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SHOP: Elliott gear
RELATED: Race results | Standings | Detailed breakdown
MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Polesitter Chase Elliott held off defending NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Johnny Sauter after a restart with 12 laps left and pulled away to win Saturday’s Alpha Energy Solutions 250 at Martinsville Speedway by 1.865 seconds.

 

Elliott grabbed the lead from third-place finisher Christopher Bell on Lap 234, when Bell’s Toyota tangled with Austin Cindric’s Ford through Turns 1 and 2. Bell lost the top spot, and Sauter charged past into the second position before NASCAR threw the 10th and final caution of the race.

 

MORE: Bell: It’s miserable to lead all day and not win | Bell, Cindric collect

 

The decisive move, however, came after the final restart on Lap 239, when Elliott blocked Sauter’s crossover move in Turn 3 and kept the lead.

 

“It was fun today,” Elliott said. “I had some help there with Christopher’s misfortune. I was trying all I could to get by him. He was doing a really good job of maintaining my bumper, a good job with me hitting him … His bumper was getting progressively more blue (the color of Elliott’s car) as the day went.

 

“It was a hard-fought battle, for sure.”

 

And then came the battle with Sauter, who said he would have made the same blocking move on the final restart, had the roles been reversed.

 

“Chase did what he needed to do with the old block,” Sauter said.

 

“I saw him coming in the mirror with a big run, and I knew I had to block him,” Elliott said. “Fortunately, it worked out.”

 

Bell led a race-high 96 laps, 90 in the final 110-lap stage. Before that, GMS Racing teammates Elliott and Sauter dominated the action. Elliott, a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regular getting extra track time in preparation for Sunday’s STP 500 (2 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), won the first stage.

 

SEE: Every Camping World Truck Series winner of ’17

 

Sauter took the second stage but had to come through the field from 13th following the restart for the third stage after pitting for tires in a contrarian strategy to that of Elliott, who got fresh rubber before the end of Stage 2.

 

Elliott (92 laps), Sauter (62 laps) and Bell were the only drivers to lead the 250-lap event at the .526-mile track, but the action behind them was ferocious, producing 10 cautions for 63 laps.

 

Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Noah Gragson recovered from a spin off Chase Briscoe’s bumper to finish fourth, one spot behind his Kyle Busch Motorsports teammate. Ty Dillon and Brett Moffitt ran fifth and sixth, respectively.

 

WATCH: Gragon reflects on day | Briscoe spins

 

Note: Sauter took over the series lead by four points over Bell, who won the previous NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Atlanta … Elliott and Sauter reversed their positions from the fall race at Martinsville, which Sauter won on the way to his first championship.

 

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MORE: Monster Energy Series owner standings | XFINITY owner standings

 

