Ever wonder what goes on in a driver meeting? We’re here to help.
This year, we’ll publish the actual rules video your favorite Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers will watch before climbing into their stock cars. Above is the video for the First Data 500 (Sunday, 2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Martinsville Speedway.
NASCAR Playoffs driver Martin Truex Jr. will start from the rear of the field for Sunday’s First Data 500 (2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Martinsville Speedway after the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota failed pre-race inspection on Sunday morning.
RELATED: Starting lineup | See every car in Sunday’s field
Truex was slated to start sixth in Sunday’s race as the defending Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion looks to break a 0-for-77 drought on short tracks in NASCAR’s top series. Truex’s qualifying speed from Saturday was disallowed and the team will forfeit their place in the order for pit-stall selection. He will now start 33rd, his worst starting position since Chicago in July.
Truex enters the race third in the standings and +23 over the cutline before the three-race Round of 8 begins. The other seven playoff cars passed pre-race inspection on the first try.
Early on Sunday afternoon, it was announced that the No. 2 Team Penske Ford of Brad Keselowski would also be forced to the rear after undergoing unapproved adjustments. He had qualified seventh. Landon Cassill’s No. 99 Chevrolet also will go to the rear for the same reason.
Five other cars outside the playoff picture failed the mechanical measurements portion of Sunday’s inspection: The Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet of nine-time Martinsville winner Jimmie Johnson, the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford of David Ragan, the No. 23 Toyota of JJ Yeley, the No. 51 Chevrolet of Jeb Burton and the No. 66 Toyota of Timmy Hill. Ragan was set to start 14th on the grid, with Johnson originally qualifying 23rd. Yeley, Burton and Hill posted speeds in qualifying that had them at 34th, 36th and 37th on the grid initially.
The cars for Ragan and Hill failed twice, forcing the team to lose a crew member, typically a team’s car chief, at NASCAR’s discretion.
Two additional cars going to the rear: The No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet of Bubba Wallace and the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford of Paul Menard. Wallace wrecked in qualifying and has to go to a backup car, while Menard’s car changed engines. Wallace’s backup car also did not pass inspection on the first go round.
Martinsville is an impound race and cars must pass on the first attempt to keep their starting spot since this inspection serves as both post-qualifying and pre-race inspection. The first failure results in a loss of starting spot and the qualifying time disallowed. Additional failures result in the loss of a car chief and the loss of points.
Kyle Busch will lead the field to green for Sunday’s First Data 500 (2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and the two-time Martinsville winner is absolutely a part of my lineup. After two practice sessions and qualifying determining the starting order, we’ve dissected the numbers to offer a suggested lineup worthy of your Fantasy Live consideration as you make roster decisions.
PLAY NOW: Set your lineup | How the playoff game works
Remember that the garage locks at the end of Stage 2. Also, your garage play can only be swapped for a driver of similar classification. (A playoff garage driver can only be swapped for a playoff driver in your lineup; a non-playoff garage driver can only be swapped for a non-playoff driver in your lineup.)
Cars to the rear: Martin Truex Jr., Brad Keselowski, David Ragan, Jimmie Johnson, Bubba Wallace, JJ Yeley, Jeb Burton, Timmy Hill and Paul Menard. More info on those here.
RJ Kraft’s Fantasy Live lineup for race-day at Martinsville:
Playoff driver 1: Kyle Busch
Playoff driver 2: Clint Bowyer
Non-playoff driver 1: Ryan Blaney
Non-playoff driver 2: Denny Hamlin
Garage: AJ Allmendinger
MORE: Fantasy analysis for Martinsville | Driver stats | 10-lap averages | Lineup
Analysis: The Fantasy Live Playoff Game is in Week 7! My two playoff starters are the same I planned on heading into the weekend — Kyle Busch and Clint Bowyer. They both have looked strong, finished 1-2 (Bowyer than Busch) in the spring and will start 1-2 on Sunday (Busch then Bowyer).
My main two non-playoff plays are Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney. Hamlin is a five-time winner at Martinsville and had the fourth-best 10-lap average in final practice. He knows how to get around this track. My one concern is his penchant for speeding penalties on pit road which will influence my garage pick (see further below). Blaney gets the nod due to his solid speed this weekend — he’ll start fourth — and his back-to-back top 10s at Martinsville. He was particularly impressive this spring leading 145 laps and scoring 52 points.
