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BUY TICKETS: See the races at Martinsville
RELATED: Full schedule for Martinsville

 

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series are at Martinsville Speedway this weekend.

 

Below are the stage lengths for each race. Click here to bookmark stage lengths for every race this season.

 

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (Race is Sunday, 2 p.m. ET, FS1)

Stage 1: Ends on Lap 130
Stage 2: Ends on Lap 260
Final Stage: Scheduled to end on Lap 500

 

Camping World Truck Series (Race is Saturday, 3 p.m. ET, FOX)

Stage 1: Ends on Lap 70
Stage 2: Ends on Lap 140
Final Stage: Scheduled to end on Lap 250

 

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RELATED: Pre-Martinsville standings | Stage lengths

The first short-track swing of the 2017 schedule begins this week at the venerable Martinsville Speedway and even before leaving California’s two-miler last weekend, NASCAR’s best conceded they were eagerly awaiting this portion of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.

Gone are the days of NASCAR road course aces, superspeedway specialists or short track experts. Not only has the sport demanded high expectations at every stop, drivers have to perform everywhere at an even greater level with the current points system.

April’s short track swing features Martinsville’s .526-mile oval on Sunday (2 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Bristol’s .53-miler in three weeks followed by Richmond’s three-quarter mile oval to close out the month. And while this portion of the schedule brings a smile to most drivers faces and a sentimental nod to their early careers, it also means a big competitive kick in their anticipation.

"I love the short tracks and short-track racing," said Dale Earnhardt Jr., who has wins at all three upcoming short tracks.

"We don’t get to do a lot of it, so that makes you love it more. Being able to come to these tracks and knowing you are only going to get to run here a few times, it makes you really appreciate it and work hard. You have to really try to take care of the car to run all the laps and get everything out of it you can."

RELATED: Full results for every Martinsville race | Driver stats at Martinsville

Earnhardt’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate and reigning seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson may be the happiest guy on the grid when he takes Sunday’s green flag. He’s at an unfamiliar 17th place in the Monster Energy Series standings with only one top 10 in five races this season so far. However, Martinsville has been his playground, his mecca, his "I got this."

Johnson’s nine wins there are most among active drivers and he has 24 top-10 finishes in 30 starts. He’s led 2,838 laps there — an amazing 1,475 laps more than any other driver on Sunday’s grid. And he’s won at Bristol (once) and Richmond (three times) too.

"We certainly are not where we want to be right now," Johnson said. "Last weekend at California was so frustrating. Nothing went our way. As a competitor you have to put that stuff behind you and focus forward, so I’m looking forward to getting to Martinsville.

"The last race at Martinsville was an amazing finish, a very emotional one for me — so meaningful — and it obviously paved the way to our seventh championship. It’s a special place for us, it suits my driving style and I wish we raced at Martinsville more than twice a year."

Toyota driver Denny Hamlin is another who has shown a real knack for the series’ short-track portion of the schedule. He has a career best five victories at Martinsville — including a remarkable three consecutive from 2009-2010 — with 17 top-10 finishes in 22 Martinsville starts in all. He also has wins at Bristol (one) and his home track of Richmond (three).

RELATED: Hamlin explains why ‘feel’ is more important than lap times

His Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch is the defending winner of the spring Martinsville race and has 10 wins total at the three upcoming venues including five at Bristol.

And while drivers such as Johnson, Hamlin and Busch seem to have had immediate and bountiful success on the high action short tracks, Martin Truex Jr. could say his good feelings have been an acquired taste there.

In his first 18 starts at Martinsville, for example, he had an average start of 18.1 and an average finish of 23.1. In his last four races — with Furniture Row Racing — he’s had an average start of 5.5 and an average finish of 9.3. 

"From my standpoint Martinsville has gone from a puzzle to a place where I continue to feel more comfortable," said Truex. "We’ve had some good runs there recently and this weekend will be a good test to see where we stand with our short-track program.

"We know we can get it done at the intermediate and superspeedway tracks."

It’s been a familiar refrain in the garage. In the past, a driver might show a real flair for a certain type of competitive surface. But in modern NASCAR every week, ever track is an opportunity that can’t be overlooked.

