Ty Gibbs continues hot start after Martinsville: ‘Just need a little bit more’

Posted on March 30, 2026March 30, 2026 by Zach Sturniolo

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Ty Gibbs is off to a monster start in 2026.

Now in his fourth full-time NASCAR Cup Series season, Gibbs has rocketed to five straight finishes of sixth or better in his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. The most recent of those tallies came with a fourth-place run in Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway.

The 23-year-old has had decent season starts in the past, including a four-race stretch in 2024 that totaled three top fives and four top 10s. But never has Gibbs begun a season this strong: The No. 54 car has finished fourth three times (COTA, Phoenix, Martinsville), fifth (Las Vegas) and sixth (Darlington) all in the past five weeks. This stretch ties Gibbs’ longest top-10 streak of his career.

Gibbs is still looking for that first Cup Series win, but the 2022 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion feels like he’s closer than ever.

“Obviously, we’re pretty close, but just need a little bit more,” Gibbs said. “I think if you keep playing up there, you’re gonna win eventually. So just keep to it and keep running good and go knock off that win and hopefully get a couple wins this year.”

Finishes will always be the most important metric, but a close second may be his average running position. At 12.98, Gibbs holds the eighth-best running position in the Cup Series after Sunday’s race in Martinsville. The season started with finishes of 23rd in the Daytona 500 and 37th (DNF, crash) at EchoPark Speedway. In each of the five races since, his average running position has ranked inside the top five, including a second-best 3.38 on Sunday. And with an eighth-best 45 stage points through six races, Gibbs sits sixth in points, 131 markers behind series leader Tyler Reddick.

“It’s a lot of consistency,” No. 54 crew chief Tyler Allen told NASCAR.com Sunday. “It’s been really fun to be running up inside the top five like that. And I think Ty has shown a lot of maturity, a lot of growth, taking care of tires and just being there at the end. So really excited for this team. I think we’re up to sixth in points, so we’ve had a really good run after a pretty rocky start to the year at the speedways. So everything’s going great, and we’re excited to carry the momentum into the off weekend and get back at it at Bristol, which is one of his better tracks.”

Ethan Smith | For NASCAR Digital Media

The offseason drew plenty of change for this group. Last year was Allen’s first atop the pit box, but there was a disjointed dynamic to the No. 54 team as then-competition director Chris Gabehart was assigned to call strategy for the team on race day in a de facto crew-chief role. With Allen holding the reins in full this season, results so far are showing significant improvement. It’s a small sample size, but Gibbs is on track for a 11.9 average finish in 2026 — an uptick that would obliterate his previous best of 17.4 set in 2024.

“We’re able to have hard discussions when we have to at the race track and really work through what the race car is doing,” Allen said. “His awareness of inputs and how that affects tires and tire wear and tire temperature is night-and-day better from what we had a year ago. So it’s a lot of areas I think that have improved, and the team getting an offseason to sort of make this our team and all of our tools and equipment and processes, I think it’s all adding up.”

Gibbs is doing what he can to contribute to the program, keeping himself fit for competition by cycling, as he regularly shows on his social-media platforms. That and his team’s internal changes are bearing fruit that may soon produce a trophy.

“Obviously, just changing some things up and adding some key players to the team has been really important,” Gibbs said. “And also just working hard on my end, doing a really good job with my nutritional side, my sleep and just everything, getting ready to be good at driving race cars.”

As Allen alluded, Bristol Motor Speedway is one of Gibbs’ best tracks on the circuit. His 440 laps led there are his most of any track by a long shot — his next best is 80 laps led at Charlotte Motor Speedway — and his four Bristol top 10s are his most anywhere. The upcoming Easter off weekend for the NASCAR Cup Series provides both a stoppage in momentum and a chance to evaluate any potential obstacles that lie ahead in Gibbs’ pursuit of his first Cup win.

“I think coming back from the offseason and having made a bunch of improvements, and then living the first few races, there’s always a couple more things you just want to work on, and the off week gives you the time to do that,” Allen said. “And then having the confidence that we’ve been running so well, everyone’s on board and everyone’s working hard, and I think that lends itself to more consistency.”

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to action at Bristol in the Food City 500 on Sunday, April 12 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.)

Posted on March 30, 2026March 30, 2026 by Zack Albert

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Being a powerhouse NASCAR team has its advantages, but as Hendrick Motorsports has discovered in its 42 years of business, that perch comes with lofty and sometimes unrealistic expectations. Several other teams had gone through the first six races winless without so much as a ripple, but when Rick Hendrick’s four-car group has any sluggishness to its start, it’s more of a wave, complete with alarm bells sounding.

What’s wrong? Have they lost a step? Has the rest of the field caught up? The buzz had grown incrementally louder as the handful of losses began to mount.

