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Kyle Busch Victorious in Trucks at Martinsville

MARTINSVILLE, Va.– Kyle Busch can now say he owns a Martinsville grandfather clock after scoring the Truck victory at the Virginia paperclip.

The driver of the No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota led 123 of the 255 laps on his way to scoring the win in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Alpha Energy Solutions 250 at Martinsville Speedway. It’s his 45th career victory in the series and first at Martinsville in any series.

Busch spoke about the significance of the win.

“I’ve got a couple owner’s ones (grandfather clock trophies), but never one of my own, so this is just a day that we’ve been looking for for a long, long time. We just haven’t never necessarily had all the pieces go together like they should have and I didn’t know that the pieces we’re going to go together today either the way all them cautions were kind of playing out, the way tire strategy was playing out, when to pit, when not to pit, how to do all of that. Wes (Ward, crew chief) and I we both leaned on each other and we both had no idea, so we just dumbed into this I think, but it all worked out, so this Toyota Tundra was awesome.

“All the guys at KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports), KBM chassis, NOS, TRD (Toyota Racing Development), Joe Gibbs Racing Engines – appreciate them – Camping World, of course, the fans – it’s neat to win here at Martinsville. I love when they do it up here on the front stretch for everyone to be up close and personal.”

John Hunter Nemechek finished runner-up in his No. 8 NEMCO Motorsports Chevrolet. Busch’s teammate, William Byron, finished third in his No. 9 KBM Toyota.

“I was able to hang tough on the outside,” Nemechek said, “get around William (Byron) there at the end. That was the big key for us to finish second — if not we were probably going to lose a couple spots.

“Those restarts were hectic at the end. I just kept spinning the tires on the restarts. We’ve got to go back and look at some things. I could never get to Kyle.”

Nemechek leaves Martinsville with a three-point lead over Parker Kligerman, who finished in eighth place.

Kyle Larson led 79 laps on his way to a fourth-place finish in his No. 24 GMS Racing Chevrolet while Timothy Peters rounded out the top-five in his No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota.

Spencer Gallagher finished sixth in his No. 23 GMSR Chevrolet followed by Matt Crafton who finished seventh in his No. 88 ThorSport Racing Toyota and Parker Kligerman in eighth in his No. 92 Ricky Benton Racing Ford. Cameron Hayley led 11 laps on his way to a ninth-place finish in his No. 13 TSR Toyota and Rico Abreu rounded out the top-10 in his No. 98 TSR Toyota.

The race lasted two hours, 10 minutes and 12 seconds at an average speed of 61.811 mph. There were eight lead changes among four different drivers and 11 cautions for 66 laps. There were two red flags for a total of 13 minutes and 12 seconds. Nemechek leaves with a three-point lead over Kligerman in the points standings.

Complete Finishing Order – NCWTS Alpha Energy Solutions 250 at Martinsville Speedway

April 2, 2016
Kyle Larson Fastest in Final Sprint Cup Practice

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.

Complete NSCS First Practice Results at Martinsville Speedway

Complete NSCS Second Practice Results at Martinsville Speedway

Complete NSCS Final Practice Results at Martinsville Speedway:

April 2, 2016
Ben Rhodes on the Truck pole at Martinsville

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.

April 2, 2016
Kasey Kahne Fastest in Second Sprint Cup Practice

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:

April 2, 2016
Blaney: Bubba’s First Mistake was Being a Vols Fan

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.”

April 2, 2016
Cole Custer Fastest in Final Truck Practice

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.

Second NCWTS Practice Results at Martinsville Speedway

First NCWTS Practice Results at Martinsville Speedway

April 2, 2016
Logano on the pole for Martinsville

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.”

NSCS Complete Starting Lineup:

April 1, 2016
Brian Vickers Fastest in First Practice

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

April 1, 2016
Ben Rhodes Fastest in Second Truck Practice

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

April 1, 2016
William Byron Fastest in First Truck Practice

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

April 1, 2016