I was all set to put Brad Keselowski in my lineup but with the No. 2 car going to the rear for unapproved adjustments, that has scared me off and I will be slotting in AJ Allmendinger as my garage play. He is only owned by 1 percent of players so I am taking a risk based on his Martinsville history and a lack of ownership elsewhere. This move is also motivated by some trouble I’ve had of late with one of my non-playoff driver spots so I am giving myself an added option in that regard. It is also a sign of the confidence I have in Busch and Bowyer as my playoff drivers.
RELATED: What to do with your garage play? | Who to avoid in Fantasy Live
For the stages and the race win, I’m going with Kyle Busch across the board. He has been a machine of late at Martinsville — four top-two finishes in his last five starts there — and he seems to be just a hair faster than Bowyer.
NASCAR announced before the season that it will standardize at-track team rosters across all three national series in 2018, providing a structure for the number of personnel working on each vehicle during the course of a race weekend.
Official team rosters for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) have been released. Click the print icon above, or the link below.
ROSTERS: Martinsville fall race
RELATED: Overview of 2018 rules updates
MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Hoping to reverse the outcome of this year’s spring race at Martinsville Speedway, Kyle Busch took the first step Saturday, winning the pole position for Sunday’s First Data 500 (2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the first race in the Round of 8 in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
Driving the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Busch navigated the .526-mile short track in 19.673 seconds (96.254 mph) in the final round of knockout qualifying to edge fellow title contender Clint Bowyer (96.122 mph) for the top starting position by .027 seconds.
RELATED: See every in the field | Qualifying results
The series leader entering the penultimate round of the playoffs, Busch earned his fourth Busch Pole Award of the season — which became official after inspection Sunday morning finalized the starting order — his third at Martinsville and the 31st of his career. But it was only a first step.
Now comes the business of trying to beat Bowyer, who nipped Busch by 1.146 seconds in the sixth race of the regular season. After taking the top spot from Busch on Lap 387, Bowyer led the final 114 laps to seal the victory.
To start the process of swapping finishing positions with Bowyer, Busch claimed the No. 1 pit stall, the closest to the exit from pit road.
“Obviously, track position is important, but what’s more important is the opportunity to have that pit box,” Busch said. “That No. 1 pit box will hopefully do us good, we can have a great day, run up front much of the day and finish there, more importantly.
“Earlier this year, with Clint here, we were role-reversed, and hopefully we can keep it the way it is right now, this time 24 hours from now.”
With an average starting position of 14.0 this season, Bowyer was elated to put forth a strong effort in time trials.
“Good God, after the way I have been qualifying lately, it feels like I’m sitting on four poles,” said Bowyer, who enters the race tied for fifth in the series standings, facing a cut to the top-four drivers in two weeks at ISM Raceway. “We’re on the front row, man.
“When you won here in the spring, you know you have a shot. It is cool weather, kind of the same conditions. Obviously, it wasn’t the pole and Kyle was faster. Kyle is really good at laying laps down. I like the Sunday afternoon drives.”
Bowyer barely made it to the front row, edging Denny Hamlin (96.112 mph) for the second spot on the grid by .002 seconds. Ryan Blaney, who ran the fastest lap of time trials in the first round, qualified fourth, followed by playoff driver Aric Almirola.
With just under nine minutes left in the opening round, Bubba Wallace wheel-hopped the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet into Turn 3, spun into the outside wall and damaged the car beyond repair. Wallace will start from the rear of the field in a backup car.
MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Qualifying aside, Saturday at Martinsville Speedway belonged to Johnny Sauter, who earned another shot at the NASCAR Camping World Series championship with a dominating victory in the Texas Roadhouse 200.
After inheriting the lead when pole winner and race leader Todd Gilliland came to pit road with 11 laps left in Stage 1, Sauter was out front for 148 of the remaining 161 Laps, sweeping both stages and the race win to grab a berth in the NCWTS Championship 4 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
In winning a series-record fourth time at the .526-mile short track, the sixth time this season and the 23rd time in his career, Sauter, the 2016 series champion, assured himself of a sixth straight finish of fourth or better in the final standings.
With practice wiped out by rain on Friday, Sauter had to scramble from the eighth-place starting position he earned Saturday morning in the No. 21 GMS Racing Chevrolet.
RELATED: Playoff standings | Race results
“These guys busted their tails – everybody at GMS Racing,” Sauter said. “We came here, and we had done a lot of work with a new setup and we had it all ready to go. And we came here, and it was raining (on Friday) and I was like, ‘Now what?’
“And they said we’d run the old stuff because we couldn’t run that now. Just so proud of everybody at GMS Racing. I’m going to Homestead to fight for a championship. That’s what it’s all about.”