As unusual as the mini-slump might have been, the place where the organization’s modest recent skid ended was no surprise. Martinsville Speedway has been there when Hendrick has needed it most, and the team’s senior-most driver and his trusted crew chief delivered in the clutch.

Chase Elliott provided an encouraging boost in Sunday’s Cook Out 400, denying a dominant Denny Hamlin and riding a gutsy Alan Gustafson strategy call to victory at one of NASCAR’s original tracks. The first win of the season for Elliott and Hendrick was also the first for Chevrolet after a six-race blanking, but far from the team’s first at the 0.526-mile track. As the Sunday sun began to set, a Martinsville deckhand wheeled yet another grandfather clock trophy up to the frontstretch stage, marking the organization’s record 31st Cup Series triumph here.

Tyler Reddick has rightfully claimed his share of the headlines this year with four early wins, which stoked a stretch of five victories for Toyota just six races into the 2026 campaign. But Hendrick’s reliability at tried-and-true Martinsville provided Elliott & Co. with something to savor for an extra week, with the Cup Series idle during the Easter holiday.

“It’s the little things, man. You kind of definitely learn to enjoy that stuff,” Elliott said after his 22nd career Cup win, his second at Martinsville. “Yeah, just nice to kind of get to end this first stretch of the season going into the off week with the win is really cool. I mean, I know we still have a lot of room for improvement, don’t get me wrong, but great way to kind of cap off this first stretch. A lot of good momentum for the whole organization, honestly, I think.”

Crucially, the No. 9 team snatched the day’s momentum away from Hamlin, who led 292 of the 400 laps and seemingly had his second win of the season in hand. With Elliott running ninth just behind the fray of front-runners, Gustafson called Elliott to the pits on Lap 261, opting to roughly split the final and longest stage of the race into thirds with a two-stop strategy while other teams planned to make just one stop if the race went green.

The short-pit gamble eventually gave Elliott the lead with fresher tires as the pit cycle played out, and when a caution period for debris slowed the action on Lap 312, Elliott stopped again with the rest of the field — this time in second place behind Hamlin – to offset his tire deficit.

“It’s a risky call because you know you’re going two laps down, and if the caution comes out and you’re the first guy to do it, you can ruin your whole day,” Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon told NASCAR.com. “But at the same time, when it works out, if you look at the math, it looks like a better strategy in general to do two stops. It’s just when you do it here, you lose two laps under that pit road. So, they did a similar thing to this in ’24 and it worked out in their favor on that day, too. So I think if you ask Alan, he’s gonna say it’s probably not as risky maybe as it looks, but obviously paid off big-time today, and I couldn’t be happier for it to pay off for them and make that call.

“You’ve got to take risk in life. You’ve got to take risk in racing. They did it today, and then Chase got it done when he got up front.”

Ethan Smith | NASCAR Digital Media

Indeed, Gustafson was asked, and his impressions mirrored Gordon’s. Mathematically, he said, the overall edge on tires favored making two stops, but the counterpoint was that such a strategy left the team vulnerable to the possibility of an ill-timed yellow flag.

“At the same time, you can’t sit on your hands and run 10th,” Gustafson said. “You’ve got to do something, right? I think that was the best shot.”

Elliott did the rest, and his post-race praise of Gustafson’s leadership spoke volumes. The pair form the longest-running driver/crew chief pairing in the Cup Series garage, and Gustafson has drawn the larger share of social-media flak when dry spells have arisen. Elliott said he thought little of it when the team’s strategy veered from the norm — “I’ve told him this throughout the course of the season, ‘Hey, look, whatever you want to do, rip it.'” His unwavering support of Gustafson’s efforts was rewarded.

“It’s a great call. Glad he picked up on that, saw that. I don’t think anybody else did,” Elliott said. “Goes to show that he’s pretty good at what he does, which I try to tell y’all that all the time. But he does a pretty good job. I’m happy to work with him. Appreciate his effort, hanging in there, to our whole team for doing that, too. I appreciate that out of all of ’em.”

Gordon has noticed that commitment, too, from two perspectives. As a driver, he teamed with Gustafson for 11 Cup Series wins during Gordon’s last five full-time seasons (2011-15). As a team executive, he’s witnessed Gustafson’s confidence atop the pit box, a trait that’s helped override some of the noise from his detractors.

“You’ve always seen this, right? Whether it was Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Chase Elliott, whoever is the popular driver in the series, there’s a lot of critics that want to sit on the sidelines and evaluate it,” Gordon said. “You cannot let that tear you apart. You got to keep strong on the inside and believe in yourself and believe in your team, all the things you’re doing. That’s what Alan and Chase fall back on.”

On the eve of Sunday’s race, Elliott had described the team’s season to date as “super up and down,” though he entered Martinsville a respectable fifth in the Cup Series standings — tops among the Hendrick brigade. That mark, however, came against the backdrop of Reddick’s early runaway, both in points and wins.

