Beneath the shadow of the mighty Blue Ridge Mountains stands a race track unlike any other in the NASCAR Cup Series: Martinsville Raceway.
Owning the title of the shortest track in the sport, Martinsville boasts that it’s the track where tempers are the shortest as well. Its heavy braking zones into each corner invite contact from those trying to advance through the field while others are just happy to hold their place.
With 400 laps on the board for today’s Cook Out 400, that’s 800 opportunities to pass one another, 800 opportunities to make contact, and 800 opportunities to hold onto your car or succumb to the spin.
At the world’s most famous Paperclip, anything can happen.
Who comes out on top with the grandfather clock? It’s anyone’s guess, only time will tell.
Last Week in Miami…
In a race that saw little disruptions due to cautions, a relatively straightforward motor race broke out in Homestead where Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney dominated the day.
His Dent Wizard Ford powered to the lead almost immediately after the start and pulled out to a nearly 10-second lead on second-place Alex Bowman in the first stage.
Pit issues on his last stop made him work for his result as the 2023 series champion clawed his way back up to third by the time his engine expired with 60 laps to go and brought out out the final caution.
From there, it was all a tire management game for each driver. For the first 25 laps, Bubba Wallace got away from the pack and took the lead first before Alex Bowman seized his chance to pass with 33 laps to go.
After persevering through pit road and wall contact throughout the day, Kyle Larson reclaimed Homestead as his kingdom by scooting by an ailing Bowman with six laps to go en route to his first win of the season.
If you’d like to read a more detailed recap of last Sunday’s race, check out my colleague Gi’s great report.
This Week in NASCAR
Not much of in the way of news this week as most drivers revealed their throwback schemes for next weekend at Darlington, but let’s throw it over to our neighbors south of the border.
NASCAR Mexico Series made their second stop of the season at Súper Óvalo Chiapas for the Chiapas Extraordinary By Nature 200.
After a late red flag, Alex de Alba held off Eloy Sebastían and a hard-charging Xavi Razo to claim his first career Mexico Series victory.
The Craftsman Truck Series took to the track on Friday for a race under the lights with Tricon Garage racer Corey Heim on the pole.
Heim throttled the competition for much of the night, winning both stages with Kaden Honeycutt, Ty Majeski, and Connor Mosack finishing second through fourth in those stages as well.
The final stage is where things went off the rails.
It all started when Heim lost a tire after a fierce battle for the lead with Honeycutt on lap 167, spinning into turn 1 after leading 149 laps.
The stage was set for Honeycutt, the reigning CARS Tour Pro Late Model champion, to face off with the reigning Truck Series champion, Ty Majeski.
The short-track showdown lasted all of about three laps as another quick caution for contact in the midfield setup another restart with 15 laps to go.
On the next lap, Majeski broke traction going into turn 1, wiping out himself and Honeycutt in the process.
For the final restart, Tyler Ankrum would duke it out with new teammate Daniel Hemric. Eager to drown out the doubters, Hemric got around Ankrum with four laps to go to claim his first Truck Series victory before capping it off with a backflip.
In the Xfinity Series, it was just carnage the entire evening, ending in Austin Hill surviving the chaos to wind up in victory lane for the second time this year.
The Race
Today’s Cook Out 400 will be broadcast on FOX Sports 1 with Mike Joy, Clint Bowyer, and Kevin Harvick on the call for the 400-lapper.
Those 400 laps will be split up into three stages ending at the following laps: 80-180-400.
If the previous 10 spring Martinsville races are any indication of the race we’ll see today, it’ll look something like this: 9 cautions for 64 caution laps, 13 lead changes, 1,622 green-flag passes (or 4.8 per lap), and an average time of race lasting 2 hours and 48 minutes.
Since the race shifted to 400 laps for 2022, this race has gone into Overtime twice, but over the last decade, the average lap of final caution is lap 350 or 51 laps to go.
For today’s starting lineup, click here.
Writer’s Pick
Last week, I selected Carson Hocevar for my writer’s pick, and after a promising first two stages, the sophomore driver fell out of the event with engine troubles.
I’m going to stray from my pick I made on GRID Pre-Race (Sorry, viewers!) and go with Bubba Wallace.
Wallace proved to be a force here last spring when he finished second in both stages and came home fourth. This represents his best run at the facility since winning back-to-back fall races in the Truck Series with Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2013 and 2014.
Adding further fuel to this flame is Wallace’s new crew chief, Charles Denike. the rookie Cup strategist engineered a sweep of Martinsville’s Truck races last season with Christian Eckes, and his pairing with Bubba to this point has paid immediate dividends.
It seems that everything is starting to look up for the No. 23 team, and I expect them to reach victory lane again very soon, as soon as a few hours from now.
(Top Photo Credit: Robert Laberge/NASCAR)
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