Posted on by Reid Spencer

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — It was a solid, gratifying day for Alex Bowman, who took over the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet from retired Dale Earnhardt Jr. this season.

No, Bowman wasn’t a contender for the victory in Monday’s STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway. Clint Bowyer and Kyle Busch settled that issue, with Bowyer coming out on top.

RELATED: Race results | Updated series standings | Bowyer reigns at Martinsville

But Bowman improved from a 16th-place starting position to seventh at the finish in a car that improved steadily throughout the day. His car was the highest-finishing Chevrolet in the race. 

“I felt like I had some good observations after second practice (on Saturday) on some things I wanted to change, and they seemed to pay off big during the race,” Bowman said. “Or at least be the right direction during the race. 

“(Crew chief) Greg (Ives) just made really good adjustments. Every stop we got better. We had solid pit stops all day, the pit crew worked really hard — just good decisions on top of the box and a good race car.”

 If Bowman had picked a track to produce his first top 10 of the season, Martinsville would have been an unlikely candidate.

 “I mean Daytona, and then, if not Daytona, then Atlanta, and then if not Atlanta, Phoenix,” Bowman said. “I mean we’re here to win races every week. To take this long to get a top 10, it’s not what we wanted at all, but glad we are going the right way.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — AJ Allmendinger couldn’t run with the contenders in Monday’s STP 500, but at least he could see them through his windshield.

Allmendinger hadn’t sniffed a top 10 since running 10th in the Daytona 500, but in the snow-delayed race, he had a strong enough No. 47 JTG Daugherty Chevrolet to fight his way toward the front, even after losing spots to comparable cars on pit road.

RELATED: Full Martinsville results | Updated driver standings

Allmendinger, who has two runner-up finishes at the .526-mile short track, once again demonstrated he has a knack for the tricky paperclip-shaped circuit. He finished eighth, second-best among Chevrolet drivers.

On the final green-flag run, Allmendinger complained that his car was bouncing, but he persevered.

“We still got a top 10 out it, ran in the top 10 all day and were able to start 25th and pass a lot of cars,” Allmendinger said. “Solid day, what we needed at one of our better race tracks.

“These are the places we know that we have a better chance at, and we have to take advantage of it. So I would say I’m OK with eighth. I wish we could have got a little bit more at the end of the race there, but a solid day all around.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Brake check? What brake check?

 

After Monday’s snow-delayed STP 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway, fifth-place finisher Kevin Harvick pleaded innocent to an intentional brake check of fellow veteran Denny Hamlin late in the event won by Clint Bowyer.

RELATED: Race results | Series standings | Bowyer reigns at Martinsville

“No, he hit me a couple times and I was just trying to make sure I had my car under control,” said Harvick, who slowed in front of Hamlin enough to damage the nose of Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota when the trailing driver couldn’t stop quickly enough.

 

When Hamlin bumped the No. 4 Ford, it was payback for similar treatment from Harvick, who was unabashed in his explanation of the initial contact with Hamlin’s car.

 

“He was on the bottom, and I knocked him out of the way,” Harvick said.

 

When Hamlin returned the favor and bumped Harvick, he got more than he bargained for.

RELATED: Hamlin discusses contact with Harvick

“He just got to me and, I think, bumped me three or four times,” Hamlin said. “And then I was just bumping him back and he brake-checked me. I probably should have brake-checked him in the first place.

 

“They were just some light bumps here, and then slammed on the brakes. So classy.”

 

The damage to Hamlin’s car ruined a promising start at one of the driver’s best tracks. Hamlin made an extra pit stop to check for possible overheating of his car and dropped to 15th for a restart on Lap 392.

 

After leading 111 laps and winning the first stage of the race, Hamlin finished 12th.

Posted on by Zack Albert

Kyle Busch enters NASCAR’s first off weekend as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series’ new points leader. But having the mantle was faintly a silver lining after a hard-fought second place at Martinsville Speedway.

Busch settled for the runner-up spot for the third time in the past four races, taking the checkered flag a little more than a second behind STP 500 winner Clint Bowyer.

