Johnny Sauter has won the first two races of the season in the Camping World Truck series.
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Patrick was not merely a footnote as first female driver to run Cup race at Martinsville
Read more: Danica’s Martinsville debut
By Jove, I think she’s got it.
You could almost hear Professor Henry Higgins’ exclamation from "My Fair Lady" echoing around the grandstands at Martinsville Speedway, as Danica Patrick fought for position.
To those watching Sunday’s STP Gas Booster 500, it was abundantly clear that Patrick had found the rhythm of the .526-mile short track, one of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series‘ most difficult to master.
Consider the following:
Race winner Jimmie Johnson, who claimed his eighth grandfather clock trophy on Sunday, finished 35th in his 2002 Martinsville debut.
Three-time Cup champion Tony Stewart ran 20th the first time he attempted a Cup race at Martinsville.
Ryan Newman, who won last year’s spring race, came home 41st in his first Martinsville Cup race.
Juan Pablo Montoya, who like Patrick came to Cup racing from an open-wheel background, was 16th in his first try at ‘The Paper Clip.’
Short-track ace Kyle Busch was 39th in his Martinsville debut. Brother Kurt Busch was only slightly better — 37th. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was 26th, Carl Edwards 24th, Kevin Harvick 34th, Clint Bowyer 22nd, Kasey Kahne 21st and Matt Kenseth 21st, respectively, when they made their first visits to the rural Virginia track.
The list goes on. The bottom line is that of the 42 other drivers in the field on Sunday, only two recorded higher finishes than Patrick in their first trips to Martinsville. Mark Martin ran third in 1981 and Jeff Gordon was eighth in 1993. That’s it.
For the sake of full disclosure, let’s add that Brad Keselowski and Bobby Labonte also came home 12th in their Martinsville openers. And as a footnote, sidelined Denny Hamlin, out with a compression fracture of his first lumbar vertebra, matched Gordon’s eighth-place finish when he first tackled Martinsville in 2005.
Nevertheless, Patrick’s performance left her in elite company.
Nor was it a fluke. True, Patrick had qualified 32nd after a bobble in Turn 3 on the money lap cost her precious hundredths of a second. Nevertheless, Patrick’s crew chief, Tony Gibson, expressed surprise at how quickly Patrick had adapted to a track some drivers never understand.
The winning crew chief for Newman in last year’s spring race, Gibson put a car under Patrick that could roll the center of the corners with enough drive off to complete a pass. And pass she did. Patrick started dead last in the field because of an engine change after Saturday practice.
On Lap 16, she spun in Turn 3. Before she found her rhythm, Patrick was two laps down, but taking advantage of wave-arounds during two proximate cautions, she was back on the lead lap.
Over the last 200 laps, she battled with some of the best in the business, including Stewart, her car owner, giving the boss no quarter when he was trapped in the outside lane. Patrick was the highest finisher from Stewart-Haas Racing, beating Stewart (17th) and Newman, who ran 31st after recurring tire problems (and after drawing a three-lap penalty for causing a caution by stopping on the track).
NASCAR’s loop data statistics show Patrick making 51 green-flag passes throughout the race, 17th most in the field. That number would have been higher, had Patrick not defended her position so effectively. With the exception of one late restart from the outside lane, Patrick remained in the top 20 after getting there.
Furthermore, Patrick’s pass differential (passing vs. getting passed) was plus-23, tied for third best in the field.
Patrick will admit that she felt more comfortable testing the limits of her car running 95-mph laps at Martinsville, as opposed to 190-mph laps at an intermediate downforce track. Nevertheless, her performance Sunday should be enough to make even her harshest critics reevaluate her potential in the Sprint Cup Series.
For on Sunday, Patrick was not merely a footnote as the first female driver to run a Cup race at Martinsville.
She was simply a driver, adroit and competitive, and that’s as it should be.