MORE: Cup Series standings | Race Rewind: Martinsville

Hendrick Motorsports president Jeff Andrews admitted part of the struggle so far was in adapting to a new Chevrolet body, with tweaks to the durable Camaro’s aerodynamics that made their debut this season. Andrews said the adjustment period continues with “still a lot of work left to do,” but that Sunday’s showing delivered on some of the team’s promise.

“We’ve been locking arms,” Andrews said from Victory Lane. “Could not be more proud of the determination, the fight and the grit in Hendrick Motorsports. It’s what we do. This is where we belong, and this won’t be the last one this year.”

It also may not be the last for Elliott, who has scratched the win column in eight of the last nine years, but prevailed Sunday at the earliest point of the season in his Cup Series career. Those alarm bells now sound like the chimes of yet another grandfather clock.

“I mean, we feel like we’ve been close here for a long time, and I feel like if you keep kicking on the door long enough, it’s going to come down,” No. 9 jackman T.J. Semke told NASCAR.com, right after dousing himself with a water bottle to clear the champagne from his eyes. “Obviously, Alan made an awesome call. I felt like we executed on pit road, Chase laid it all out there, put it together, and when you do have days like that where everything’s clicking, sometimes you end up in Victory Lane.”

Posted on March 29, 2026March 29, 2026 by Zach Sturniolo

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Denny Hamlin dominated the day at Martinsville Speedway. But the winningest active driver at “The Paperclip” didn’t leave with his seventh grandfather clock.

Hamlin led a race-high 292 laps in Sunday’s Cook Out 400, but two late cautions took the lead away from the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, and Hamlin was never able to re-pass Chase Elliott, who drove away to his first win of 2026 while Hamlin finished second.

Hamlin radioed at Lap 356 of 400 that “I’ve got something going on with the rear of my car under braking.”

“It just felt different in the rear that run, so we’ll check it out,” Hamlin said. “But no excuses, we just got beat.”

Post-race debrief for the No. 11 team confirmed Hamlin’s suspicions.

“It looks like we had an issue with the left-rear wheel being a tiny bit loose — loose enough he probably could tell,” Gayle said. “There’s some fraying on the pins and some wear there, so it was definitely loose.”

Until that point, Hamlin was seemingly untouchable. William Byron worked past Hamlin for the race lead in lapped traffic at Lap 39, but six laps later, Hamlin drove right back by the No. 24 car. But track position, Hamlin said, ultimately proved too much to overcome, particularly battling instability in the rear of his car.

“It’s just the ability to have the cleaner air for the longer period of time made me heat my stuff up, which is what I did to 35 other guys for the bulk of the race,” Hamlin said. “So it just, once you run that dirty air for extended period of time, the car typically goes away.”

While dirty air was a factor, so too was added Goodyear rubber that was run into the asphalt throughout 400 grueling laps of competition around the 0.526-mile short track.

“We were a little tighter late as rubber got laid down,” Gayle said. “It was a little worse for us, harder for us to kind of get back through there as well. To be fair, Stage 1, you might hit it right off the truck. And then you start the race after everybody’s had three, four or five pit stops, everybody tightens up a little bit more, right? And so I think there’s a little bit of both of that going on.”

While disappointed to walk away without its second win of 2026, the No. 11 team was able to take solace in the new Chase format. Wins are no longer guaranteed tickets to a postseason run. Instead, the 16 highest point totals propel teams into the 10-race championship hunt.

Zach Sturniolo | NASCAR Digital Media

But when a team has a car as dominant as Hamlin’s was Sunday, leaving Martinsville with anything but a grandfather clock is sure to sting.

“It’s just a gut punch to lead that many laps and not win the race,” Gayle said. “But that’s not really fair, right? If you do that consistently enough, you’ll win your share of them, and that’s about all you can control. I mean, it looked like we were having some issues on restarts, too, that Denny talked about a little bit. I think that was a choice with an engine setting that we ran that may have caused some problems and made it harder, so we could have helped ourselves there, too.”

The day wasn’t completely without controversy for Hamlin. In a battle for third with Ryan Blaney, Hamlin washed up off Turn 4 and ultimately ran Blaney into the outside wall.

“I got ran in the fence,” Blaney told NASCAR.com. “That was my perspective.”

WATCH: Blaney recaps Martinsville performance

Blaney, who ran inside the top five much on Sunday’s race, radioed the “toe’s knocked out of it” after the impact.

“I lost control off Turn 4, spun the rears and just got higher than I wanted to,” Hamlin explained.

Hamlin told MRN Radio he needed to go talk with Blaney about the incident to apologize. Blaney ultimately finished sixth but felt he could have fought for the victory if not for that run-in.