Rank Owner Trk # Points Ldr Nxt Race Wins Stage Wins Playoff pts Attempts
1 Maurice Gallagher Jr. 21 140 0 0 0 3 3 3
2 Kyle Busch 4 136 -4 -4 1 2 7 3
3 Rhonda Thorson 88 117 -23 -19 0 0 0 3
4 Maurice Gallagher Jr. 23 113 -27 -4 1 1 6 3
5 Tom Deloach 17 110 -30 -3 0 0 0 3
6 Maurice Gallagher Jr. 33 103 -37 -7 1 0 5 3
7 Duke Thorson 27 103 -37 0 0 0 0 3
8 Brad Keselowski 29 93 -47 -10 0 0 0 3
9 Maurice Gallagher Jr. 24 91 -49 -2 0 0 0 3
10 Kyle Busch 51 87 -53 -4 0 0 0 3
11 Mike Curb 98 84 -56 -3 0 0 0 3
12 Ricky Benton 92 81 -59 -3 0 0 0 3
13 Tom Deloach 7 73 -67 -8 0 0 0 3
14 Kyle Busch 18 70 -70 -3 0 0 0 3
15 Matthew Miller 99 70 -70 0 0 0 0 3
16 Andrea Nemechek 87 68 -72 -2 0 0 0 3
17 Jeff Bolen 66 66 -74 -2 0 0 0 3
18 Duke Thorson 13 65 -75 -1 0 0 0 3
19 Shigeaki Hattori 16 60 -80 -5 0 0 0 3
20 Randy Young 02 57 -83 -3 0 0 0 3
21 Joe Nemechek 8 56 -84 -1 0 0 0 3
22 Jay Robinson 49 49 -91 -7 0 0 0 3
23 Brad Keselowski 19 48 -92 -1 0 0 0 3
24 Mike Mittler 63 37 -103 -11 0 0 0 3
25 Chris Larsen 52 36 -104 -1 0 0 0 3
26 Richard Wauters 5 36 -104 0 0 0 0 2
27 Tim Self 132 35 -105 -1 0 0 0 1
28 Al Niece 45 33 -107 -2 0 0 0 3
29 D J Copp 83 31 -109 -2 0 0 0 3
30 Tim Self 22 29 -111 -2 0 0 0 1
31 Mark Beaver 50 28 -112 -1 0 0 0 3
32 Craig Martins 44 24 -116 -4 0 0 0 3
33 Charles Henderson 75 21 -119 -3 0 0 0 3
34 Tracy Lowe 1 15 -125 -6 0 0 0 3
35 Rick Ware 12 15 -125 0 0 0 0 3
36 Mark Rette 130 12 -128 -3 0 0 0 1
37 Clay Greenfield 68 8 -132 -4 0 0 0 1
38 Chris Fontaine 47 0 -140 -8 0 0 0 1
39 Norm Benning 6 0 -140 0 0 0 0 2
40 Jennifer Jo Cobb 10 0 -140 0 0 0 0 2
41 Jim Rosenblum 28 0 -140 0 0 0 0 1
42 Mike Harmon 74 0 -140 0 0 0 0 1
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BUY TICKETS: See the races at Martinsville
RELATED: Full race results | Updated standings

 

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Forgive Noah Gragson if there was an element of “here we go again” to his Martinsville Speedway debut in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

The first two races of his rookie season had barely begun before trouble struck — the Lap 3 crash at Daytona, the Lap 2 spin at Atlanta. In Saturday’s Martinsville matinee, a mishap waited until Lap 101, when contact with fellow rookie Chase Briscoe sent Gragson’s Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 18 Toyota into a Turn 2 spin.

“I thought our day was over,” said Gragson, a current member of the NASCAR Next initiative. “We were running, say, in the top five and the 29 (Briscoe) took us out in the left-rear and cheap-shotted us. But my guys at Kyle Busch Motorsports — crew guys, pit-stop guys — they didn’t give up on me. We kept fighting till the end and managed to get a fourth-place finish.

“First time to Martinsville, I’m just so thankful for everyone who makes this possible.”

Gragson’s methodical rally turned back a handful of factors working against him. Among those was the race track itself, the tricky .526-mile layout that tends to be most demanding on newcomers. Add to that a rainy Friday that reduced valuable practice time to just an hour, leaving Gragson to learn as he navigated Saturday’s 250-lapper.

On the plus side, Gragson found his way with the help of top-shelf equipment from the KBM stables, sage advice from team owner Kyle Busch over the team radio communications, and veteran crew chief Marcus Richmond reassuring him after his early setbacks.

“We’ve had some shaky starts here in the beginning, the first two races,” said Richmond, in his first year with the Kyle Busch-owned team. “Noah’s a good short-track racer, coming from short tracks, so I think Martinsville fell right into his place. And we’ve just been preaching to him to stay calm. Just do your deal, don’t get excited, and it’ll come to you in the end.”

It eventually did Saturday, when Gragson ran third in the late stages before ceding the position to defending series champ Johnny Sauter with 37 laps remaining. He still emerged with his career-first top-five finish and a longing to return to Martinsville — “my new favorite race track,” he says — in the fall.

“This is huge for myself gaining confidence, the team … we needed this,” Gragson said. “We were struggling after those first two races. Takes a little weight off my shoulders knowing that I can run with these guys in the top five.”

 

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Editor’s note: Every Friday during the season, "Tweets You Might Have Missed" presents eight of the best NASCAR-related tweets from the week. 



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MARTINSVILLE: Stage 2 has thrilling ending

 

Just six weeks into the 2017 season, the implementation of stages for all three NASCAR national series has grown from mild concern to garage-wide positive reviews.