“We keep executing, we keep doing a good job, but it’s not good enough,” Busch said. “It’s very frustrating. I’m about half my career total of wins with second-place finishes so that’s pretty discouraging. Guess for as often as I win, I lose more.”

RELATED: Kyle Busch makes a fan’s day | Race results

Busch’s career stats do have a compelling similarity: His 43 victories in NASCAR’s top division are matched by his 43 runner-up finishes.

With Stewart-Haas Racing cornering the market with four wins in six events, the victory column has been a tough category to scratch in 2018. The consolation, Busch says, is that his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 team has consistently remained in the hunt.

“I mean, we take solace, sure, but you know, ultimately we’re here to win each and every week,” Busch said. “I know everybody is, but we’ve been that close each and every week, so we’re right there, we’re knocking on the door. We’re trying. I wouldn’t say it’s one particular thing that we can pinpoint, we’ve just been beat by somebody kind of hitting it a little bit more than we have.

“We’ve been the closest thing to everybody each and every week. We’re getting beat by different guys. The SHR team is certainly probably one of the better teams right now, but we’re right there knocking at their heels.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Clint Bowyer is one of the most gregarious, fun-loving drivers in the garage. So, it should come as no surprise that his win at Martinsville on Monday — which broke a 190-race winless streak — was a popular one among the NASCAR community.

RELATED: Bowyer reigns at Martinsville | See his epic celebration | Clint celebrates with son Cash

Here’s a sampling of what was said on social media:

Posted on by Staff Report

Kyle Busch made a young fan’s day following the race at Martinsville Speedway … stop us if you’ve heard this before.

Yeah, remember this? In 2016? “Rowdy” won his first grandfather clock, then surprised a fan on the drive home by rolling down his window, saying hello and signing her hat while traffic slowly rolled forward.

Two years later, Busch was at it again. Jokingly saying sorry for holding up traffic, Busch signed a young fan’s hat … and actually apologized for finishing second.

There’s the memory of a lifetime for that young man.

Posted on by Staff Report

Clint Bowyer won the STP 500 on Monday at Martinsville Speedway — “Clint Bowyer won” being a phrase that hasn’t been uttered in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series since Oct. 13, 2012.

Bowyer’s last win was 190 races ago at Charlotte Motor Speedway when he was driving the No. 15 Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing. Bowyer led 47 laps in what was his third win of the 2012 season en route to finishing second to Brad Keselowski in the final point standings that year.

RELATED: Race results | Race recap: Bowyer reigns

You might recall Bowyer’s run-in with Jeff Gordon in the penultimate race of that season at Phoenix, when Bowyer was seen running through the garage area to confront Gordon after some late contact. It’s been that long. Five years, five months and 14 days to be precise.

Bowyer’s streak of 190 races between wins is the third-longest recorded in NASCAR history, according to NASCAR’s statistical services team. Bill Elliott had the longest streak at 227 (1994-2001) with Martin Truex Jr. second with 219 races between wins (2007-2013).

Posted on by Reid Spencer

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Clint Bowyer was so excited he started his celebratory burnout at the entrance to Turn 3 at Martinsville Speedway, flirting perilously with the outside wall.

Bowyer had ample reason to start the party early, before he got to the frontstretch for a traditional smoke show. With his victory in Monday’s snow-delayed STP 500, he had just ended a winless streak in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series that had reached 190 races, dating to the fall race at Charlotte in 2012.

RELATED: Race results | Series standings | Stages recap | At-track photo gallery
SHOP: Clint Bowyer gear

The victory did more than end a drought. It validated the decision of Stewart-Haas Racing to put him behind the wheel of the No. 14 Ford last year, after team co-owner Tony Stewart retired from NASCAR competition. With his ninth career victory and his first at the .526-mile short track, Bowyer paid off SHR’s investment in his future.

With Kevin Harvick stringing together victories at Atlanta, Las Vegas, and ISM Raceway at Phoenix, Stewart-Haas has won four of the first six races of 2018.

“We learned last year,” said Bowyer, who finished 1.146 seconds ahead of runner-up Kyle Busch in a race that was delayed from Sunday to Monday when an unexpectedly severe snowstorm hit southern Virginia on Saturday afternoon. “Obviously, Harvick came on strong at the end of last year, but it was a learning year for our team and the 14 bunch.