“It’s definitely unfortunate what happened,” Blaney said. “I don’t really think I deserved what happened. It was the first time we were around each other all day, so I’m pretty curious of why I got stuffed in there like that. But yeah, I mean, disappointing to not run better than what we did. But on the other side, proud of the day that we had and thought we could contend for the win, and that kind of took us out. But overall, proud of the effort and pace and just didn’t really work out.”

Told that Blaney thought the incident was unnecessary, Hamlin said: “I wouldn’t disagree.”

MORE: Cup Series standings | Cup Series schedule

The series is off for Easter weekend but will return at Bristol Motor Speedway with the Food City 500 on Sunday, April 12 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on March 29, 2026March 30, 2026 by Staff Report

On a Lap 324 restart during Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway, Bubba Wallace and Carson Hocevar collided in Turns 3 and 4, sparking a multicar incident.

Entering Turn 3, the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota rammed the backside of Hocevar’s No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet. While the initial contact didn’t send Hocevar around, a stack-up ahead of Hocevar resulted in Wallace hitting the No. 77 again and eventually sending Hocevar around. Hocevar’s spin resulted in a multicar crash involving a handful of drivers.

Twelve cars were listed in the incident, including Zane Smith, Chris Buescher, Connor Zilisch and both Legacy Motor Club Toyotas of John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones.

Hocevar continued in the race on the lead lap, while Wallace’s day ended early.

Hocevar placed 17th when the checkered flag waved, while Wallace was credited with a season-worst 36th-place result.

Posted on March 29, 2026March 30, 2026 by Holly Cain

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Good pit strategy and a highly-motivated team rallied Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott to the NASCAR Cup Series victory Sunday in the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway; the sport’s reigning Most Popular Driver delivering Chevrolet its first win of the season, all to the delight of a huge, enthusiastic crowd at the historic half-miler.

Elliott short-pitted on lap 261 to gain track position, then moved his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet into the lead for good after a restart with 68 laps remaining — ultimately out-running the day’s most dominant driver, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin to the checkered flag by 0.565 seconds to extend the Hendrick team’s track record win total to 31 victories.

“It was definitely a team effort, how about that, that was awesome,” said Elliott, the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion, who made his very first Cup Series start at Martinsville exactly 11 years ago to the day.

“We’ve never had a win this early in the season. Just a really great team effort. So proud of [crew chief] Alan [Gustafson], the crew really did a great job. We took a gamble and were going to two-stop that last stage, and honestly believe it was going to work out either way. Just so proud. Sure is a lot of fun when days like this work out.”

Elliott, 30, of Dawsonville, Georgia, said he had been confident in the car’s speed all weekend and on Sunday, just needed that clutch pit call to get up front and seize the chance.

“This whole deal is really weird the way it works,” said Elliott, who now has 22 career wins. “Fortunately got that lead on the last one [restart] and fell into a good pace. Just had enough.

“Probably needed a little bit to be just the absolute best outright, but we were really close and were able to manage and save enough to get through traffic at the end.

“But man, it’s really cool when this stuff works out. To win these races is just so tough. Really grateful for the opportunity as always. I never take it for granted.”

SHOP: Winner gear

Hamlin’s No. 11 JGR Toyota led a race-best 292 of the 400 laps and, for much of the afternoon, looked to absolutely run away with his seventh grandfather clock trophy. But after Elliott got out front, Hamlin was playing catch-up and never really was able to get close enough to attempt a pass in the closing laps as the leaders navigated lapped traffic.

“He did a good job controlling the pace there,” said Hamlin, who won both stages and was actually leading by three-seconds at the point Elliott made that all-important short pit stop to get up to the front.

“Just really came from that bad restart — just not much more that I could have done there. I felt like we gave it our all.”

This year’s Las Vegas Motor Speedway spring winner, Hamlin said he was also concerned in the final laps that perhaps the car had a loose wheel on the final run, but said either way, “there are some races that get away from you in your career, and this was certainly one of them.”

Team Penske’s Joey Logano rebounded from a rough 33rd-place outing last week at Darlington Raceway to finish third Sunday — equaling his best showing of the season in the No. 22 Ford.

“Weekends like last weekend, you start to question everything, you have to right, as a competitor you have to do that, but nice to have a good rebound, solid car,” the three-time series champion Logano said. “Our car, honestly, if we were able to get to the lead, I don’t know that the 9-car [Elliott] was any better than us, he just got the clean air at the right time. Proud of this team.”

Fourth-place finisher Ty Gibbs earned his fifth consecutive top-six of the season in the No. 54 JGR Toyota and the fourth top-five in the last five races. It marks his first top-10 at Martinsville.

Hendrick Motorsports William Byron — a three-time Martinsville winner — was fifth after leading six laps in the No. 24 Chevrolet. Penske’s Ryan Blaney, JGR’s Christopher Bell, Penske’s Austin Cindric, Hendrick’s Kyle Larson and Wood Brothers’ Josh Berry rounded out the top-10.

