Throughout NASCAR Playoffs history, Martinsville Speedway has been largely unpredictable and often daunting for the drivers hoping to maintain good standing in the Championship 4 hunt. A plethora of cautions, subsecond margins of victory and dramatic door-to-door finishes make the southern Virginia showdown one of the most exciting and anticipated races of the year.
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Each of the last two playoff races at the track, famously labeled ‘The Paperclip’ for its eccentric shape, ended with a last-lap pass for the lead — and seven of the last eight have had margins of victory that were less than one second.
In spite of Joey Logano leading a career-high 309 laps in the 2018 fall race, the action came down to the final seconds. Logano edged Martin Truex Jr. with a bump-and-run move around the final turn and held off an opportunistic Denny Hamlin by a .107-second margin to punch his ticket to Homestead. Kyle Busch outdueled Truex Jr. by a dramatically similar margin in 2017, winning by only .141 seconds.
Among the remaining drivers in the Round of 8, Hamlin has had the most success at Martinsville during his career. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver leads all contenders with five career wins at the track, but has not won since March of 2015. Hamlin’s JGR teammate Busch has fared slightly better in more recent years, winning a pair of races that includes a playoff victory in 2017. Busch’s short-track success also includes six wins and 13 top 10 finishes in his last 14 starts.
As a whole, JGR has taken a trip to Victory Lane in nine of the last 14 short tracks, including a streak of four in a row dating back to April. The team has the most short track wins since 2009 with 31 victories in just 65 races, beating Hendrick Motorsports and Team Penske (tied for second with 10 each) by a significant margin.
To have sustainable success Sunday, teams will need to be prepared for numerous late-race restarts. In the last 15 playoff races at Martinsville, 13 had at least 11 cautions, with the final green flag stretch lasting just seven laps or less in 11 of the 15.
With the field of title hopefuls narrowed to eight and remaining drivers looking to carry momentum into next season, Sunday’s First Data 500 (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) will feature some of the most high-intensity and close-quarters racing of the year.
Source: Racing Insights