Brett Moffitt worked his way through the field from his 17th-place starting position to finish a distant second, 4.572 seconds behind Sauter. Moffitt heads to the second race in the Round of 6 third in the standings, 15 points ahead of fifth-place Justin Haley, who ran sixth on Saturday at a track he considers one of his worst.
Playoff driver Noah Gragson was second in each of the first two stages, finished seventh and holds second in the standings, 24 points above the cut line for the Championship 4, which will be set in two weeks hence at Phoenix.
Moffitt fought his way past third-place finisher Myatt Snider on Lap 187 of 200 to secure second place, but he couldn’t gain ground on Sauter.
“Obviously, we didn’t qualify this morning where we wanted to or expected to,” Moffitt said. “We had to be patiently aggressive. That was our game plan before the race. Fortunately, we stayed out of trouble and (crew chief) Scott (Zipadelli) did a great job adjusting on the truck and telling the guys on pit road what to do to make the truck faster.
“We weren’t where we needed to be at the start of the race. It’s Martinsville, so I guess survival is great, but losing another one to Johnny is not.”
Championship contender Grant Enfinger rallied from a costly spin on Lap 160 to finish 14th and maintain fourth place in the standings, two points up on Haley. Two-time champion Matt Crafton is sixth in the Playoff standings after running 13th on Saturday.
Ben Rhodes, bounced from the Playoffs at Talladega two weeks ago, came home fourth, followed by Kyle Benjamin, who scored his second top-five showing at Martinsville in only his second start in the series.
MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Over the past six races at Martinsville Speedway, Kyle Busch has yet to finish outside of the top five, the only driver still alive in the NASCAR Playoffs sporting that stat.
However, that wasn’t always the case at the “Paperclip.” By the numbers, Busch’s Martinsville stats were ho-hum before 2015 — he ran middle of the pack.
So, what changed?
In 2015, the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team faced plenty of challenges and obstacles. Busch missed the first third of the season with leg injuries suffered in the Xfinity Series season opener in Daytona. But perhaps the longer-reaching change was the assignment of first-year Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series crew chief Adam Stevens, who Busch credits for his recent success at the half-mile Virginia track.
RELATED: Active drivers with short-track wins | Closer look at Busch’s 2017 win
“You know this track changes quite a bit throughout the entirety of the event and through 500 laps so I think being able to give better feedback,” Busch said Saturday after opening practice for Sunday’s First Data 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM). “I think having Adam not scared to make adjustments as he knows what’s going to happen and what he feels is right in his gut that allows us to be up front.”
The numbers don’t lie. Since the 2015 season, Busch has racked up two wins at Martinsville and six top-five finishes. He will start Sunday’s race from the pole position.
The slate of races after Martinsville in the postseason’s Round of 8 line up well for the No. 18 team as well. Busch came away from Texas this spring with a victory. He has a string of six top-10 finishes at Phoenix, and in the last three events at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Busch has finishes of first, sixth and second.
“We know we go into some of these race tracks maybe a little bit behind,” Busch said, “but I feel like with Adam and myself with the way we are able to work together and the things we are able to do together, we can have solid runs and solid finishes and even try to chase for wins.”
The Round of 8, the final three races that will determine NASCAR’s Championship 4 field for Homestead-Miami Speedway, has arrived. Eight drivers will vie for four spots, sorting out the pecking order at Martinsville Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and ISM Raceway at Phoenix.
That quest begins with Sunday’s First Data 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Martinsville. With the Monster Energy Series bracing for the finishing kick to the Nov. 18 season finale, NASCAR.com staff members have weighed in with their predictions for how the Round of 8 will unfold.
Zack Albert
Championship 4: Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano
Last one out: Chase Elliott
Outlook: The Big 3’s winning ways may have cooled slightly in the postseason, but the likelihood of a return to their regular programming runs high in the Round of 8. Harvick’s speed should carry him in all three races, especially Phoenix. Kyle Busch has few weak links remaining on the schedule, and he’s ripe to defend his Martinsville title this weekend. Should victories elude them, their bevy of playoff points should carry the baton. Figuring out the fourth for the Championship 4 is a near toss-up, but expect Team Penske to throw its resources behind the organization’s lone remaining driver in the playoff hunt: Logano.
Allie Davison
Championship 4: Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer
Last one out: Joey Logano
Outlook: There is no one statistically better than Kyle Busch at any of the tracks in the Round of 8, so a Championship 4 berth is all but locked up for the No. 18 team. Elliott is catching lightning in a bottle with two wins already in the postseason. He will need to make gains on points, but I believe the No. 9 team seals a spot with a win in the Round of 8. Harvick and Bowyer will represent Stewart-Haas Racing as the last two rounding it out, skating by on points.
