In Sunday’s STP 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway, everything worked – but nothing more than Brad Keselowski’s race-winning No. 2 Ford.
Yes, that’s right, a Ford. The car maker found Victory Lane at the 0.526-mile short track for the first time since Oct. 20, 2002, when Kurt Busch won at NASCAR’s oldest and smallest premier series track in a Roush Fenway Racing Ford. Continue reading
Polesitter Chase Elliott held off defending NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Johnny Sauter after a restart with 12 laps left and pulled away to win Saturday’s Alpha Energy Solutions 250 at Martinsville Speedway by 1.865 seconds.
Elliott grabbed the lead from third-place finisher Christopher Bell on lap 234, when Bell’s Toyota tangled with Austin Cindric’s Ford through turns one and two. Bell lost the top spot, and Sauter charged past into the second position before NASCAR threw the tenth and final caution of the race. Continue reading
Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M’s Toyota, stands in the garage during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway on April 1, 2017 in Martinsville, Virginia. Photo – Jared C Tilton/Getty Images
Joe Gibbs Racing, which dominated the first half of the 2016 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, is winless in five races to start the current season.
So is Hendrick Motorsports, the juggernaut that carried Jimmie Johnson to his record-tying seventh championship last year. Continue reading
AJ Allmendinger, driver of the #47 Kroger ClickList Chevrolet, stands in the garage during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway on April 1, 2017 in Martinsville, Virginia. Photo – Jerry Markland/Getty Images
At first glance, there’s nothing even remotely similar between Martinsville Speedway and Sonoma Raceway.
At 0.526 miles, Martinsville is the shortest of short tracks in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, a narrow, flat, paper-clip-shaped venue with tight turns and concrete corners.
Sonoma, on the other hand, is a 1.99-mile road course with ten turns (some of them right-handers) and dramatic elevation changes. Continue reading
Catch the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at Martinsville Speedway in the STP 500 on Sunday, April 2nd at 2 pm ET. Television and radio coverage begins at 12:30 pm ET on FOX Sports 1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Drivers will race 500 laps covering 263 miles with Stage 1 ending on lap 130 and Stage 2 ending on lap 260. Continue reading