{"id":15547,"date":"2018-03-22T19:46:17","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T00:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=15547"},"modified":"2018-03-22T19:46:17","modified_gmt":"2018-03-23T00:46:17","slug":"nascar-martinsville-speedway-weekend-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/03\/22\/nascar-martinsville-speedway-weekend-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Martinsville Speedway Weekend Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Team Penske Enters Martinsville With Big Expectations<\/b> <\/p>\n

Brad Keselowski\u2019s<\/strong> victory in last April\u2019s STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway<\/a> was as clutch as they come \u2013 earning his first ever win at the challenging half-mile track and Ford\u2019s first trophy there in a more than a decade (28 races).<\/p>\n

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Brad Keselowski, driver of the #2 Miller Lite Ford, leads Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M’s Toyota, and Chase Elliott, driver of the #24 SunEnergy1 Chevrolet, during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway on April 2, 2017 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

A thrilling duel with Kyle Busch in the final 60 laps earned Keselowski his second win of the very early 2017 season \u2013 a trophy to pair with his Atlanta victory only four weeks earlier. This season, Keselowski and his Team Penske teammates Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney arrive at NASCAR\u2019s historic venue primed to shift the 2018 season into full gear.<\/p>\n

The Penske threesome \u2013 Logano, Keselsowski and Blaney – are ranked third, fourth, and fifth, respectively, in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series standings entering Sunday\u2019s STP 500 (2 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and possess both promising momentum and recent history on their side.<\/p>\n

All three drivers drove their Ford Fusions to top-eight results last weekend at Auto Club Speedway. And the .526-mile Martinsville track is a place where this trio of drivers makes a good case for victory.<\/p>\n

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Joey Logano, driver of the #22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, qualifies for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series First Data 500 at Martinsville Speedway on October 29, 2017 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Stacy Revere\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Logano, who boasts four top 10s and a pair of top-five finishes through the first five races of 2018, has won the pole position at Martinsville in four of the last six races. Keselowski, who has collected a pair of top fives and three top 10s this year, is the defending race winner. And Blaney, who has three top 10s and a top five to date this season, scored his best-ever finish (eighth) at the track in last race there in November. He has three top-five finishes in five NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races at Martinsville, too.<\/p>\n

Logano is still looking for his first Monster Energy Series win at Martinsville, but certainly must feel it imminent considering his track record. Not only has he won the pole award four times, he has led laps in his last eight starts \u2013 four times he\u2019s led 50 laps or more. He\u2019s finished in the top 10 in five of the last eight races and was fourth in the spring race last year as his Penske teammate celebrated in Victory Lane.<\/p>\n

Bubba Getting Back On Track<\/b><\/p>\n

Daytona 500 runner-up and fan favorite Darrell \u201cBubba\u201d Wallace, 24, is eager to get his rookie Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series program back on track following his celebrated season start. And \u201cThe Paperclip\u201d at Martinsville may be just what he needs.<\/p>\n

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Darrell Wallace Jr., driver of the #43 Farmer John Chevrolet, walks in the garage area during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway on March 16, 2018 in Fontana, California. (Photo by Josh Hedges\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Wallace is ranked 19th in the points standings – one position ahead of fellow Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender William Byron. And the popular Richard Petty Motorsports driver couldn\u2019t feel more positive about a venue than Martinsville. He\u2019s won here twice in the Camping World Truck Series and that included his first NASCAR national series win in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a really big weekend for us,\u2019\u2019 said Wallace, who will drive the No. 43 STP Chevrolet.<\/p>\n

\u201cSTP is the title sponsor of the race and we are running the STP Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 that I helped design.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told the guys last week after California that I really want to win this one. I have two grandfather clocks [the trophy awarded to all Martinsville winners], but I need one in Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love this track and the people. The (Wendall) Scott family, this is their home track too. So just a lot of history in this track. The King has so much history here too. Just a lot of great things going into the weekend.<\/p>\n

Wallace\u2019s 20th place finish at Auto Club Speedway on Sunday was his best showing since the spectacular Daytona 500 runner-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made a small step forward at California and I think we\u2019re learning and getting better,\u2019\u2019 Wallace said. \u201cI know what I need in the car this weekend, how it\u2019s supposed to feel. I have a lot of confidence going into the weekend.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Youth Served<\/b><\/p>\n