Tyler Reddick, the season’s four-time race winner, finished 15th but still holds a massive 82-point advantage over Blaney and is 94 points ahead of Hamlin atop the Cup Series standings. Reddick’s 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace, who finished 36th after triggering a 12-car accident on lap 325, dropped from third place to 11th in the standings.

The Cup Series takes the first of the season’s two off-weeks next weekend before resuming competition April 12 in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Larson is the defending Bristol Spring race winner.

Stage 2 recap: Hamlin sweeps Martinsville stages

Hamlin continued his short-track mastery, leading the entire stage and making it known that the race win will have to go through him.

The Toyotas as a whole started to move forward with Hamlin’s JGR teammate Gibbs following the No. 11’s tire tracks and placing second in the middle frame.

The Team Penske trio also started flexing over the long run, with Logano, Blaney and Cindric settling into the top six.

William Byron was the highest-placed Chevrolet in fifth.

Reddick, Shane van Gisbergen, Larson and Berry took the remaining stage points.

After a fairly clean opening stage, the middle portion opened Pandora’s box slightly in terms of tire strategy after Noah Gragson was spun due to early contact in the stage and several cars in mid-pack opted for new tires, highlighted by defending series champion Larson, who was running 15th when the caution came out.

Stage 1 recap: Hamlin retakes lead from Byron before stage checkered

Hamlin won the opening frame of Sunday’s 400-lapper around the historic Martinsville Speedway.

Hamlin took command, leading the opening 38 laps from pole until he caught lapped traffic and lost the lead to Byron for a handful of laps. He retook it six laps later and won Stage 1 under caution after Cody Ware spun on Lap 78.

The six-time Martinsville winner won his ninth stage at “The Paperclip.” Byron, Berry, Gibbs and Cindric rounded out the top five.

Van Gisbergen, Logano, Blaney, Reddick and Ryan Preece completed the top 10 to earn stage points.

Brad Keselowski rolled off 23rd and charged all the way up to 16th in the first stint of Sunday’s contest as he looks to join Richard Petty as the only drivers to win in their 600th Cup start.

Note: Post-race technical inspection concluded in the Cup Series garage without issue, confirming Elliott as the race winner.

Posted on March 29, 2026March 29, 2026 by Staff Report

The NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series head to Martinsville Speedway for the first of two trips to the Virginia short track in 2026. Bookmark this page and come back often for your race-week essentials — from links to qualifying order, average practice speeds, results and more.

RELATED: Full weekend schedule | TV listings

NASCAR Cup Series

Race day: Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.

Tires: Ten sets for the weekend (eight new race sets, one set transferred from qualifying, one for practice). Teams will also be allotted four wet-weather sets, if necessary.

Entry List
Qualifying Order
Practice Results
Practice Lap Averages
Practice Lap Times
Qualifying Results
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series

Race day: Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET on The CW. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.

Tires: Five sets for the weekend (three new race sets, one set transferred from qualifying, one for practice). Teams will also be allotted three wet-weather sets, if necessary.

Entry List
Qualifying Order
Practice Results
Practice Lap Averages
Practice Lap Times
Starting Lineup (QUALIFYING CANCELED, set by rule book)
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

Posted on March 29, 2026March 29, 2026 by Staff Report

With the drop of the green flag Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, Brad Keselowski eclipsed 600 career NASCAR Cup Series starts, becoming just the 35th driver to reach that historic threshold.

“I just wanted to have a career and was trying to prove myself,” Keselowski said in a team release. “To think that I’ve had another 599 since then is pretty cool. I just want to sit down with a 24-year-old me and tell him that was going to happen.

“When I first got in a Cup [car], I just wanted to be here. I didn’t think about anything outside of that,” he added. “I didn’t think of the stats. I didn’t think about the accolades. I just wanted to be here, and I’m lucky to be here.”

From Rochester Hills, Michigan, Keselowski made his first NASCAR start in 2004, driving for his father, Bob, in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. He debuted in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series in 2006 before making his Cup Series debut for Hendrick Motorsports in 2008. A year later, driving a part-time Cup schedule for multiple teams, Keselowski won his first premier-series race at Talladega Superspeedway, coming in a James Finch-owned Chevrolet.

His Cup Series career officially took off in 2010, when he moved to Team Penske’s No. 12 Dodge entry for the full campaign. While he went winless and missed The Chase, he put together a stellar O’Reilly Series season in the team’s No. 22 entry, winning the series championship.

In 2011, Keselowski turned into one of the Cup Series’ elite young drivers. Switching to the No. 2 entry, he won three times and finished fifth in points. A year later, he reached the sport’s pinnacle, earning his first and only series championship, highlighted by five victories and remarkable consistency through the 10-race Chase.

