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Photo credit: Red Horse Racing
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Reunited and it feels so good. That’s the mantra for veteran driver Timothy Peters and crew chief Chad Kendrick heading into Saturday’s Alpha Energy Solutions 250 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Martinsville Speedway.

The race is the third of the 2017 season in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and marks the first time that the Peters-Kendrick pairing has been back at the 0.526-mile track since their win there in 2009.


“It’s pretty cool being able to reunite and how things worked out,” Peters told NASCAR.com. “Obviously, both of us getting our first win together was a pretty big deal at Martinsville. Since our last time that we won, pretty much we haven’t worked together since but remained good friends. Chad’s matured as a crew chief. I’ve matured as a driver and he’s had great success at Martinsville. Going back this weekend is a great homecoming.”

RELATED: Recap every Martinsville race | Get results from October 2009 race

That homecoming feeling is aided by two factors: both Peters and Kendrick consider Martinsville to be their home track, and the duo’s back story goes back to short track and Late Model circuits all over Virginia. The two raced each other and both admitted they did not like the other at first.

“He was THE guy to beat,” Kendrick said. “He was the guy when I first started racing against him in the late ’90s, I didn’t really care for him. We didn’t really know each other. We were just competitors and I didn’t really like him. It was more of he was THE guy and you wanted to beat that guy.”

But a chance meeting at a chassis shop saw the two bond and become friends with Kendrick helping Peters work on his Late Model entry if he wasn’t racing. That relationship carried forward when Peters got the call to go to Bobby Hamilton Racing where Kendrick worked as a mechanic for the team. From there, came the crew chief position with Peters in 2009 that started with Premier Racing before the two went to Red Horse Racing in the middle of the season.

Opportunities took Kendrick elsewhere over the past seven years, including most recently a four-year stint atop the box at Brad Keselowski Racing. During that time, Kendrick scored five wins atop the box. Meanwhile, Peters has spent that time behind the wheel for Red Horse Racing, tallying an additional nine wins.

RELATED: Being a crew chief ‘the next best thing’ for Kendrick

RACE-WEEKEND RECOLLECTIONS

All of which points back to that October weekend in 2009 at Martinsville that put the pair in Victory Lane for the first time in a NASCAR national series.

It began with disappointment when Peters qualified 11th.

“I honestly thought the end of the world was coming because we were buried in traffic,” Peters said. “At the time — and it still is —  really hard to pass (at Martinsville), even if you have a good truck. … Once we got in great track position and found ourselves in the lead, inside 10 to go, it felt like 100 to go because I knew we were close on fuel — as was everybody else.

“When you know that you are close on fuel and you don’t want to run out and you’re in the lead and on the cusp of your first win, you could just about hear anything that you think could possibly be going wrong.”

Kendrick described Peters as being in a panic mode after qualifying and recalled how the newer surface at Martinsville played a role in the race strategy.

“Back then, the track was a relatively new surface — three or four years old — you could almost run the entire race, especially a Truck race, on a set of tires. It almost came down to who was willing to pit first and think they could make it to the end on fuel. I remember I kind of had in my head what lap we could do that on and catch a couple cautions. We pitted somewhere around Lap 35, we pitted one time. We only had one shot at it. We pitted and he was loose. I remember going down on the track bar and putting a round of wedge in it and told him, ‘Hey don’t rush anything, take care of your tires because everybody else has still got to pit. Then, you are going to have to push it hard.’

“About 15 laps or so later, the rest of the lead-lap trucks pitted and we went to about third or fourth and he drove to the lead from there. He held off a lot of good guys. I remember Denny Hamlin was in that race. Harvick was in that race. There were a lot of heavy hitters in that race, (Ron) Hornaday (Jr.) and (Todd) Bodine. All those guys. There were some late cautions there at the end and he was able to hold everybody back and get our first win.”

The victory was a boost to both and made the 14-to-16-hour days working on their truck all the more worth it. And now as they return to the historic track, both have their eyes on winning a grandfather clock together, since the 2009 win was the last year they gave away a Cup-like trophy at the track.

“We’ve been close many times,” Peters said. “Chad is one-up on me for his previous win there (with Joey Logano in 2015) and he has a clock, so I’d like to add to his collection and I’d like to add a clock to my collection.”

RELATED: More on Peters’ career | Kendrick’s career

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Seth Barbour, crew chief for the No. 6 XFINITY team of Darrell Wallace Jr., was fined $5,000 on Wednesday for lug nuts not properly installed following Saturday’s Service King 300 at Auto Club Speedway.

Wallace Jr. finished sixth in the Southern California race, his fourth consecutive sixth-place finish in the XFINITY Series this season.

The XFINITY Series is off this weekend, but will be back in action at Texas Motor Speedway with the My Bariatric Solutions 300 on Saturday, April 8 (1:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

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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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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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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.