“It was just time.”

Bowyer had a strong feeling before Monday’s race, and he told his young son Cash as much.

“For whatever reason, it felt right driving up here,” said Bowyer, who led 215 laps, all but one (under caution) after taking the lead from third-place finisher Ryan Blaney on Lap 285. “Such a cool place, to be able to drive up through the countryside on a two-lane road and think about the race.

“I told him (Cash) this morning, I was like, ‘Dammit, we’ve got to get a picture in Victory Lane.”

MORE: When was the last time Bowyer won?

That’s exactly what Bowyer did, avoiding any misstep over the final 200 laps that would have allowed Busch to close in. Busch finished second for the third time in four races and took over the series lead from Martin Truex Jr., who started from the pole and came home fourth.

“We just tried to maintain and keep ourselves in the right position, in the right spots all day long on the long runs and save our stuff as much as we could to see if we couldn’t mount a charge late in the going,” Busch said.

“For us, saving our stuff, the 14 was able to save his stuff, and he was a little bit better than we were. He was able to kind of edge out there through the early laps of firing off each and every time, first 10 or 15 (laps), and kind of get that gap, and then he’d kind of just hold that. He was probably saving just as much as I was trying to save to make sure he had something to go at the end.”

The victory marked Bowyer’s sixth top five in 25 starts at the paper-clip-shaped speedway.

“This place is an acquired taste,” Bowyer said. “When I first got here I was a duck out of water, just like everybody else that starts here at first. I learned from Jimmie Johnson and learned from Jeff Gordon, sometimes the hard way, but nonetheless I learned over the years and finally put it to good use.

“To keep Kyle Busch, one of the best in the business, behind you in those closing laps, the nerves were through the roof. It’s unbelievable how it all came true.”

Harvick ran fifth after a run-in with 12th-place finisher Denny Hamlin near the midpoint of the event. Joey Logano, Alex Bowman, AJ Allmendinger, Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski completed the top 10. For Elliott, the top 10 was a significant accomplishment, given that he twice went a lap down to the leader, only to regain the lost circuits as the beneficiary under caution.

Johnson, who leads active drivers with nine victories at Martinsville, finished 15th, a lap down. Blaney led 145 laps, second only to Bowyer, and won the second 130-lap stage of the race. Hamlin led 111 laps early, claimed the first stage victory and, like Blaney, collected a playoff point.

NASCAR announced that four cars had one lug nut not secured in post-race inspection: The No. 3 of Austin Dillon, No. 12 of Ryan Blaney, No. 34 of Michael McDowell and No. 42 of Kyle Larson.

Posted on by Staff Report

Denny Hamlin secured a Stage 1 victory in Monday’s STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

Hamlin, a five-time Martinsville winner, first put his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota in the top spot on the 27th lap. From there, Hamlin led all but one of the remaining laps in the 130-lap opening stage.

RELATED: Stage 1 results | At-track photos

Hamlin’s first stage win of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season provides him with a playoff point that carries over into the postseason.

Defending race winner Brad Keselowski finished a close second in the stage, just ahead of Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney. Kyle Busch and Clint Bowyer completed the top five.

Busch (23 laps in front) and pole-starter Martin Truex Jr. (4) were the only other lap leaders.

Finish Driver Team Race points
1 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing 10
2 Brad Keselowski Team Penske 9
3 Ryan Blaney Team Penske 8
4 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing 7
5 Clint Bowyer Stewart-Haas Racing 6
6 Kevin Harvick Stewart-Haas Racing 5
7 AJ Allmendinger JTG Daugherty Racing 4
8 Kurt Busch Stewart-Haas Racing 3
9 Joey Logano Team Penske 2
10 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports 1

Stage 2

Ryan Blaney stormed to victory in the second stage of Monday’s STP 500, leading his first career laps at Martinsville Speedway.

Blaney’s Team Penske No. 12 Ford jumped to the lead by leaving pit road first during the exchange of stops in the first-stage intermission. From there, he led all but three laps to the completion of the stage at Lap 260.