There’s no denying the "back home" good feeling of this upcoming short track portion of the schedule, however. It’s the ultimate in challenge and gratification, a showcase for short tempers and a source of deep pride.

"To me, the toughest part of Martinsville is you just never have a moment to breathe," said Richard Childress Racing driver Austin Dillon.

"You have to be on your game nonstop for 500 laps because somebody’s on you, or you are on top of somebody the whole time, and there’s just no room for error."

And that’s exactly what fans are counting on.

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Rankings below are based on a mixture of expected output and DraftKings’ NASCAR salaries for that day. The ordering is not based on highest projected fantasy totals, but rather by value of each driver.

 

(fppk = average fantasy points per $1,000 of salary. The typical median fppk for a 2016 race was in the 3s. Plate tracks tend to be lower and short tracks tend to run higher due to the amount of laps.)

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Denny Hamlin’s 2016 Daytona 500-winning car had been on display for the past year in Daytona, but now the car has come home — quite literally. 

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver tweeted a photo Thursday night of the car safely tucked away in his house — yes, you are reading that correctly. In his house.  

 

Hamlin also identified the other cars pictured for an inquisitive mind on Twitter.

 

 

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BUY TICKETS: See the races at Martinsville | Full schedule

 

There have been more disappointments than celebrations for Denny Hamlin at Martinsville Speedway, but that doesn’t make the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series venue any less prominent in the eyes of the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.

 

"A win is the only thing that’s acceptable when I get to this race track," Hamlin, 36, said during a visit to the legendary oval earlier this month. "I know I take a lot of pride in coming to this race track and running well."

 

Hamlin, a native of Chesterfield, Virgina, has made 403 starts in NASCAR’s top series and won 29 times. Five of those victories have come at Martinsville, the .526-mile track that’s been hosting NASCAR races for 70 years now.

 

The track’s short straightaways and tight, flat turns put a premium on track position and hearken back to the series’ earlier days, when contact among competitors was expected, if not always tolerated. 

 

"That’s something not many tracks can say," Hamlin said of the facility’s longevity. "The history here, you look at all the old photos of this race track. Even though a lot has changed around the race track, the race track itself has not changed. The configuration hasn’t changed; it’s so very similar to how it used to be many, many years ago."

 

Hamlin has earned more top-five (12) and top-10 (17) finishes at Martinsville than any other track on the schedule and between 2008-’10 he won four of six races there. 

 

He’s a perennial contender during the twice-yearly visits to the track, but the driver of the No. 11 Toyota admits that with confidence comes a bit of anxiety.

 

"Because if I don’t win it’s not a successful weekend," he said. "That’s a lot of pressure to put on yourself, especially in today’s competition, to go out there and expect to win, because all the drivers are so good."

 

They’re good, but few have been able to dominate at a particular track the way Hamlin and a handful of others have through the years at Martinsville. Richard Petty owns the track win record with 15 career victories; Darrell Waltrip made off with the unique clock trophy 11 times. More recently, former Hendrick Motorsports drivers Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson piled up nine victories apiece. Johnson is still around to try and add to his total and won the fall race last season.

 

RELATED: Every winner at Martinsville | Hamlin’s stats there

 

The gains enjoyed by those drivers are harder to come by today, according to Hamlin, because of widespread data sharing that goes on among the individual organizations. When it comes to competition, there are few secrets in the garage and even fewer among teammates.

 

"So the advantages you had have been whittled down," he said. "To continue to put the expectations of coming here and winning no matter what (may be) a little unrealistic but it’s a goal we always set."

 

For Hamlin, a successful weekend at Martinsville starts and ends with "feel." It’s what has put him in contention on most occasions and helped put him in the winner’s circle here more than anywhere else.

 

"This is one of the very few race tracks I never look at lap times," he said. "Lap times mean nothing to me here. Whether we’re first in practice or 20th it really doesn’t matter to me because I know the feel in the car that I’ve got to have to win."

 

Hamlin has won at least one race every season since he began running full-time in the series in 2006. He will be looking for his first win of 2017 when the STP 500 gets underway Sunday (2 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

 

"It’s been circled on our calendar," he said.

 

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BUY TICKETS: See the races at Martinsville | Full schedule


Clint Bowyer’s smiling again, making jokes and most importantly, repositioning himself back among NASCAR’s group of race favorites.

