why he won’t be a force on Sunday.
Kevin Harvick should be a threat to win at Martinsville. Photo: Robert Laberge/NASCAR via Getty Images
The final driver to keep your eye on this weekend at 7/1 is Kevin Michael Harvick.
In 29 career starts at Martinsville, the driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet has amassed one win, three top fives (10.35 percent) and 14 top-10s (48.28 percent).
That might not seem like much, especially compared to the success of Johnson, but in his last four starts, he’s finished seventh, 33rd, eighth and eighth. That’s an average finish of 14th. In the last two trips to the Virginia paperclip, he’s led 154 and 38 laps.
At any other track, Harvick would be my outright pick to win. I’m not as willing to go out on that limb at Martinsville. He’s only finished in the top-five three times and those were during his time at Richard Childress Racing. While I do expect him to be leading at some point Sunday, I wouldn’t pick him over someone like Johnson to win.
Tune into the STP 500 on Sunday to see who takes home the grandfather clock. You can watch the race beginning at 12:30 p.m. on FOX Sports 1 or at noon on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius XM (subscription required for the latter). If you’re within a few hours of Ridgeway, Virginia, hop in your car, drive to the track and watch the action in person. I’m on assignment at Martinsville this weekend, so I’ll be bringing you all the happenings from the media center.
