The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series arrives at Martinsville Speedway with the most competitive battle atop the standings -- seven drivers still eligible to hoist the championship trophy next week at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Reigning series champion and Richard Childress Racing driver Jesse Love leads the standings by 19 points over 2024 champion, JR Motorsports' Justin Allgaier. Hendrick Motorsports rookie Corey Day is 29 points off the pace with Haas Factory Team’s Sheldon Creed (minus-50), JRM’s Carson Kvapil (minus-59), Creed’s HFT teammate Sam Mayer (minus-96) and last week’s Talladega winner, JRM’s Sammy Smith (minus-108), still eligible to earn the title.
RELATED: O'Reilly Series standings | Martinsville weekend schedule
Five drivers in the series have previous wins at Martinsville, including Harrison Burton, Brandon Jones, Austin Hill and Taylor Gray, who claimed his first career win in this race last year. Allgaier is the only full-time driver with multiple wins, earning his second iconic Martinsville clock trophies -- just this spring.
Points leader Love conceded last week that the Martinsville half-miler may be his biggest challenge in closing out the season and becoming the series’ first back-to-back champ since Tyler Reddick in 2018-2019. The driver of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet has a best finish of 12th in the last six short-track races and is averaging an 18.6 finish at Martinsville -- worst among the seven drivers still championship eligible.
Creed, meanwhile, boasts the best average finish (4.0) on short tracks this season. Allgaier has been second best (8.3), followed by the defending race winner Gray (9.0).
“I can’t wait to get to Martinsville this weekend," Allgaier said. “We are still in this fight, and Martinsville is a great place to continue to gain ground on the points lead. We had an unbelievable car here in the spring, and I know that [crew chief] Andrew [Overstreet] and all the guys on this No. 7 team will give me a car just as strong when we hit the track on Friday. We just need to execute like we did earlier this year here and keep the fenders clean."
Nine different drivers have won the last nine short-track races on the schedule. Specific to Martinsville, the last six fall races have been won by six different drivers.
The last three short-track races have featured winning passes in the closing 10 laps of the race, and seven of the last 10 Martinsville races have gone to overtime.
Practice starts at 3 p.m. ET on Friday, followed by Kennametal Pole Qualifying at 4:05 p.m. ET. Harrison Burton is the defending pole winner.