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With just a few hours between races, this up-and-comer is ready for the challenge
Kyle Larson will pilot the No. 30 entry in the Camping World Truck Series for Turner Scott Motorsports in what’s become a double-duty weekend for the young NASCAR star.
Turner Scott announced Monday that the 20-year-old Larson would wheel the No. 30 truck Sunday at Rockingham (N.C.) Speedway, two days after competing in his usual Nationwide Series ride Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway. Trent Owens, crew chief for Larson’s No. 32 Nationwide car, will also be on the pit box for the Truck Series event.
In four previous Truck Series starts, Larson has recorded three top-10 finishes, including a runner-up result at Homestead last year. Larson stands seventh in Nationwide Series points after finishing second and sixth in his last two starts. Although a former sprint car driver accustomed to juggling multiple events, this will be Larson’s first double-duty weekend entirely at NASCAR’s national level.
Nelson Piquet Jr. and Ryan Truex drove Turner Scott’s No. 30 truck in the first two events of this season, with Piquet finishing 19th Saturday in Martinsville. Rockingham is where Larson was crowned K&N Pro Series East champion after a sixth-place finish on the 1-mile track in 2012. Larson’s truck will bear the colors of Autism Speaks and have the name of Owens’ 5-year-old son Gray — who is affected by the condition — over the right-side window opening.
"There’s no question in my mind he’ll excel at Rockingham Speedway, and hopefully we can run well for Autism Speaks,” team co-owner Harry Scott said of Larson. “This cause is especially important to me and the rest of Turner Scott Motorsports because it affects us so close to home with Trent Owens and his family. It’s an honor to have the opportunity to raise awareness for Autism Speaks, especially during Autism Awareness month."
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Short-track success lifts Gordon into 12th place
Video: Gordon on Press Pass
They weren’t slapping high-fives and spraying champagne in Victory Lane, but Jeff Gordon and his Hendrick Motorsports crewmen were pleased with the team’s third-place finish in Sunday’s STP Gas Booster 500 at Martinsville Speedway.
Gordon and crew chief Alan Gustafson both wore looks of relief after the four-time champion scored the group’s first top-five finish of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.
“We needed the points. We needed a good, solid run,” said Gordon, who improved six positions in the standings and now sits 12th as the series heads to Texas Motor Speedway for the season’s first Saturday-night affair.
Gustafson echoed his driver’s comments, but admitted that even a top-five finish can be discouraging when a potential win fails to materialize.
“You always want to win, and you get disappointed whey you don’t,” Gustafson said. “Especially when you have a car that can win. But at the end of the day you’ve got to walk before you can run. We’ve got to get rolling and competing (more consistently).
“You’ve got to do this week in and week out if you’re going to win races. We’ve got to get to where we are running in the top five every week and then they’ll come.”
Gordon, a seven-time winner at Martinsville, ran in the top five for nearly the entire first half of the 500-lap race. It was a pit miscue, however, that put the team in a hole and forced Gordon to try and race his way back through the field during the second half.
Fourth when the caution flag appeared for an accident involving Regan Smith and David Reutimann, Gordon slid through his pit stall after coming to pit road.
The lengthy stop proved costly — Gordon was 14th and stuck in the outside line on the ensuing restart. It got worse before it got better, as traffic and short green-flag runs kept him bottled up back in the field. He was 19th before he finally began to make his way through the field, thanks to a nearly 100-lap stretch of green-flag racing.
“I made a bonehead move … and cost us a bunch of positions,” he admitted. “I was just sitting back there not passing anybody, not going anywhere thinking, ‘Uh‑oh, I’ve really screwed us up.’
“We made a couple of adjustments and freed the car up and the long run came and our car was unbelievable.”
Clearly one of the fastest, if not the fastest at that point. But when the caution flag slowed the action three more times inside the final 50 laps, both Gordon and Gustafson knew their chances at a win were waning.