Keselowski drove for Roger Penske through the 2021 season. He earned 34 victories for the organization and banked nine top-10 finishes in points, including a runner-up in 2020.

“I was really blessed to have the opportunity to drive for Roger Penske, a great chapter in my career,” Keselowski said in a media teleconference earlier this season. “We did a lot of really cool things together. Winning the championships in both the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and the Cup Series was just highlights of my career. I look back really fondly on most of it.”

Entering his age-38 season, Keselowski took a leap of faith. He bought an ownership stake in what’s now RFK Racing and switched to the team’s No. 6 Ford starting with the 2022 season. Keselowski finished 24th in his debut season, but made the playoffs in a 2023 season highlighted by Chris Buescher’s three victories in the team’s No. 17 entry. A year later, Keselowski won at Darlington Raceway for his first victory as both driver and owner.

Keselowski got off to a difficult start in 2025 as RFK expanded to three full-time cars with Ryan Preece joining the fold in the No. 60 Ford. All three drivers missed the playoffs, but Keselowski showed signs of life in the back half of the campaign with a trio of runner-up finishes.

But entering 2026, Keselowski faced arguably his greatest challenge yet.

During the offseason, the future Hall of Famer fell and broke his femur during a vacation with his family. He was rushed into surgery, and later admitted he wasn’t sure if he’d ever walk again. But through consistent winter rehab, Keselowski climbed back into his No. 6 Ford just in time for the Daytona 500, finishing fifth.

Through six races, he’s finished no worse than 20th and enters Martinsville ninth in points after leading 142 laps and coming home second at Darlington.

“Driving the race car is a blessing and a curse,” Keselowski said. “It’s a blessing because it provides the motivation for me to really push my rehab and do things faster than normal, which is not a bad thing. But it’s a curse because, yes, when I get in the car, it does hurt, it does pull me backward.”

While Keselowski is one of NASCAR’s elder statesmen, he feels the end of his Cup career is nowhere in sight, with at least 800 starts in mind.

“I think that’s a good goal,” he said.

Posted on March 29, 2026March 29, 2026 by Zack Albert

The NASCAR Hall of Fame revealed its ballot of 15 nominees for the Class of 2027 on Sunday, adding Kevin Harvick, Ray Elder and Ernie Elliott to the list of Modern Era candidates for induction.

Ray Fox and Herb Nab, two prominent figures from the world of mechanics and crew chiefs, have been added to the Pioneer Era Ballot, and longtime sports marketing guru T. Wayne Robertson joins the list of five nominees for the Landmark Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to stock-car racing.

The Hall of Fame voting panel will meet in person to cast ballots on Tuesday, May 19 in Charlotte. Fan voting, which will count as one ballot toward the selection of next year’s class, will be open from April 14 to May 17 on NASCAR.com.

The announcement came during FOX Sports’ pre-race broadcast for Sunday’s Cook Out 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Martinsville Speedway with NASCAR Vice Chairman Mike Helton helping to do the honors.

RELATED: NASCAR Hall of Fame members

Harvick, in his third season as an analyst in the FOX Sports booth, appears on the ballot for the first time with credentials that include the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series championship and 60 Cup wins, including the 2007 Daytona 500 crown. He also won 47 times and scored a pair of titles in what’s now known as the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.

Elder, another California campaigner, won a record six championships in the former NASCAR Winston West Series, which evolved into the current-day ARCA Menards Series West. He won twice in the Cup Series — both victories coming at the old Riverside International Raceway road course in his home state — and his 47 West Series wins rank second on the tour’s all-time list.

Elliott, brother of Class of 2015 inductee Bill Elliott, earned nomination as a master engine builder who powered his family racing team to 40 Cup Series victories and the 1988 championship. Elliott was recognized as Engine Builder of the Decade after leading the No. 9 Ford to dominance in the mid- to late 1980s.

Those three replace Class of 2026 inductees Kurt Busch and Harry Gant plus legendary crew chief Harry Hyde, who moves from the Modern Era Ballot to the Pioneer Era Ballot, which recognizes industry figures whose careers began at least 60 years ago. The rest of the Modern Era nominees are Greg Biffle, Neil Bonnett, Tim Brewer, Jeff Burton, Randy Dorton, Randy LaJoie and Jack Sprague. Two inductees will be enshrined from the Modern Era list of 10.

The Pioneer Ballot will present one candidate for induction from a list of five nominees, which features two new names this year. Fox, a successful mechanic and car owner from NASCAR’s early years, reappears on the ballot for the first time since 2020. Nab, who won 92 Cup Series races and a pair of championships with Cale Yarborough for car owner Junior Johnson, makes his first appearance on the ballot.

Fox, Nab and Hyde join returning Pioneer Ballot nominees Banjo Matthews and Larry Phillips on the voting list. Jake Elder and Bob Welborn have dropped off the ballot.

