NOCO 400 at Martinsville Speedway (⏰ 3 p.m. ET | 📺 FS1, FOX Sports App | 📻 MRN, SiriusXM)
Everything you need to know for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race in Virginia, the ninth regular-season race of the 2023 Cup Series campaign.
Weekend schedule | TV schedule | Weather tracker | Martinsville 101
📍 Location: Martinsville, Virginia 📐 Track length: 0.526 miles 🎟️ Buy tickets: Find seats for Sunday 💰 Cup Series race purse: $7,324,203 📏 Race distance: 400 laps | 210.4 miles 🔢 Stages: 80 | 180 | 400 -- 🚪 Entry list: Chase Elliott returns, Zane Smith piloting No. 51 📋 Starting lineup: See where your favorite driver rolls off Sunday 🚗 Pit stall assignments: See where drivers will pit Sunday 📦 Rules package: Refresher on rules for short tracks, road courses 🏆 Most recent winner: Christopher BellKey things to watch 🔑 Top story line Chase Elliott is back in the No. 9. The 2020 Cup Series champion will pilot his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for the first time since scoring a runner-up finish at Auto Club Speedway in February. Elliott missed six weeks with a leg injury suffered in a snowboarding accident, and Xfinity Series regular Josh Berry and IMSA driver Jordan Taylor piloted the No. 9 in his absence. Martinsville is a fitting return for the 27-year-old, who has scored five top-10 finishes in the last six races on "The Paperclip," including a win in the fall of 2020. Racing Insights projects a rousing return for Elliott, predicting him in Victory Lane after 400 laps Sunday. 🏆 ANALYSIS: How Elliott can qualify for the playoffs History tells us... An established veteran scores the win. Martinsville is an ultimate test of patience and requires tactical discipline if a driver wants to grab the checkered flag. Dating back to the turn of the century, the least-experienced driver to win on NASCAR's shortest points-paying short track was Tony Stewart in his sophomore Cup Series campaign in 2000. Sunday would be the perfect turnaround for Virginia native Denny Hamlin, who has yet to score a top-five finish in 2023. Hamlin's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. has won three of the last seven Martinsville races. Expect either JGR or Hendrick to continue their grasp of the track as the teams have split the last seven wins on the short track. He may not be the betting favorite to win, but watch out for... Brad Keselowski. Opening at 22-1 odds, Keselowski squeaks into the top half of favorites for Sunday's race. RFK Racing has shown massive strides in consistency and speed compared to this same time last season. The driver of the No. 6 Ford scored a top 10 with the updated short-track package at Richmond and crossed the finish line inside the top five at Martinsville last fall before a disqualification sent Keselowski down to the bottom of the results. Currently sitting inside the top 10 in points, if he shows the speed in practice and qualifying Saturday afternoon, don't be surprised if RFK picks up its second short-track victory in the Next Gen era. Practice and qualifying A surprise came out of Saturday's sessions as Ryan Preece earned his first career Cup Series pole ahead of his 124th start on Sunday. The quick pace showed throughout Stewart-Haas Racing as all four Fords will start inside the top 10 with Aric Almirola and Chase Briscoe locking out the second row and Kevin Harvick starting seventh. In his first start back from a leg injury, Chase Elliott will start 24th. Tyler Reddick showed the fastest single-lap speed in practice but it was defending Martinsville spring winner William Byron topping the board in 15, 20 and 25 consecutive lap averages.