Since taking over the No. 14 Mobil 1 Ford for retired NASCAR champion Tony Stewart, Bowyer’s reeling off the best finishes he’s had in two years — including a season-best third-place finish at California’s Auto Club Speedway last week. Things are looking up for the 2012 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series runner-up.

One of the brightest personalities in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series garage, Bowyer’s high wattage presence was noticeably dimmed a bit in 2016 driving for an under-funded, under-achieving team as he waited — under contract — for his seat in the 2011 championship-winning No. 14 upon his friend Stewart’s retirement.

With only three top 10s compared to 13 finishes of 25th or worse last year, Bowyer was clearly taking one for the team and doesn’t like to look back, only forward.

RELATED: Bowyer’s career statistics | See how Bowyer got ready for Daytona

Other than maybe championship-winning Jimmie Johnson, there was no one more ready for the final checkered flag at Homestead. As far as Bowyer was concerned, legitimately high expectations were reset immediately. And that’s the mode of operation now.

"It’s been an OK start to the year," Bowyer said last weekend before his top-three California finish. "Obviously, you always want to be better. It’s solid, but we’ve got to get into the top 10. This is a top-10 organization and race team, and anything less than that needs to improve."

He made good on that demand 24 hours later with a hard-fought, well-raced showing in Southern California. Asked later what his boss Stewart had to say about the uptick, Bowyer just grinned, "Good job."

RELATED: Heck, yeah! Bowyer’s back

But, he clarified, "Tony wins a lot of races. He’s won a lot of races. Anything less than a win, you know … he expects that. And I love that about Tony.

"You know, obviously I know he’s proud. He was happy with that. But that’s what you want in an owner. To have that instilled in everything, in your DNA, I mean, this is the way I was raised. Anything else but a win is a bad day. You are miserable with anything less than that.

"It’s just the way we’re wired as a race car driver from 5 years old and on. The problem is, is everybody else on that racetrack is wired the same way. So there’s really only one guy happy and everybody else is pissed at the end of the day, is what it boils down to."

All indications are that it’s been a great fit for Bowyer at Stewart-Haas, and that has provided another element of confidence to boost Bowyer’s expectations. He was teammates with Kevin Harvick at Richard Childress Racing early in his career and is longtime friends with Stewart, making this transition easier off-track. The translation, he expects, is high quality on-track.

"I love the atmosphere, the culture, the people, they’re just racers,’’ Bowyer said. "There’s no fluff and buff, no smoke and mirrors. There’s just racers who grew up doing what I do. Even the engineers seem like they have a racing background. Nowadays you’ll meet engineers who never were a part of it, just extremely intelligent. Seems like they’re all in it to win it and that goes all the way from the tire changers to the top. It’s all you can ask for."


Given the top-level equipment, proven team and fresh start, Bowyer reiterated last weekend that he fully expects to win a race this season, perhaps several. It’s a better talking point, a legitimate goal and overall quality chance to remind everyone that he’s championship-caliber.

Title-worthy.

His eight Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series wins have come on all kinds of tracks from the Sonoma, California, road course to the Talladega Superspeedway to the Richmond short track and Charlotte 1.5-miler. There’s no doubt what Bowyer can do. It’s just getting back in the saddle again, so to speak. And on a fast horse.

"It’s just the opportunity you’ve been waiting on," Bowyer said. "Everybody knows the situation. You know, this opportunity, this is something I signed up for a year and a half ago. I’ve been champing at the bit to be with an organization like this, to have an army of people behind you like this, the teammates, the sponsors we have, the manufacturer in Ford, all of that.

"It’s the total package at Stewart‑Haas Racing, which is why they’ve won a championship and win all these races that we see. That’s what you thrive to be a part of.

"Finally got my opportunity to be there."

And he’s making good.

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RELATED: See the complete iRacing schedule

Rookie Ryan Luza continued his hot start to the 2017 NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze Series, finding Victory Lane for the second-straight week, this time at Auto Club Speedway. Luza started on the pole and led 61 of 125 laps, but the race came down to a green-white-checkered finish after a crash with seven laps to go.


Luza, along with second-place driver Logan Clampitt and 14 other sim racers, chose to stay out on worn tires for the final two laps, but Michael Conti, who was third at the time, led a group of cars into the pits for fresh rubber. Conti would restart 17th with two laps remaining.