 

The format change, announced Jan. 23, provides two pre-determined breaks in each championship points event and rewards those drivers running in the top 10 at the end of each stage with additional championship and playoff points.

 

The format is used in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, XFINITY Series and Camping World Truck Series.

 

The move does more than just generate additional opportunities for drivers to earn points — it also creates more up-on-the-wheel moments throughout the course of each event.

 

"I don’t think any of us went into it thinking that we were going to have incredible action at the end of every single stage," Scott Miller, NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition, told NASCAR.com on Wednesday before Martinsville. "But I think we have produced enough stages that were intriguing and compelling. One of the things I think has been really good for us — scoring in that top 10, a lot of times we’ll find a pretty intense battle for seventh, eighth, ninth just to get some more points built up. That’s something I don’t think we would have seen had we not had the stages laid out as they are."

 

Additional points earned in-race, a change in the end-of-race points structure and playoff points for not only stage "wins" but also race wins created a lot of questions.

 

But once the cars got on the track at Daytona in February and the system was put into play, concerns and any confusion began to abate.

 

"I think it’s a huge plus for our sport," said Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. "At no point will you ever hear that stage racing has made the racing worse. There are only positives that come out of it."

 

Drivers inside the top 10 at the end of Stage 1 or Stage 2 receive between one and 10 points (10 for first, 9 for second, etc.) based on their running position. A driver that runs in the top five all day, for example, might actually earn more points than the race winner. That was the case at Phoenix earlier in March when Kyle Larson finished second in the race, and also was second in the first and second stages to earn more points (53) than race winner Ryan Newman (42), who earned only two stage points.

 

Larson (Chip Ganassi Racing) has earned 70 stage points through five races, the most of any driver in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. He has been running inside the top 10 at the end of the first two stages of all five of this season’s races. Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott has earned 63 while Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski has earned 58.

 

Twenty-two drivers have earned one or more stage points; 16 have yet to collect, including Kasey Kahne, Aric Almirola, Paul Menard and Daniel Suarez.

 

RELATED: Complete list of 2017 stage points | Fast facts: Race enhancements

 

"It does bring some intensity that wasn’t there in the past," said Hendrick Motorsports driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. "Especially if you are in that eighth, ninth, 10th spot coming down to those last few laps. You are like ‘Man, I don’t want to give up any points. I really want these points.’ That was never the case before. We never had points to race for, so we were just kind of getting through the day hoping to be there at the end to get the points and now we are having to worry about points throughout the day."

 

This weekend, the series is at Martinsville Speedway for Sunday’s STP 500 (2 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Hamlin, a five-time Martinsville winner, says the stages will have big impact at the .526-mile track.

 

"I think there are various strategies that could play out on this track; you don’t always have to pit at this track," Hamlin said. "We saw at Las Vegas the varying strategies, some played out OK for the guys and some of them didn’t work at all.

 

"I think at this track, if the caution falls at the right time, you could see someone who potentially dominates the race end up having to go back to 20th position and have to make up all those positions before the stage is over."

 

The lengths at Martinsville are 130 laps for each of the first two stages, with 240 laps making up the final stage. Stage lengths vary for each race depending on the length of the race. For the season-opening Daytona 500 at the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway, stage lengths were 60, 60 and 80 laps each.

 

Miller said stage lengths were determined based on several elements, not the least of which was fuel mileage.

 

"There’s a lot more that meets the eye than maybe where the stages breaks are located," he said. "A huge concern as we laid out the stages was not to place a stage where it immediately became a fuel conservation event to make it to the end of the stage.

 

"We had to make the stage long enough to where they absolutely had to stop for fuel or short enough to where they (all) could make it. It’s worked out different on different length tracks, like Phoenix they could make the stage ends (on fuel) but at the mile-and-a-halves and Fontana they couldn’t make the stage ends.

 

"So to get three stages to work out to where you don’t set any of them up to be a fuel mileage event is a little bit tricky, and I think we’ve done a good job at that."

 

Miller said officials will continue to look at the stage lengths, but that there are "no plans on the near horizon to change anything up."

 

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BUY TICKETS: See the races at Martinsville

RELATED: Practice results | Updated schedule | Best 10-lap averages


Five-time Martinsville winner Denny Hamlin surged to the top of the leaderboard in the waning seconds of Friday’s opening Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Martinsville Speedway. Hamlin propelled his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota around the paperclip oval at 95.256 mph to secure the top spot.