“It’s typical of Martinsville, or any track that wears tires,” Gustafson said. “If you can go early (in a run), that means your car is free enough to turn, but you’re not going to be able to go late. Which way is the coin going to fall?”
Gordon had moved to third with less than 75 laps remaining, took second on Lap 445 but lost the spot to Clint Bowyer before the yellow flag appeared a final time after Kurt Busch’s Chevrolet slammed the wall and erupted in flames.
With only eight laps remaining, Gordon’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson pulled away from Bowyer for his eighth career win at Martinsville, leaving Gordon to finish third.
“You know, we can’t afford to do those things,” Gordon said of his pit miscue. “I can’t be making those mistakes, and we can’t have those mistakes made, and that’s just how crucial it is in the sport today as competitive as everybody is and how close the cars are.
“You know, we kind of got fortunate.”
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Strong showing at Martinsville not quite enough for defending Sprint Cup Series champ
MARTINSVILLE, Va. –- It was another rugged, hard-fought battle at Martinsville Speedway, but as defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski noted, “they’ve all been hard-fought.”
The Penske Racing driver wasn’t spectacular this time around, but he was steady on a warm, sunny day in the Virginia foothills, running consistently inside the top 10 en route to a sixth-place finish in Sunday’s STP Gas Booster 500.
“We seem to run sixth here every time,” Keselowski said, and the record shows that he did indeed finish sixth here just last fall. While sixth isn’t bad, he said, “it’s just not great.”
“We want to be able to win here and just haven’t been strong enough to do that.”
Seventh prior to a final restart on the heels of a hard crash involving Kurt Busch, Keselowski used fresh tires to gain one spot during the final eight-lap dash. He nearly gained two, crossing the line side-by-side with Kyle Busch, only to get beat for the spot in a photo finish.
“It was just a matter of how hard I wanted to work him over,” Keselowski said of the battle. “There’s a proper amount to work somebody over for a win and a proper amount to work somebody over for a fifth or a sixth. I worked him enough to feel proud about it.”
While a string of four top-five finishes went by the boards two weeks ago with a 23rd-place run at Auto Club Speedway, the Martinsville effort was solid enough to keep Keselowski second in the points standings, where he trails race winner Jimmie Johnson by six.
And when it comes to Martinsville, Johnson is clearly the master, having now won eight times at the legendary facility.
Keselowski won’t argue the point. But there will be other opportunities, he said.
“We’ve been strong enough to be proud of what we’ve done, and I’m proud of where we are right here today. But the 48 car (of Johnson) is on another level. His car is so much better than everybody else that he just plays with everybody the whole race just to make it look good.