Robertson guided the powerful R.J. Reynolds marketing arm during a time of significant growth for the sport. He was a senior vice president at the tobacco company, and his Sports Marketing Enterprises division produced widespread exposure for NASCAR, including a role in the creation of the NASCAR All-Star Race, then called “The Winston” at its 1985 debut.

Robertson makes his first ballot appearance alongside four returning candidates for the Landmark Award: Alvin Hawkins, Lesa France Kennedy, Dr. Joseph Mattioli and Les Richter.

The election results and the new Class of 2027 members and Landmark Award recipient will be revealed after the annual Voting Day meeting on May 19. The announcement will be broadcast live from the NASCAR Hall of Fame; fans may watch in person from the Great Hall or live on the NASCAR Channel.

The full list of nominees (in alphabetical order) with biographies provided by the NASCAR Hall of Fame:

Modern Era Ballot

Greg Biffle, 2000 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion and 2002 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion.

Neil Bonnett, 18-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner, including consecutive Coca-Cola 600 victories.

Tim Brewer, two-time NASCAR Cup Series championship-winning crew chief.

Jeff Burton, 21-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner, including the Southern 500 and two Coca-Cola 600 victories.

Randy Dorton, built engines that won over nine championships across NASCAR’s national series.

Ray Elder, six-time ARCA Menards Series West champion.

Ernie Elliott, 1988 NASCAR Cup Series championship-winning crew chief, including victories in two Daytona 500s and two Southern 500s.

Kevin Harvick, 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion, winner of the 2007 Daytona 500, and two-time NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion.

Randy LaJoie, two-time NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion and 1985 NASCAR North Tour champion.

Jack Sprague, three-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion.

Pioneer Ballot

Ray Fox, 1956 NASCAR Mechanic of the Year and 14-time NASCAR Cup Series winner as an owner, including the Southern 500.

Harry Hyde, 1970 NASCAR Cup Series championship-winning crew chief.

Banjo Matthews, built cars that won more than 250 NASCAR Cup Series races and three championships.

Herb Nab, two-time NASCAR Cup Series championship-winning crew chief; ranks third on the all-time crew chief wins list with 92.

Larry Phillips, five-time NASCAR Weekly Series national champion.

Landmark Award

Alvin Hawkins, NASCAR’s first flagman; established NASCAR racing at Bowman Gray Stadium with Bill France Sr.

Lesa France Kennedy, NASCAR Executive Vice Chair and one of the most influential women in sports.

Dr. Joseph Mattioli, founder of Pocono Raceway.

Les Richter, longtime NASCAR executive who oversaw competition, helped grow the sport on the West Coast.

T. Wayne Robertson, held dual roles of senior vice president at R.J. Reynolds and president of the company’s Sports Marketing Enterprises division, oversaw the creation of The Winston.

Posted on March 29, 2026March 29, 2026 by Zach Sturniolo

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — The last time Hendrick Motorsports went to Victory Lane was here last fall at Martinsville Speedway.

The team is ready to book another stay.

Perception of how the four-car organization has started the 2026 campaign probably depends on which team you’re asking. But the stats bear out a generally favorable start for the defending champions entering Sunday’s Cook Out 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

MORE: Martinsville starting lineup | At-track photos

While the No. 48 team perseveres through Alex Bowman’s bout with vertigo, Hendrick’s other programs have found reasonable success. Chase Elliott has wheeled the No. 9 Chevrolet to fifth in the standings with William Byron’s No. 24 team sixth and Kyle Larson’s No. 5 program in 10th.

Coming just short of a Daytona 500 victory, Elliott has four finishes of 11th or better this year with four top-five qualifying efforts, but that hasn’t been enough to wow him yet as the team navigates a new body style on its Chevrolet Camaro ZL1s.

“It’s been super up and down,” Elliott said Saturday. “You know, I thought if you take the speedways out of it, Phoenix I thought was just a down weekend overall, just in general. I thought Vegas was really strong. We didn’t qualify super good but raced really well. Darlington, I thought was less than what I would like to see. So been kind of up and down. COTA, we did qualify well — ran really bad in the race. So there’s been a little bit of everything in all of it.

“Just trying to piece all that together because some of the trends I feel like of last year haven’t really been the trends of this year so far. So I’m not sure if that’s body related or other things related, I really don’t know. So, yeah, we’re just working through it to grind. Obviously, as we all know, it’s very much a marathon of a year, and narratives, as always, can can change really fast.”

Last week’s showing at Darlington Raceway was disheartening for Hendrick Motorsports — Byron finished eighth, with his teammates 15th or worse (Elliott 15th, Justin Allgaier 24th, Larson 32nd). But it was a marked improvement from last Labor Day’s Southern 500, when none of the team’s drivers placed higher than 17th.