On the restart, Luza jumped out in front of Clampitt by two car lengths as Kenny Humpe and Christian Challiner battled side-by-side for third through Turns 1 and 2. Farther back, Conti was on the move after a great restart and used his fresh tires to blow past three competitors by Turn 1. However, Luza’s victory was secured — and Conti’s charge halted — by a crash off Turn 2 when Jimmy Mullis and David Rattler hit the wall and caused the cars behind them to stack up. The crash brought out the evening’s sixth yellow flag, ending the race under caution.


Clampitt followed Luza across the line to finish second, his third top-five finish in three races. Challiner just edged Humpe for third at the time of caution and Bobby Zalenski came home fifth.


Luza opened the race by leading the first 11 laps before Zack Novak and Corey Vincent beat him out of the pit lane under the first caution. Novak led until Luza reclaimed the point on Lap 20. However, it was Clampitt with the best long run car early as he ran down and passed Luza on Lap 38, just a few laps before the leaders began green flag pit stops.


Clampitt pitted a lap later than Luza and lost the lead by doing so thanks to Luza’s extra lap on fresh tires. The two continued running nose-to-tail, but a caution cut their battle short on Lap 51. The caution also helped the lead-lap cars, which pitted late in the cycle, as they stayed out on their barely used tires, relegating Luza to ninth after he pitted for fresh rubber under caution.


With still half the laps remaining, Luza methodically worked his way back towards the front and took the lead away from Zalenski on Lap 76 to regain control of the race. From there Luza was unchallenged the rest of the way, though Alex Bergeron did lead some laps by playing an alternate pit strategy.


Luza and his No. 1 Ford Fusion are clearly the combination to beat early in the 2017 season, but it probably should not come as a total surprise considering his dominant NASCAR iRacing Pro Series season over the past winter. He will try to keep the momentum going in two weeks when the NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze Series visits Texas Motor Speedway for Week Four of the sim racing schedule.


Last year, PJ Stergios and Ray Alfalla waged a heated battle in the Lone Star State with Stergios getting the best of Alfalla in the end. Look for that duo to be strong once again this year with each of them looking to find the winner’s circle for the first time in 2017. Can the rookie make it three in a row, or will a veteran get the best of him? Find out in two weeks’ time on iRacing Live!

Tune into www.iracing.com/live at 8:45 p.m. ET on April 4 to catch the action live!

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BUY TICKETS: See the races at Martinsville

 

Joe Gibbs Racing announced late Wednesday that crew chief Dave Rogers will step aside from his duties as crew chief leading rookie Daniel Suarez’s No. 19 Toyota team in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, effective immediately.

 

The team issued a very brief statement — only two paragraphs long — saying that Scott Graves will assume the role of crew chief on Suarez’s team while Rogers will be gone for "an indefinite period of time."

 

A new crew chief will be named at a later date for the No. 18 XFINITY Series team, where Graves had been.

 

Graves served as Suarez’s crew chief last year, and the duo won the NASCAR XFINITY Series championship. Prior to that, Graves was on the box for Chris Buescher’s championship season in 2015.

 

Suarez is coming off back-to-back seventh-place finishes and is ranked 19th in the season points standings.

 

Rogers has 18 victories as a crew chief at the Monster Energy Series level, including 13 with Kyle Busch from the end of 2010-2014 seasons. He collected two more leading Denny Hamlin’s efforts in 2015 and three more as Edwards’ crew chief in 2016, helping Edwards to a fourth-place showing in the 2016 Monster Energy Series championship.

 

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Officials with Team Penske announced in a statement that the organization will appeal penalties handed down to the No. 2 team and driver Brad Keselowski following the March 19 race at Phoenix Raceway.


According to the NASCAR penalty report issued last week, the No. 2 team failed the post-race rear wheel steer on the LIS (Laser Inspection Station) following the Camping World 500. NASCAR fined Wolfe $65,000 and suspended him from three Monster Energy Series races while Keselowski and the No. 2 team were docked 35 driver and owner points, respectively.


Wolfe sat out last week’s race at Auto Club, in which Keselowski finished second, but will be on the pit box in Martinsville.


