Goodyear officials announced Tuesday that a familiar tire setup will be in play for the NASCAR Cup Series this Sunday at Martinsville Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
This softer left-side Cup Series tire, introduced last October at the Virginia half-miler, will again be used during the 2025 spring competition. The left-side tire – designed to deliver more fall-off than previous iterations – will be paired with the same right-side tire used since the fall of 2024.
“Martinsville is the first true short track on this year’s schedule and combines tight concrete corners with long asphalt straightaways, earning its ‘Paperclip’ nickname,” said Rick Heinrich, Goodyear NASCAR product manager. “We introduced this Goodyear Racing Eagle tire setup last fall, so Cup Series teams already have some data to help their strategies this weekend.”
Each Cup Series team will receive 10 sets of tires, with eight sets divvied for the race, one for practice and another for qualifying that carries over to Sunday’s 400-lapper. Four wet-weather sets will additionally be allotted if needed.
The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, meanwhile, will also have familiarity with the tires. Goodyear’s 15-inch setup for Martinsville, in use since 2022, will again be in effect for Saturday’s competition (3:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Each O’Reilly Series team will receive five tire sets: three for the race, one for practice and one for qualifying, which transfers to the 250-lap event. Three wet-weather sets will be provided if needed.
NASCAR.com’s Zach Sturniolo ranks the top 20 Cup Series drivers competing for the 2026 championship after Tyler Reddick’s win at Darlington Raceway and before Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Denny Hamlin enters as the defending winner.
Analysis: It should come as little surprise that regular ranker Pat DeCola hit the nail on the head last week when he said “more wins will come” for Reddick. That Reddick proved him right in the same week is just a sign of how great things are going for the No. 45 team. This is an unbelievable start for Reddick — even after early-race voltage issues and late-race contact — but he will face his biggest test yet at Martinsville, where he has just two top 10s in 12 starts with an average finish of 19.4.
Analysis: Tough sledding on pit road hasn’t stopped Blaney yet. Despite another rough afternoon of work for the No. 12 Team Penske group, Blaney rallied for the second time in three weeks for a top-five finish. No, the payoff wasn’t quite as sweet as his Phoenix win on March 8. But a third-place effort before heading to Martinsville is bad news for the field. The 0.526-mile oval is easily his best track on the circuit, where he’s collected two wins, 11 top fives and 13 top 10s to post a personal-best 8.2 average finish.
Analysis: Hamlin wasn’t his usual dominant self at Darlington, with Sunday marking his first start without laps led at the “Lady in Black” since May 2020, a span of 13 races. Expect Hamlin to bounce back into race-winning form Sunday at Martinsville, where he won last spring for the sixth time in his storied career — with a top-10 rate of 65.7% (27 in 40 starts).
Analysis: A solid-if-not-impressive showing for Larson fell flat in the closing laps, when the two-time and defending champion slid into the Turn 1 wall and broke a right-rear toe link, plummeting him to a 32nd-place finish, two laps down. Larson began his career as hit-or-miss at Martinsville, but his performance has stabilized incredibly well since joining Hendrick Motorsports. In the seven races since the fall of 2022, Larson hasn’t finished worse than sixth, netting one win and six top fives in those events.
Analysis: Elliott started the weekend strong with a third-place qualifying effort on Saturday, but that speed never quite translated on Sunday, ultimately landing 15th. The No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports team has proven it can contend already this season, with Elliott nearly winning the Daytona 500 and finishing second to Hamlin at Las Vegas two weeks ago. It’s a wonder Elliott hasn’t won more — or more recently than 2020 — at Martinsville. The 2020 champ has finished fourth or better in each of the past four races at the paperclip-shaped track, with 40 laps led or more in four of the past five.
Analysis: Darlington was a quiet weekend for the No. 24 team, which rattled off an eighth-place finish while picking up five stage points in the process. Byron is finding his footing after a fairly slow start, entering Martinsville with three straight top 10s and a top five heading to one of his favorite tracks. The 28-year-old dominated last fall’s race at Martinsville, leading 304 laps and muscling past Ryan Blaney for his third Martinsville win in his last eight starts there.
Analysis: Wallace looked ready to keep pace with his 23XI Racing teammate Tyler Reddick at Darlington until misfortune landed in his lap. After qualifying second and finishing fourth in Stage 1, Wallace had a slow pit stop during the stage break and restarted 16th. That poor track position put him in harm’s way when Erik Jones and Denny Hamlin collided in front of him at Lap 111. The damage to Wallace’s car took him out of contention and dropped him to a 34th-place finish, five laps down. The good news: Wallace is a typical contender at Martinsville, finishing 11th or better in five of the last seven races there.
Analysis: For the second time in three years, Buescher seemed destined to win the spring race at Darlington. For the second time in three years, Darlington was “Too Tough to Tame” for Buescher after late contact with Tyler Reddick. Buescher gambled to hit pit road right after teammate Brad Keselowski passed him for the lead — but Reddick was right behind him, and Buescher’s abrupt attempt to slow down brought the two together again. Still, Buescher salvaged a ninth-place finish, a decent result before heading to Martinsville, where he has just two top 10s in 21 starts and none in his last four.