Pat DeCola
Championship 4: Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr.
Last one out: Joey Logano
Outlook: Busch and Harvick enter the Round of 8 around 40 points to the good with some of their best tracks looming — they both are most likely in. Given how hot Elliott has been the second half of the season, it’s hard to pick against him. The opposite can be said about Truex Jr., who has struggled lately. I toiled over him versus Logano, but ultimately I’m sticking with the defending champ’s season-to-date resume and the best crew chief in the garage propelling him to his third Championship 4 appearance in four years.
RJ Kraft
Championship 4: Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano
Last one out: Martin Truex Jr.
Outlook: My predicted race winners — Elliott at Martinsville, Harvick at Texas and Logano at Phoenix — leave room for one driver to advance to the Championship 4 on points. That spot goes to Kyle Busch, who uses his edge in playoff points and solid showings at all three Round of 8 tracks to hold off Truex Jr.
Jonathan Merryman
Championship 4: Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano
Last one out: Martin Truex Jr.
Outlook: Looking at the numbers, Kyle Busch seems like a lock for the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Despite his points cushion, Kyle has been consistently good at Martinsville, Texas and ISM Raceway as of late. Harvick is a lock at ISM, Elliott is riding a wave of momentum and Logano continues to quietly point his way through. Truex was a tough call but unless he can pull off a win at Texas, I just don’t see the No. 78 team defending their title.
Jessica Ruffin
Championship 4: Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick
Last one out: Joey Logano
Outlook: With their consistent strength (and points) all year, Kyle Busch and Harvick will make the Championship 4, but I believe fellow Big 3 driver and reigning series champion Truex Jr. won’t compete for his second straight title with the No. 78 team’s performances slowing as of late. Elliott will ride his current momentum all the way to Miami, while Bowyer will capitalize on Stewart-Haas Racing’s speed and his own playoff adrenaline for the final spot. Logano has enjoyed a strong playoff run thus far carrying the torch for Team Penske in the end of the playoffs, but his fire will burn out just before the finale.
Kathy Sheldon
Championship 4: Clint Bowyer, Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr.
Last one out: Kyle Busch
Outlook: Call it a hunch, but Truex Jr.’s cold streak is about to snap. After leading zero laps in the past three races, Martinsville can put him in the mix with the powerhouse No. 4 team and surging Chase Elliott. The fourth spot looks like a horse race, and I’m betting on Bowyer as the second SHR car to make the Championship 4 with Ford prevailing again.
Chase Wilhelm
Championship 4: Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr.
Last one out: Clint Bowyer
Outlook: Some will say my picks include the Big 3 and Elliott, but I’d say it’s more like the Big 4. With two wins in the Round of 12, Elliott has made a late-season case to become the much-debated fourth member of the exclusive club. I was extremely closing to trading in Truex for Bowyer, but I think the No. 78 team strings together better finishes in the Round of 8.
George Winkler
Championship 4: Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick
Last one out: Martin Truex Jr.
Outlook:Kyle Busch and Harvick are in the catbird seat thanks to playoff bonus points and tracks that favor them. Elliott is the driver who’s on a roll with two wins in the past three races. Meanwhile, Truex Jr. seems to have lost some speed, leaving the door open for a surprise like Bowyer, who won at Martinsville earlier this year and is also strong at ISM Raceway.
MARTINSVILLE, Va. — The No. 14 team is out of postseason mulligans.
Clint Bowyer understands that to race for a title at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he can’t afford to dig another deep hole to start the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Round of 8.
MORE: Full Round of 8 standings | Entire Martinsville weekend schedule
As he drove up from his home in Mocksville, North Carolina, on Saturday morning, the Kansas native knew the opportunity awaiting him at Martinsville Speedway is his for the taking. Bowyer snapped a 190-race losing streak with a breakthrough victory at the half-mile Virginia track in the spring and has earned a top-10 finish there 15 times in 25 starts.
Statistically, Bowyer’s best shot to take a checkered flag in the Round of 8 is at Martinsville, but he doesn’t want to say that just because he earned a win there in the spring it guarantees he’ll pick up where he left off in Victory Lane.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily an absolute must-win,” Bowyer said. “You can’t put that pressure on yourself the first race of three races. If you do, you’re probably going to go out there desperate and make a mistake. We’re not in that situation. We’ve got to go out there and take care of business on a track that is typically good for me.