Hamlin’s JGR teammate and reigning race winner Kyle Busch was next on the speed charts, his No. 18 Toyota hitting 95.06 mph.

Phoenix winner Ryan Newman was third-fastest in his No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet (94.908 mph), while Chip Ganassi Racing’s Jamie McMurray (94.889 mph) and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Clint Bowyer (94.889 mph) rounded out the top five, respectively. 

The opening session was pushed from 11:30 a.m. to a noon ET start time due to early rain and track-drying efforts. The cars rolled onto the track about 12:15 p.m. ET, 15 minutes into the rescheduled window.


Daniel Suarez signaled the red flag when his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota hit the wall in Turn 3, sustaining significant damage to the rear of the car. The team elected to bring out the backup car.


Smoke from the left-front tire of Ty Dillon’s No. 13 Chevrolet brought out the caution briefly during the abbreviated session.

Because track time for Friday remains at a premium with an uncertain weather forecast, practice hold penalties for four teams were deferred. NASCAR officials said enforcement of those penalties would come at a later time in the race weekend.

The cars of Ryan Blaney and Jeffrey Earnhardt were docked 15 minutes of practice for being late to pre-qualifying inspection last weekend at Auto Club Speedway. Earnhardt drew another 15-minute penalty, joining Trevor Bayne and Denny Hamlin among those failing pre-race inspection last weekend.

Earnhardt’s Circle Sport-TMG No. 33 team opted to serve one penalty in opening practice, deferring the other to a later session.

The Monster Energy Series is scheduled to be back on track at 5:05 p.m. ET for Coors Light Pole qualifying (FS1).

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RELATED: Starting lineup for Sunday

 

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Kyle Larson, the most recent winner and the points leader in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, said Friday he believes competing in local weekly shows is good for NASCAR and that others should be encouraged to compete outside of NASCAR as well.

Larson, 24, has one win and three second-place finishes in this season’s first five races. His fast start hasn’t led Chip Ganassi Racing officials to ask him to cut back on his extracurricular efforts and focus on his No. 42 Chevrolet team.

"I’ve got a deal with Chip where I can run 25 races, so I’m going to fill all 25 of those up this year," Larson said prior to practice at Martinsville Speedway. "I enjoy doing it and I had a lot of fun racing this week."

Three days after his second career win in the Monster Energy Series, Larson was back behind the wheel of a World of Outlaws entry, competing in the Placerville Short Track Showdown in Placerville, California.


RELATED: Larson breaks runner-up streak with win at Auto Club


Larson said he’s often asked "when are they going to shut you down?" and curb his outside racing interests.

"But I feel like everybody needs to encourage me and others to go race at your local short track and all that because I feel we’ve lost touch with our grassroots race fans," he said. "And I really think with me going back and doing that stuff and Kyle Busch running Late Model races throughout the year, it really kind of gets the local fans back excited about NASCAR."

Bobby Allison, the 1983 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion, often raced several times throughout the week in between his Cup starts; Ken Schrader would race as many as 90-100 times each season while competing full time in Cup. Others also raced local shows on occasion.

"I would usually race on the short tracks before the Cup events as many as five times per week," Allison said. "Aside from my Cup efforts, I was really obsessed with running the short tracks as much as I could."

Many fans at local tracks weren’t close enough to tracks hosting NASCAR events and only got the opportunity to see NASCAR stars compete when those drivers showed up for mid-week shows.

"I ran the Modifieds for many years in the early 1960s," Allison said. "I also ran the Late Model Modifieds and many, many regular Late Model events. I would either take my own cars from Alabama or I would go to race tracks when asked to do so by promotors and would drive a car by local team owners."


RELATED: Harvick calls Larson ‘best driver to come along since Gordon’


Larson is in his fourth full season at NASCAR’s top level and won his first race last year, at Michigan.

He’ll carry a 29-point lead into Sunday’s STP 500 (2 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

And regardless of how the following weeks and months play out, he said, he hopes to continue to race elsewhere when the opportunity is there.

"Yeah, I feel like everybody should, instead of making Chip and Felix (Sabates, minority team owner) feel like they have to shut me down," he said, "(they) should encourage them because it helps our fan base out."