“That’s pretty obvious, but I feel like if we can get our car where he’s at, I can beat his ass.”
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NASCAR Camping World Truck Series heads to Rockingham Speedway with 40 trucks entered
Here’s the entry list for the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at The Rock presented by Cheerwine, 2 p.m. ET Sunday at Rockingham Speedway:
| Entry | Veh. # | Driver | Veh. Mfr. | Sponsor |
| 1 | 1 | T J Bell | 13 Chevrolet | TBA |
| 2 | 3 | Ty Dillon | 13 Chevrolet | Bass Pro Shops-Tracker Boats |
| 3 | 4 | Jeb Burton# | 13 Chevrolet | Arrowhead |
| 4 | 6 | Tim George Jr. | 13 Ford | Applebee’s |
| 5 | 6 | Tyler Young | 13 Chevrolet | TBA |
| 6 | 07 | Chris Cockrum | 13 Toyota | TBA |
| 7 | 7 | John Wes Townley | 13 Toyota | Zaxby’s |
| 8 | 8 | Max Gresham | 12 Chevrolet | Made in USA Brand |
| 9 | 9 | Ron Hornaday Jr. | 13 Chevrolet | Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff |
| 10 | 10 | Jennifer Jo Cobb | 11 Chevrolet | Koma Unwind Relaxation Drink |
| 11 | 13 | Todd Bodine | 13 Toyota | SealMaster |
| 12 | 14 | Brennan Newberry# | 13 Chevrolet | No Fear Energy |
| 13 | 17 | Timothy Peters | 13 Toyota | Parts Plus |
| 14 | 18 | Joey Coulter | 13 Toyota | Darrell Gwynn Foundation |
| 15 | 19 | Joey Logano | 13 Ford | Carbon Forged Reese Towpower |
| 16 | 21 | Spencer Gallagher | 13 Chevrolet | Allegiant Air |
| 17 | 27 | Jeff Agnew | 13 Chevrolet | TBA |
| 18 | 28 | Andy Seuss | 13 Chevrolet | FDNY Racing |
| 19 | 29 | Ryan Blaney(#) | 13 Ford | Cooper Standard Performance |
| 20 | 30 | Kyle Larson | 13 Chevrolet | Autism Speaks |
| 21 | 31 | James Buescher | 13 Chevrolet | Rheem |
| 22 | 32 | Miguel Paludo | 13 Chevrolet | Accu Doc Solutions |
| 23 | 39 | Ryan Sieg | 13 Chevrolet | RSS Racing |
| 24 | 51 | Erik Jones | 13 Toyota | Toyota |
| 25 | 52 | Tyler Reddick | 12 Toyota | Broken Bow Records |
| 26 | 54 | Darrell Wallace Jr.(#) | 13 Toyota | ToyotaCare |
| 27 | 57 | Norm Benning | 13 Chevrolet | TBA |
| 28 | 60 | Dakoda Armstrong | 13 Chevrolet | Winfield |
| 29 | 62 | Brendan Gaughan | 13 Chevrolet | South Point |
| 30 | 68 | Clay Greenfield | 13 RAM | 1-800-Pavement |
| 31 | 75 | Caleb Holman | 12 Chevrolet | Wise Snack Foods – Food Country USA |
| 32 | 77 | German Quiroga# | 13 Toyota | NET 10 |
| 33 | 81 | David Starr | 11 Toyota | TBD |
| 34 | 84 | Chris Fontaine | 09 Toyota | Glenden Enterprises |
| 35 | 88 | Matt Crafton | 13 Toyota | Ideal Door-Menards |
| 36 | 92 | Clay Rogers | 12 Chevrolet | #92 Blacks Tire/Hal Wells Insurance/Dilmar Oil/Goodyear Fleet HQ |
| 37 | 93 | Chris Jones | 13 Chevrolet | RSS Racing |
| 38 | 94 | Chase Elliott | 13 Chevrolet | Aaron’s Dream Machine/Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet |
| 39 | 98 | Johnny Sauter | 13 Toyota | Carolina Nut Co – Curb Records |
| 40 | 99 | Bryan Silas | 13 Ford | Rockingham Speedway |
(i)=ineligible for points, #=rookie
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NASCAR Nationwide Series heads to Texas Motor Speedway with 45 cars entered
