STP 500
Martinsville Speedway
By Richard Tix
2,410 miles. That's how far Auto Club Speedway is to Martinsville speedway by car (roughly). As NASCAR wraps up it's "going West" tour, we come back to the hotbed for some short track action.
First up is the shortest track on the NASCAR schedule, Martinsville Speedway. In the next month we will also hit Bristol and Richmond which is always my favorite time of the year because of the larger percentage of short tracks NASCAR stops at. In fact, only Texas gets in the way of this stretch of three short tracks.
As we head to Martinsville a few drivers who have been known to get around on the "paper clip" are probably pretty happy to see its flat sharp turns. Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin both to some extend have been off to slow starts. Between them they own 14 total wins here at Martinsville. In fact, if you take only current drivers they have won 14 of the last 19 (really its 14 of 25, but Gordon and Stewart won six of those and are currently not running Cup).
On the flip side you have a whole mess of young talented drivers who are really showing what they can do on this level early in the season. Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, and Ryan Blaney have all put themselves in a nice early position but this could be a wrench tossed into the smooth machine since Martinsville is it's own battle.
Heck, that's not even including the veterans of the sport that have proven time again that they shouldn't be forgotten at a track like this -- cough cough Dale Earnhardt Jr. So, who will keep their nose clean long enough to win the grand daddy of them all, the Martinsville Grandfather clock?
First up is the shortest track on the NASCAR schedule, Martinsville Speedway. In the next month we will also hit Bristol and Richmond which is always my favorite time of the year because of the larger percentage of short tracks NASCAR stops at. In fact, only Texas gets in the way of this stretch of three short tracks.
As we head to Martinsville a few drivers who have been known to get around on the "paper clip" are probably pretty happy to see its flat sharp turns. Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin both to some extend have been off to slow starts. Between them they own 14 total wins here at Martinsville. In fact, if you take only current drivers they have won 14 of the last 19 (really its 14 of 25, but Gordon and Stewart won six of those and are currently not running Cup).
On the flip side you have a whole mess of young talented drivers who are really showing what they can do on this level early in the season. Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, and Ryan Blaney have all put themselves in a nice early position but this could be a wrench tossed into the smooth machine since Martinsville is it's own battle.
Heck, that's not even including the veterans of the sport that have proven time again that they shouldn't be forgotten at a track like this -- cough cough Dale Earnhardt Jr. So, who will keep their nose clean long enough to win the grand daddy of them all, the Martinsville Grandfather clock?
**This section is just a quick look at some of Cup drivers latest finishes. This is not a tool for fantasy purposes and NBTW only is looking at end results. No deep statistic's are involved, but rather it is just a quick way to get ready for the race and get caught up on who has finished well at each track**
The Good
- Jimmie Johnson- This one is easy, Johnson is a nine time winner tof the Martinsville Grandfather clock and will look to make it double digits this weekend.
- Denny Hamlin- Hamlin is the next best driver standing (not retired) at Martinsville. His five career wins are the second most of current drivers and he could really push JJ in the coming years.
- Kyle Busch- With Jeff Gordon retiring it leaves some space for a new master of the clock to step in. Will it be Kyle? Rowdy won this race in 2016 and then finished 5th on the Fall which marked his third straight top five here.
The Middle
- Dale Earnhardt Jr- Junior has an average finish of 12.9 in his 33 career starts at Martinsville. However, in that time he only has one win -- 2014. He is a great driver here but not always a top five or front runner.
The Bad
- Chris Buescher- It's early to judge Bueschers finishes here at Martinsville, but so far they haven't been favorable. He has finished in the top 25 just once in three starts.
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr- In eight career starts here Ricky only has one top 15, two top 25's, and two top 30's. Thats right, only twice has he finished in the top 30.
- Kasey Kahne- In 26 races at Martinsville Kahne has only finished in the top 10 five times. In his last seven starts here he only has one top ten -- 9th.
About the Track: Martinsville
Track Stats- 8 straight Chevy wins here at Martinsville before Denny Hamlin won in 2015. 10 of the last 12 have been Chevy.
- Other then Denny Hamlin (Toyota) and Kyle Busch (Toyota) Chevy has won 18 straight races. That's 19 of the past 25 races. If you add in Rusty Wallace's win in 2004 (Dodge) its 21 of the past 28.
- The race has been won from the Pole 4 times in the last 17 races. 0 times in the last 7 races.
- Most cautions was 21 in 2007 for 127 laps.
- The farthest back a winner has started from was 36th (Kurt Busch) in 2002 (10/20/2002). Kurt won in 2014 after starting 22nd (3/30/2014) and Dale Jr won after starting 23 (10/26/14)
- Since 2003 Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, or Denny Hamlin have won 20 of 28 races.
- Richard Petty has the most career Martinsville wins: 15 to go along with 30 top 5's and 37 top 10's.
- Darrell Waltrip has the most career pole awards at Martinsville with 8.
Track Info
- Surface - Asphalt/Concrete
- Length- 0.526 miles
- Banking
- Turns- 12 degrees
- Straights- 0 degrees
