By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

Gen 7 car has turned the tables at Martinsville Speedway

For the first time in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series regular season, drivers in the top division will compete on a bona fide short track when the series visits Martinsville Speedway for Sunday’s Cook Out 400 (3 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, drives during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway on November 02, 2024 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by David Jensen/Getty Images)

With a few exceptions, Martinsville traditionally has been a feast-or-famine track. Alex Bowman, who won the fall race in 2021, has no other top-five finishes in 17 starts at the 0.526-mile paper-clip-shaped venue.

Similarly, Christopher Bell, who secured a Championship 4 berth with a Martinsville victory in 2022, hasn’t scored another top five at the track in his nine starts there.

Of course, there are exceptions. In his last five races at the track in southern Virginia, Kyle Larson, the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, has posted an average finish of 2.8, and he comes to Martinsville fresh from his first victory of the season last Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“When I started at Hendrick Motorsports, the car was probably a little bit better than I was at Martinsville,” Larson said. “But we’ve gotten better as a whole, and I think it’s one of our best tracks now.

“We got a win there in 2023 and had solid runs and finishes there last year, so we’re looking forward to this weekend.” 

The introduction of the Next Gen car into NASCAR’s top series in 2022 has proven to be a real line of demarcation. In the Gen 6 era, drivers such as Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. took center stage at Martinsville.

In the Gen 7 era, those four competitors are winless at the paper clip, and Hendrick drivers have moved to the forefront. Defending race winner William Byron led a 1-2-3 Hendrick finish in last year’s spring race, marking the first time a single organization has swept the podium positions at Martinsville.

The victory was Byron’s second at the track since 2021, with Larson accounting for another Hendrick win in the spring Race of 2023. Byron, however, approaches the Cook Out 400 with some degree of trepidation.

Yes, he has won two of the last three spring races, but the No. 24 team has struggled at Martinsville in the fall, barely making the Championship 4 with finishes of 16th and sixth in 2023 and 2024.

“I’m confident but also not extremely confident,” Byron said. “We’ve had some good runs, and we’ve also had some just OK runs. We have some work to do from Bowman Gray (at the Clash in February) on our short-track package, but I think we’ll still be in a good place.

“It’s really about having a good long-run car, and that’s what we will really focus on.”

Ryan Blaney has won the fall Playoff race for the past two seasons—with his 2023 win leading to a series championship—and Bell has the other triumph in the past six Gen 7 races.

Hamlin leads all full-time active drivers with five Martinsville victories, and it’s not as if the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota hasn’t been in the mix in the Next Gen era. He simply hasn’t been in Victory Lane.

In four of the last five Martinsville races, Hamlin has finished in the top-five. He also leads active drivers in career top fives (20), top 10s (26) and laps led at the track (2,448).

Another radical change in the Next Gen era is the apparent diminishing importance of starting position at Martinsville. The last five winners have come from starting spots outside the top 10. In the previous 14 races, only twice did the eventual winner start from a grid position worse than 10th.

Justin Allgaier, Aric Almirola chase milestones at Martinsville Speedway

The last two weeks have brought an embarrassment of riches to JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier.

The 38-year-old veteran from Riverton, Illinois, scored maiden victories at two intermediate tracks—Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway—winning consecutive races in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for the second time in his career.

In addition, Allgaier claimed the first $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus of the season for his win at Homestead, bringing his career total to a record six such bonanzas.

On Saturday afternoon at Martinsville Speedway, Allgaier will try to win a third consecutive race for the first time in his career when he drives the No. 7 JRM Chevrolet in Saturday’s US Marine Corps 250 (5 p.m. ET on CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“Martinsville has been a really strong track for us since it came back on the schedule (in 2020),” said Allgaier, who won the fall 2023 race in a wild last-lap scramble in overtime. “I’ve always enjoyed racing there and I know that (crew chief) Jim (Pohlman) and all the guys on this BRANDT Professional Agriculture team will give me a great car when we unload for practice on Friday.

“We’ve had a lot of momentum on our side here lately, and hopefully we can keep that going this weekend.”

To extend his record in Dash 4 Cash bonuses, Allgaier will have to beat fellow qualifiers Sam Mayer, Austin Hill and Sheldon Creed. 

Allgaier has finished sixth or better in his last five Martinsville starts, but he’ll have plenty of competition from part-time Joe Gibbs Racing Driver Aric Almirola, who swept both events at the 0.526-mile short track last year.

In three starts this season, Almirola has a win at Phoenix, a second at Las Vegas and a third at Atlanta.

NASCAR Truck race at Martinsville a landmark event for Toyota

On Friday night, Toyota will mark its 500th race in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series in the Boys and Girls Club of the Blue Ridge 200 at Martinsville Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, NRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

In 499 previous races, Toyota drivers have claimed 236 combined victories, led by Kyle Busch with 56, Todd Bodine with 22 and Johnny Benson with 14.

That prolific winning record, which began with Travis Kvapil’s victory at Michigan on July 31, 2004, has led to nine drivers’ championships and 13 manufacturers’ titles.

Driving the flagship Tundra for Toyota on Friday is Corey Heim of TRICON Garage, who has contributed 13 victories to the manufacturer’s total since his series debut in 2021.

Heim has two wins in four starts this season and leads the series standings by eight points over reigning champion Ty Majeski.

Heim won at Martinsville in 2023 and has posted three top 10s in four starts there.

Chevrolet driver Grant Enfinger, however, may be a strong candidate to spoil the Toyota party. Enfinger comes to Martinsville with a career-best streak of nine straight top 10s, dating to last season.

In addition, NASCAR Cup regular William Byron returns to the Truck Series in the No. 07 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet. Byron gave Spire its first win in the series at Martinsville in 2022.

Also, the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series’ Triple Truck Challenge gets underway this Friday at Martinsville with the highest finishing Truck Series regular taking home a $50,000 bonus in prize money.