Here’s the entry list for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300, 9 p.m. ET Friday at Texas Motor Speedway:
| Entry | Veh. # | Driver | Veh. Mfr. | Sponsor |
| 1 | 00 | Michael McDowell(i) | 13 Toyota | Headrush |
| 2 | 01 | Mike Wallace | 13 Chevrolet | GK |
| 3 | 2 | Brian Scott | 13 Chevrolet | Husky Liners |
| 4 | 3 | Austin Dillon | 13 Chevrolet | AdvoCare |
| 5 | 4 | Landon Cassill(i) | 13 Chevrolet | Flexseal |
| 6 | 5 | Kasey Kahne(i) | 13 Chevrolet | Great Clips |
| 7 | 6 | Trevor Bayne | 13 Ford | Cargill |
| 8 | 7 | Regan Smith | 13 Chevrolet | TaxSlayer.com |
| 9 | 10 | Jeff Green | 13 Toyota | TriStar Motorsports / Radisson |
| 10 | 11 | Elliott Sadler | 13 Toyota | OneMain Financial |
| 11 | 12 | Sam Hornish Jr. | 13 Ford | Alliance Truck Parts |
| 12 | 14 | Eric McClure | 13 Toyota | Hefty / Reynolds / Kroger / Radisson |
| 13 | 15 | Juan Carlos Blum | 13 Ford | VMP Nutrition |
| 14 | 16 | Chris Buescher | 13 Ford | Roush Fenway Racing Mustangs |
| 15 | 18 | Matt Kenseth (i) | 13 Toyota | RESERS |
| 16 | 19 | Mike Bliss | 12 Toyota | TriStar Motorsports / Radisson |
| 17 | 20 | Brian Vickers | 13 Toyota | Dollar General |
| 18 | 22 | Brad Keselowski(i) | 13 Ford | Discount Tire |
| 19 | 23 | Robert Richardson Jr. | 13 Chevrolet | North Texas Pipe |
| 20 | 24 | Blake Koch | 13 Toyota | Compassion International |
| 21 | 27 | Jason White | 13 Toyota | TEAMBOOM |
| 22 | 30 | Nelson Piquet Jr.# | 13 Chevrolet | WORX Yard Tools |
| 23 | 31 | Justin Allgaier | 13 Chevrolet | Brandt |
| 24 | 32 | Kyle Larson# | 13 Chevrolet | Cessna-Bell Helicopter |
| 25 | 33 | Kevin Harvick(i) | 13 Chevrolet | Hunt Brothers |
| 26 | 40 | Josh Wise | 12 Chevrolet | TBA |
| 27 | 42 | J.J. Yeley(i) | 12 Chevrolet | Curtis Key Plumbing |
| 28 | 43 | Reed Sorenson | 13 Ford | Pilot |
| 29 | 44 | Hal Martin# | 13 Toyota | American Custom Yachts / Radisson |
| 30 | 46 | Chase Miller | 12 Chevrolet | Curtis Key Plumbing |
| 31 | 47 | Scott Riggs(i) | 12 Chevrolet | Curtis Key Plumbing |
| 32 | 51 | Jeremy Clements | 13 Chevrolet | ETS oil Field Services. |
| 33 | 52 | Joey Gase | 12 Chevrolet | TBA |
| 34 | 54 | Kyle Busch(i) | 13 Toyota | Monster Energy |
| 35 | 55 | Jamie Dick | 13 Chevrolet | Viva Auto Group |
| 36 | 60 | Travis Pastrana | 13 Ford | Roush Fenway Racing Ford Mustangs |
| 37 | 70 | Johanna Long | 13 Chevrolet | Foretravel |
| 38 | 74 | Kevin Lepage | 12 Chevrolet | Carved Records |
| 39 | 77 | Parker Kligerman | 13 Toyota | Camp Horsin’ Around / Bandit Chippers |
| 40 | 79 | Jeffrey Earnhardt | 13 Ford | Uponor |
| 41 | 87 | Joe Nemechek | 13 Toyota | AM/FM Energy Wood & Pellet Stoves-SWM |
| 42 | 88 | Dale Earnhardt Jr.(i) | 13 Chevrolet | Hellmann’s |
| 43 | 92 | Dexter Stacey# | 13 Ford | Maddie’s Place |
| 44 | 98 | Kevin Swindell | 10 Ford | Carroll Shelby Engines |
| 45 | 99 | Alex Bowman# | 13 Toyota | St. Jude Children’s Hospital |
(i)=ineligible for points, #=rookie
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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Texas Motor Speedway with 45 cars entered