“We still have to improve at that track,” Larson said of Darlington. “I would say that’s not all tracks, you know? Like Vegas, we were really strong. Us at the 5 car and 24 and 9, we were just a small step behind the (Joe Gibbs Racing) cars there. Better than the 23XI (Racing) cars at that track. So I mean, I think it’s track to track a little bit right now with where we’re at, but obviously always want to get better. You’re trying to learn as quickly as possible.”

Sean Gardner | Getty Images

If nothing else, the team’s internal discourse after its Darlington woes seemed to push Hendrick Motorsports in the right direction.

“I thought (Byron) and really all four of us last week had really similar comments in our meeting on Monday,” Elliott said. “With that being said, I thought that that’s both good and bad, right? Like, it’s a good thing that we’re all kind of on the same page. It’s a bad thing that we were screaming as much as we were, but I think that’s part of it. That’s part of the deal, especially when you have a change, you shift aero balance and have an aerodynamic adjustment like we had over the winter.

“It’s just takes time, so we’re working through it. Hopefully this weekend is a good step, but we’ll see. This is another very different track type that we haven’t really seen yet. Phoenix was a certain way, Vegas was a certain way. Darlington was another certain way. And this is kind of different, too. So we’re trying to work through it until we see all these places. We’ve just got to keep our heads down and keep building our notebook.”

Byron has generally been pleased with his starts, highlighting how well his team has executed its race days. But practice and qualifying stands out to the 28-year-old as an area where the No. 24 team could improve.

“I think we need to do a better job on balance on Saturdays so that we’re not guessing so much for Sundays,” Byron said. “Some of that could be obviously the new body, but also just tire changes and things of that nature. We need to do a better job of utilizing our tools and getting closer to unload so that we’re not guessing so much.

“If we have smoother Saturdays, we qualify better and we don’t have so many question marks going in Sunday, we’ll probably have a better weekend.”

The group seemed to find something helpful at Martinsville because Byron qualified second, behind only Denny Hamlin in Saturday’s time trials.

Byron also pointed to pit road as a possible area of improvement, eyeing everything from what he can do better behind the wheel to choosing having better pit-stall selection.

“I think trying to be as quick as we can be, especially when we have track position, we have an opportunity to capitalize and gain a spot inside the top five because I feel like those spots are a lot harder to come by on-track, as well,” Byron said.

Posted on March 28, 2026March 28, 2026 by Adam Fenwick

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Throughout Martinsville Speedway’s long history, some of Modified racing’s best have found their way to Victory Lane.

Richie Evans. Mike Ewanitsko. Reggie Ruggiero. Tony Hirschman. Justin Bonsignore. They’ve all won in a Modified at Martinsville.

On Saturday, a new name was added to the exclusive list.

Stephen Kopcik held off Ron Silk during a late restart to win Saturday’s Virginia is for Racing Lovers 200, which was postponed one day due to inclement weather.

The victory, which came in his 23rd career start, was the first of Kopcik’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour career. He is the 82nd driver to win a series event since the formation of the modern Tour in 1985.

“I knew I had a car capable of winning. It was up to me to not screw anything up on every restart,” Kopcik said. “It’s crazy. I knew I had a good car, but Ron also had a good car. He got by me earlier in the race, and I wasn’t sure what he had left.

“You never know; he had a great car tonight too. Just glad we could come out on top.”

Before the green flag even waved for the 200-lap event, Kopcik and his Wanick Motorsports team had a plan. The goal was to stay off cycle with the other leaders, which the team hoped would allow Kopcik to maintain track position and, hopefully, control of the race.

The plan worked perfectly.

Stephen Kopcik on his way to victory Saturday night at Martinsville Speedway. (Photo: Adam Fenwick/NASCAR)

Kopcik, who started 12th, took the lead with 50 laps left during a cycle of pit stops. From that point forward, the path to victory ran through him.

The driver from Newtown, Connecticut survived three more restarts, including the final green flag with four laps left, to etch his name in history as a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour winner at Martinsville Speedway.

Now he just needs figure out where to put his new grandfather clock.

“Probably the biggest win of my career at this point,” Kopcik said. “Coolest trophy, biggest win, coolest place to win at. I would say this tops most all of them.

“We’ll remember this one forever.”

Silk finished second, a career best at Martinsville for the two-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion. Tyler Rypkema drove the Ole Blue No. 3 to a third-place finish, followed by Eric Goodale and defending series champion Austin Beers.

Polesitter Patrick Emerling, Kyle Bonsignore, Tommy Catalano, Timmy Solomito and Ryan Newman were sixth through 10th, respectively.

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season continues with its annual spring trip to Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park on Sunday, April 12. Fans unable to attend in person can watch the race live on FloRacing at 4:30 p.m. ET.