“That doesn’t mean anything. Doesn’t mean you’re going to go out there and dominate a stage or two stages or the race win, but you’ve got to go out there and take care of business. Be solid on the track that’s been good to you over the years and take advantage of the weekend. … You allow yourself to think, ‘If I win this thing this weekend I’m in the dance.’ That’s a cool thought and something to think about and extra incentive.”
The pedigree he has developed as one of the best at Martinsville wasn’t something that happened overnight. Looking back on his first few attempts around the ‘Paperclip,’ Bowyer had to adapt to the track and learn from his fellow drivers’ mistakes and accomplishments.
“Pretty much anyone when they get here is like a dart without feathers,” he explained. “I was no exception to that. You’re all over the place. The hardest thing about here is that just want to get in a place and ride and learn. Figure out the track. Figure your conditions out. Figure out what you need to do. Learn from your peers. You can’t do that here. … There is no one that shows up here and shows they’re dominant off the bat. It’s an acquired thing. You have to learn and know what prevails here.”
Bowyer also isn’t alone in the hunt for a Championship 4 berth — all four of the Stewart-Haas Racing teams made the Round of 8 cut with Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch and Aric Almirola joining their teammate.
“We have half the battle,” he said. “I think because of the willingness to cooperate with one another on a driver’s stand point, the willingness to work with one another on crew chiefs, engineers and everything involved. … The teamwork is what makes the dream work.”
Despite the pressure of a Championship 4 spot lurking, Bowyer is embracing the chance to win another grandfather clock and lock down a spot for the No. 14 team.
“Hell yeah, you let yourself think that,” he shared. “Confidence is everything in sports. You have to be rolling up that highway here confident.”
MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Chase Elliott first came to Martinsville Speedway for his Monster Energy Series debut in the spring of 2015 as a fresh-faced 19-year-old driver, ready for his first challenge in NASCAR’s top division. The details were memorable.
Elliott had significant damage — heavy front, minor rear — a loss of power steering and a busted radiator, all before 100 of the 500 laps were on the board. The fifth Hendrick Motorsports entry, numbered 25, spent several laps behind the wall for repairs and limped home to a 38th-place result.
“I’ve been trying to forget about that day, actually,” Elliott said Saturday upon his return to the .526-mile track ahead of Sunday’s First Data 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM), the first race in the postseason’s Round of 8. In the years since, his Martinsville results have been far more memorable for some mixed reasons.
RELATED: Full schedule for Martinsville | No new approach for Elliott
The inauspicious debut was the first of five premier-series races that year for Elliott. The venues — Martinsville, Richmond, Charlotte, Indianapolis and Darlington — were selected by crew chief Alan Gustafson (among others) for their difficulty and their variety. By that time, Elliott had already been crowned as an Xfinity Series champion, but said he was in no position to dispute the choices.
“I think just because (Gustafson) tried to pick some really tough races or what races he thought I was going to struggle at,” Elliott said. “He guessed pretty good because they were terrible, to be completely honest. I’m glad we did that when we did it, and I didn’t have a whole lot of fun at the time, but I was glad he chose the races that he did.”
Since then, Elliott has steadily clawed into a contender’s role, finishing third here in the spring of 2017 and then challenging for the win last fall before his infamous run-in with Denny Hamlin. In between those, an organizational test last October included tutelage from four-time series champ Jeff Gordon — a nine-time Martinsville winner — offering his wisdom for finding the best way around the finicky Virginia track.
“Jeff came over here with us and I was able to talk with him and actually to be able to have enough time to digest and go through some different things that he felt like I was doing wrong,” Elliott said. “I feel like that helped, had a great performance as far as how our car drove last fall, and then came back this spring and sucked. So I don’t know. Definitely have some work to do still yet, but it’s so hit or miss and this race track is such a rhythm track. You can go an entire weekend and never find your rhythm here, or I have. Really hard for me to, for whatever reason. I think that’s really key.”
The overall rhythm for Elliott and the No. 9 team in the last 11 races has been a winning tempo. The Hendrick Motorsports driver has clicked off his first three career wins, including a triumph last weekend at Kansas Speedway, to add fanfare to his grand entrance into the next round of the NASCAR Playoffs.
It’s also created a spark organization-wide, reviving a longtime celebration custom for the Rick Hendrick-owned team.
“I think for the men and women around campus, I rang the Victory Bell that has been tradition there at HMS this week, and there is a lot of fire there right now,” Elliott said. “If you can create fire you can get some momentum and push from everyone around the campus, I think that is a big deal. I think it matters. Every person that works there has a hand in what goes on whether you want believe that or not — it’s true. If everyone that is coming to work that is ultimately building the car that is sitting here in the garage, if they have some fire and purpose, I think our performance will be better.”