Here’s the entry list for the NRA 500, 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway:
| Entry | Veh. # | Driver | Veh. Mfr. | Sponsor |
| 1 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | 13 Chevrolet | Bell Helicopters |
| 2 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | 13 Ford | Miller Lite |
| 3 | 5 | Kasey Kahne | 13 Chevrolet | Time Warner Cable |
| 4 | 7 | Dave Blaney | 13 Chevrolet | Sany |
| 5 | 9 | Marcos Ambrose | 13 Ford | DeWALT |
| 6 | 10 | Danica Patrick# | 13 Chevrolet | GoDaddy.com |
| 7 | 11 | Brian Vickers(i) | 13 Toyota | FedEx Office/March of Dimes |
| 8 | 13 | Casey Mears | 13 Ford | No. 13 GEICO Ford Fusion |
| 9 | 14 | Tony Stewart | 13 Chevrolet | Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops |
| 10 | 15 | Clint Bowyer | 13 Toyota | Gander Mountain Toyota Camry |
| 11 | 16 | Greg Biffle | 13 Ford | 3M |
| 12 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr.# | 13 Ford | Best Buy |
| 13 | 18 | Kyle Busch | 13 Toyota | Interstate Batteries |
| 14 | 19 | Mike Bliss(i) | 13 Toyota | Plinker Tactical / MCM Elegante |
| 15 | 20 | Matt Kenseth | 13 Toyota | Dollar General |
| 16 | 21 | Trevor Bayne(i) | 13 Ford | Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center |
| 17 | 22 | Joey Logano | 13 Ford | Shell Penzoil |
| 18 | 24 | Jeff Gordon | 13 Chevrolet | Cromax Pro |
| 19 | 27 | Paul Menard | 13 Chevrolet | Quaker State / Menards |
| 20 | 29 | Kevin Harvick | 13 Chevrolet | Rheem |
| 21 | 30 | David Stremme | 13 Toyota | Swan Energy / Lean1 |
| 22 | 31 | Jeff Burton | 13 Chevrolet | Caterpillar |
| 23 | 32 | Timmy Hill# | 13 Ford | OXY Water |
| 24 | 33 | Landon Cassill | 13 Chevrolet | Little Joe’s Autos / Precon Marine |
| 25 | 34 | David Ragan | 13 Ford | Love’s Travel Shops |
| 26 | 35 | Josh Wise(i) | 12 Ford | MDS Transport |
| 27 | 36 | J.J. Yeley | 13 Chevrolet | Accell Construction |
| 28 | 38 | David Gilliland | 13 Ford | EZ Pawn/EZ Money |
| 29 | 39 | Ryan Newman | 13 Chevrolet | Quicken Loans |
| 30 | 42 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 13 Chevrolet | Target / Kellogg’s |
| 31 | 43 | Aric Almirola | 13 Ford | Eckrich |
| 32 | 44 | Scott Riggs | 13 Ford | TBA |
| 33 | 47 | Bobby Labonte | 13 Toyota | Bush’s Beans |
| 34 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | 13 Chevrolet | Lowe’s Dover White |
| 35 | 51 | Austin Dillon(i) | 12 Chevrolet | Bruce Lowrie Chevrolet/Realtree |
| 36 | 55 | Mark Martin | 13 Toyota | Aaron’s Dream Machine |
| 37 | 56 | Martin Truex Jr. | 13 Toyota | NAPA Auto Parts |
| 38 | 78 | Kurt Busch | 13 Chevrolet | Furniture Row Racing-Serta |
| 39 | 83 | David Reutimann | 13 Toyota | Dr. Pepper |
| 40 | 87 | Joe Nemechek(i) | 13 Toyota | ATIgunstocks.com |
| 41 | 88 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 13 Chevrolet | NATIONAL GUARD |
| 42 | 93 | Travis Kvapil | 13 Toyota | Dr. Pepper |
| 43 | 95 | Scott Speed | 13 Ford | TBD |
| 44 | 98 | Michael McDowell | 13 Ford | Phil Parsons Racing |
| 45 | 99 | Carl Edwards | 13 Ford | Fastenal |
(i)=ineligible for points, #=rookie
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