"After having the opportunity to review the facts, Team Penske has decided to appeal the penalties following the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race in Phoenix," the team announced in a statement. "We have requested an appeal hearing and we plan to follow the process as outlined in the NASCAR rulebook. The appeals administration has granted our request to defer the two races remaining on Paul Wolfe’s suspension until the results of our appeal are known."


The 2012 series champion, Keselowski already has one victory this season (Atlanta), putting him in line for one of the 16 spots for this year’s playoff field.



— Kenny Bruce contributed to this story

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RELATED: All the winners at Atlanta | Blaney pleased with Atlanta decision


Atlanta Motor Speedway officials have put off a repaving project at the 1.54-mile facility until the track’s 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race has been completed.

 

Officials had planned to repave the worn racing surface following this year’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 on March 5. Several NASCAR drivers, however, urged track officials and Speedway Motorsports Inc., President Marcus Smith to reconsider the move.

 

The track was last repaved in 1997. The worn, abrasive pavement creates tremendous tire falloff, and the slick surface typically provides some of the most exciting racing on the NASCAR schedule.

 

“We’re going to repave, it’s just a matter of when we’re going to do it,” Ed Clark, AMS president and general manager, told NASCAR.com Tuesday. “We know we have to do it sooner rather than later.

 

“We’ve talked to fans, to people in the NASCAR garage, spent a good bit of time with Rick Campbell of Goodyear, and we came to the conclusion that with a little bit of work, cutting out some spots and patching them, we could go another year.

 

“If they can make it work, we’ll go another year and evaluate it after next year’s race. We are going to have to cut some patches out and repave them, mostly on the front straightaway.”

 

 

Team Penske driver Brad Keselowski, the 2012 series champion and winner of this year’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip race, said after his win that the decision to repave puts tracks in a difficult position.

 

“It’s tough, and I feel bad for those guys because all it takes is one race where there are weepers or where the track comes apart and you’ve got red flags and delays and everybody gets mad at them,” Keselowski said. “So they’re really in a no‑win spot. We pick on them and tell them don’t do it and all these other things, but at some point you have to trust them to know their business.

 

“… Drivers hate repaves. We want to see the surfaces last as long as they can. But the reality is nothing lasts forever, and this surface has made it a really, really long time, 20 years I think … and they should be really proud of that.”

 

Speedway Motorsports Inc. owns eight tracks that host 12 points races on the 36-race Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule. One property, Texas Motor Speedway, was recently repaved and reconfigured in preparation for this year’s two stops at that 1.5-mile venue.

 

“I think we all appreciate tracks with so much character and to have the bad news that two of the tracks with the most character are going to be repaved this year, I think that shocked and upset a lot of us,” seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson said when asked about the Atlanta repave earlier this year. “We get it. We understand, but it’s just going to take a long time for the track to get back to this condition.”

 

Clark said officials’ biggest concern with the racing surface are parts of the track “unraveling” where cracks exist in the asphalt.

 

“It’s more of that,” he said, “the gradual unraveling and a crack opening up. I’m not concerned necessarily about a big chunk of asphalt coming out or anything like that. We’ve looked at that pretty closely.

 

“The good news about our place is we’ve kept this thing sealed up. We’ve done it every single year since it was paved, sealed every crack in the fall. We just haven’t gotten the humps and bumps that some tracks get. From that standpoint, other than it just being absolutely worn out, that’s not an issue. I think that’s somewhat the comfort level drivers have in saying just leave it alone.”

 

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Timothy Peters said he was “ecstatic” that officials are holding off on the AMS repaving project.

 

“I think other tracks should look at that,” he said. “Worn-out pavement is the way to go, in my opinion.

 

“Atlanta … is multi-groove, from the bottom to the middle to the top. It puts it back in the driver’s hands. I guarantee they will get a lot of Christmas cards this year for electing not to repave the place.”

 

Atlanta Motor Speedway, located in Hampton, Georgia, has been hosting NASCAR-sanctioned races since 1960. In addition to the quad-oval featuring 24-degree banked turns, the site includes a 2.5-mile road course. Permanent seating capacity for the facility is 71,000.

 

“We’re going to let it ride, let them slip and slide in 2018 and figure it out after that I guess,” Clark said.

 

– RJ Kraft contributed to this story.