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RELATED: Read more Inside Groove

 

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Never let it be said that Kyle Larson isn’t a man of the people, at least when it comes to flying.

One week after visiting Victory Lane at Auto Club Speedway, Larson arrived at Martinsville Speedway revealing that a significant portion of his air travel is done commercially. Though his celeb stature in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series could afford him a more luxurious lifestyle, Larson indicated he’s quite the penny-pincher.

"Yeah, I fly commercial as much as I can and fly with the team," Larson said Friday before opening practice. "That’s a lot of money to be private flying, especially to the West Coast. Yeah, I’m cheap with my money when it comes to flying. And, I like to rack up the miles so I can maybe get some free trips."

Larson admits he does spring for first-class seating on occasion. His son, Owen, is now 2 years old and requires his own airline seat — another addition in cost. Even then, he’s maintained a frugal overall philosophy that has led to some ribbing from friends and fellow competitors, with Larson singling out Danica Patrick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. as offenders.

"Obviously she’s a very wealthy person, but she doesn’t understand why I would purchase a coach ticket when coach is $120 versus first class being $500," Larson said with a grin. "I’m going to save that money."

Seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson, scheduled for a press availability in the Martinsville media center after Larson, seemed amused with his fellow Chevrolet driver’s financial sense. But in a nod to Larson’s budding talent and the potential windfall from padding his win total, Johnson suggested he’d join the elite jet-setter ranks in the near future.

"Just for the record, though, his commercial flight days are about over," Johnson said.

 

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RELATED: Full schedule | Weather radar | Starting lineup


Wet weather washed out the latter half of Friday’s on-track schedule at Martinsville Speedway, with rain canceling Coors Light Pole Qualifying in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and final practice for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. 

 

Since qualifying was rained out in the top series, the lineup for Sunday’s STP 500 (2 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) will be determined by the rule book. The owner standings put Auto Club winner Kyle Larson in the top starting spot with Chase Elliott joining him on the front row. Neither has a win at the 0.526-mile track.

 

Shortly before final Camping World Truck Series practice was scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. ET, the track advised fans to evacuate the grandstands due to a block of storms coming into the area. On hand to combat the wet weather this weekend are: eight Air Titans, four jet dryers, one Elgin sweeper and a track broom. At 3:45 p.m., officials called off the afternoon’s on-track activities.
Morning rain delayed the start of Friday’s on-track activity, pushing Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice from 11:30 a.m. ET to noon, with practice ending at 1 p.m. ET. That moved opening Camping World Truck Series back to run from 1:10 to 2 p.m. ET.

Saturday’s schedule sees two Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practices on tap for 10 a.m. ET and 1:30 p.m. ET. Keystone Light Pole Qualifying for the Camping World Truck Series will take place at 11:05 a.m. ET. All three of these events will televised on FS1.

 

Saturday’s schedule will conclude with the third race of the Camping World Truck Series season, the Alpha Energy Solutions 250 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

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RELATED: Austin Dillon on ‘Rosewood’

 

NASCAR XFINITY Series stars Darrell "Bubba" Wallace Jr. and Elliott Sadler are returning to Las Vegas this week, but not for a race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

 

The drivers are joining such luminaries as Jake Owen, Kellie Pickler, Darius Rucker and Miss America Savvy Shields as presenters at the 52nd Academy of Country Music Awards at T-Mobile Arena on April 2. Wallace and Sadler will take the stage to announce the Video of the Year Award presented by XFINITY.

 

Co-hosted by country music superstars Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley, the awards show will be broadcast live (8-11 p.m. ET, delayed 8-11 PT) on CBS. Musicians slated to perform include Reba McIntire, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban and the Backstreet Boys.

 

Sadler helpfully provided NASCAR.com with his current country music playlist. Be sure to tune in Sunday, April 2, at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.

 

Elliott Sadler’s playlist
• The Baby, Blake Shelton
• Troubadour, George Strait
• Roll On (Eighteen Wheeler), Alabama
• Wagon Wheel, Darius Rucker
• Cowboys and Angels, Dustin Lynch
• Stay, Florida Georgia Line
• Drink a Beer, Luke Bryan
• You Should Be Here, Cole Swindell