RELATED: Stage 2 results

Clint Bowyer finished second in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 Ford. Kyle Busch, a winner at the .526-mile track last fall, took third place, and defending race winner Brad Keselowski ended the stage in fourth. Stage 1 winner Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five in the second stage.

A total of 500 laps make up the scheduled distance. The race was postponed a day because of significant overnight snow Saturday night into Sunday morning.

Finish Driver Team Race points
1 Ryan Blaney Team Penske 10
2 Clint Bowyer Stewart-Haas Racing 9
3 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing 8
4 Brad Keselowski Team Penske 7
5 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing 6
6 Kevin Harvick Stewart-Haas Racing 5
7 Kurt Busch Stewart-Haas Racing 4
8 AJ Allmendinger JTG Daugherty Racing 3
9 Joey Logano Team Penske 2
10 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports 1
Posted on by Reid Spencer

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — In a race delayed for two days by a freak snowstorm in southern Virginia, John Hunter Nemechek charged to the front on a restart with 31 laps left on Monday and held off Kyle Benjamin to win the Alpha Energy Solutions 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race by a mere .106 seconds.

The victory was the first at Martinsville for Nemechek, who had two previous runner-up finishes at the .526-mile short track. This time, despite Benjamin pounding his rear bumper in the final corner, Nemechek earned the grandfather clock trophy that goes to the race winner. 

“I’ve finished second here multiple times so, tick, tock – we finally got a clock,” Nemechek said. “It’s going to be awesome to take that thing home.”

RELATED: Race results | Series standings | At-track photos

Nemechek picked up his sixth career win in the Truck Series in his third start of the season, and he did it with a skeleton staff at the race shop owned by his father, Joe Nemechek.

“I can’t thank everyone on our staff enough – everyone who pours their heart and soul into this deal,” Nemechek said. “There’s only four guys in our shop this year, so it’s really cool to be able to come back over here to the Truck Series …

“Congrats to all these guys – these guys deserve it.”

 After Nemechek grabbed the top spot on Lap 220 of 250, he held it through three subsequent cautions. Nemechek cleared Benjamin after the final restart on Lap 244, and though Benjamin closed on the No. 8 Chevrolet over the last seven laps, finally getting to the bumper in the final corner, he needed a few more laps to make a concerted run at the victory. 

“We had a really good truck, mostly for long runs, and unfortunately, it came down to a short run,” said Benjamin, who was making his Martinsville debut. “It’s Martinsville, so I figured I had to give him a run for his money in the last corner.”

RELATED: Benjamin on what he thought about moving Nemechek

Benjamin had a lead of more than one second over Todd Gilliland when a debris caution slowed the race on Lap 214 and gave Nemechek the chance he needed on the subsequent restart. The shuffling of the order, at least, alleviated one case of divided loyalties.

David Gilliland was co-owner of the No. 54 Toyota Benjamin was driving, and his son Todd was behind the wheel of the No. 4 Toyota of Kyle Busch Motorsports. After the restart on Lap 220, Todd Gilliland brushed the wall and lost track position with a pit stop under caution on Lap 234. He finished 14th. 

Pole winner Ben Rhodes led the first 23 laps on Saturday before rain and snow halted the race. With heavy snow falling Saturday night and early Sunday morning, NASCAR was forced to postpone the finish until Monday.

Rhodes won both the first and second stages of the race, collecting two playoff points, but severe trouble with his right front tire on a Lap 145 pit stop after the second stage dropped him to 15th in the running order. 

Rhodes never recovered from the loss of track position and came home 12th. 

Johnny Sauter lost two laps changing a battery after losing power on Lap 224 and getting rear-ended by Matt Crafton. Sauter finished 19th but retained the series lead by 29 points over Grant Enfinger, who ran fourth on Monday.

Brett Moffitt, who pitted late for new tires, fought his way up to third at the finish and is third in points, 31 behind Sauter.

Noah Gragson, Myatt Snider, Timothy Peters, Harrison Burton, Austin Hill and Justin Haley completed the top 10 in Monday’s race.