Martinsville Speedway has been a particularly strong breeding ground for NASCAR\u2019s young drivers of late \u2013 especially in the Camping World Truck Series, which hosts the Alpha Energy Solutions 250 Saturday afternoon at the track (2 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

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Noah Gragson, driver of the #18 Switch Toyota, takes the checkered flag to win the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Texas Roadhouse 200 at Martinsville Speedway on October 28, 2017 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Chris Trotman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota driver Noah Gragson scored his first series win in the last series race here in November, 2017.<\/p>\n

This weekend the 19-year-old will have fierce competition from a pair of fellow teenagers, 17-year olds Harrison Burton and Todd Gilliland. Both of the other two Kyle Busch Motorsports drivers also have good reason to be optimistic at the half-miler.<\/p>\n

Burton, the 2017 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East champion and son of former Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series star Jeff Burton, scored a career-best fourth-place finish in the series in his last start at Martinsville, in November.<\/p>\n

Gilliland, son of veteran Monster Energy Series racer and 2007 Daytona 500 polewinner David Gilliland, is making his seventh career truck start. A two-time NASCAR K&N Series West champion, Gilliland finished 2017 with three consecutive top-10 truck series finishes. He was fifth \u2013 one position behind Burton \u2013 in the November Camping World Truck Series race here at Martinsville.<\/p>\n

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series<\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

Next Race: STP 500<\/b><\/p>\n

The Place: Martinsville Speedway (Martinsville, Va.)<\/b><\/p>\n

The Date: Sunday, March 25<\/b><\/p>\n

The Time: 2 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n

TV: FS1, 2 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n

Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio<\/b><\/p>\n

Distance: 263 miles (500 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on lap 130),<\/b><\/p>\n

Stage 2 (Ends on lap 260), Final Stage (Ends on lap 500)<\/b><\/p>\n

What to Watch For: <\/b>Reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup champion and current points leader Martin Truex Jr. <\/b>is looking for his first win at Martinsville Speedway after 24 attempts. \u2026Hometown hero Denny Hamlin (Chesterfield, Virginia) has tallied five of his 31 Monster Energy Series wins at Martinsville. \u2026Kurt Busch\u2019s win here in 2002 set a record for winning from the farthest starting position on the grid. Busch started 36th<\/sup> and led 111 of the final 112 laps to take the victory. \u2026Jimmie Johnson is the winningest active driver with nine grandfather clock trophies. This week the seven-time champ is hoping to stop a career-long winless streak at 27 races. \u2026 Johnson\u2019s Hendrick Motorsports team is the winningest organization to ever compete here, winning 24 races. Chevrolet \u2013 which Hendrick fields \u2013 leads all manufacturers with 56 wins at Martinsville.<\/p>\n

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series<\/u><\/b> <\/u><\/p>\n

Next Race: Alpha Energy Solutions 250<\/b><\/p>\n

The Place: Martinsville Speedway<\/b><\/p>\n

The Date: Saturday, March 24<\/b><\/p>\n

The Time: 2 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n

TV: FS1, 1:30 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n

Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio<\/b><\/p>\n

Distance: 131.5 miles (250 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 70),<\/b><\/p>\n

Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 140), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 250)<\/b><\/p>\n

What to Watch For: <\/b>Timothy Peters will be making his 2018 debut this weekend. The veteran truck series driver scored the first of his 10 series wins at Martinsville in 2009. \u2026. The father-son duo of David and Todd Gilliland will make their first NASCAR national series start together. David will driver the No. 54 Toyota for DGR-CROSLEY Racing and Todd will drive the No. 4 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports. \u2026Monster Energy Series driver Joey Logano\u2019s only career truck series win came at this track in 2015. No Monster Energy Series full-timers are entered at Martinsville this weekend.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service   Team Penske Enters Martinsville With Big Expectations  Brad Keselowski\u2019s victory in last April\u2019s STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway was as clutch as they come \u2013 earning his first ever win at the challenging half-mile track and Ford\u2019s first trophy there in a more than a decade (28 races). A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15550,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[155,407,16],"class_list":["post-15547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-martinsville","tag-martinsville-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MS2-MENCS-PoleWinnerAction-10.jpg?fit=2943%2C1962&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-42L","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15547"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15552,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15547\/revisions\/15552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}