Analysis: Gibbs’ hot start continued at Darlington, where his sixth-place finish marked the best for all of Joe Gibbs Racing. Will that translate to his first top-10 finish at Martinsville in his eighth start? It wouldn’t be crazy considering he finished 13th and 12th in last year’s two trips to the Virginia track. Gibbs is also looking for his first laps led on the half-mile.
Analysis: Bell had a forgettable 19th-place showing at Darlington, ending a three-race stretch of consecutive top fives. But the 31-year-old can quickly shift his focus to Martinsville, where he’s finished inside the top 10 in three of the last five races, including both events in 2025. And don’t forget — when everyone was talking about Ross Chastain’s “Hail Melon” move, it was Bell who won that Martinsville race in October 2022.
Analysis: Keselowski looked like the Brad of old Sunday at Darlington, leading a race-high 142 laps, sweeping the stages, and ultimately finishing second to Reddick in the Goodyear 400. Fittingly, that marked his most laps led in a single race since he led 170 at Martinsville back in the fall of 2024. Keselowski hasn’t had the same Martinsville magic in recent years as he once did — in 14 starts there between 2015 and 2021, Keselowski earned two wins, 11 top fives and 12 top 10s — but perhaps Sunday’s run at Darlington rekindled some of the spark needed to right the ship.
Analysis: Briscoe was running fifth when he collided with Riley Herbst in Turns 3 and 4 with two laps to go, dropping him to a 12th-place finish instead. The result still netted him his second-best points day of the season with 32 points earned, but the No. 19 team needs as many points as it can muster with two one-point days in six races. Martinsville may provide an opportunity for more: Briscoe has six top 10s in his last eight Martinsville starts, including two top fives.
Analysis: Preece has embodied consistency over the last three weeks with finishes of 13th (Phoenix), 11th (Las Vegas) and 13th again at Darlington. Now, the driver of the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford returns to a track where he knows he can make a splash. Martinsville is one of Preece’s best tracks on the circuit, netting three top 10s and 135 laps led, both marking or tying his most at any venue on the schedule. Preece took a Cup car to Victory Lane for the first time back in February at the exhibition Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, another short track. Is the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville going to be the site of his first points-paying Cup win?
Analysis: If you would have told me Shane van Gisbergen would be Trackhouse Racing’s top finisher at Darlington, of all places — especially over Ross Chastain — I simply would not have believed you. And yet, SVG is more than finding his groove on ovals, mustering a 14th-place finish Sunday afternoon to rebound from Lap 1 trouble that sent him reeling at Las Vegas. This sudden oval prowess could prove itself again at Martinsville, where he has two top-15 finishes in three starts.
Analysis: Sunday could not have gone worse for Logano and the No. 22 team, which struggled toward a 33rd-place finish, three laps down, scoring a measly four points while both his Team Penske teammates, Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric, netted top fives. The good news (and boy, could he use some after Darlington) is that Martinsville is typically a great track for Logano. While the three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion hasn’t won there since 2018, he has an active top-10 streak of 13 straight races there, including two runner-up finishes in that stretch.
Analysis: A great call by crew chief Luke Lambert and a better drive by Hocevar netted the No. 77 team a top-five finish in its throwback scheme to Dale Earnhardt, earning Chevrolet its best result of the day at Darlington after pitting for tires later than everyone else. The question is whether performances like that should be the expected norm — he finished fourth at EchoPark Speedway, too — or if we should anticipate more mid-pack finishes following a stretch of finishes of 31st, 20th and 22nd in the three races between EchoPark and Darlington. It may be more of the latter at Martinsville, where Hocevar has yet to finish better than 17th in five starts.
Analysis: One way to fight back after an intense conversation with your competitors is to simply outrun them, exactly like Suárez did Sunday at Darlington with a seventh-place finish. With a 16.3 average finish through six races, Suárez is off to his best start since 2023, when he averaged a 14.1 finish across that span. Martinsville has never been a strong suit of his, however, with just two top 10s in 18 starts — most recently in 2019.
Analysis: This has been far from the start Chastain was expecting. His third-place finish at EchoPark Speedway marks his only top 15 so far this year, with middling results of 17th at Vegas and 16th at Darlington as his next-best showings. Certainly, the tide must turn eventually for Chastain, a proven winner in the Cup Series. Perhaps that will happen at Martinsville, where he’s finished eighth or better in the last three races.
Analysis: Jones put together one heck of a rally Sunday, bouncing back from an early spin to put his No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota into the top 10 and into the rankings for the first time this season. That’s Jones’ second top 10 in three weeks, enveloping a 20th-place finish at Las Vegas in between. Martinsville has the potential to be a step back for Jones, who has one top 10 there in 18 starts (back in 2021, mind you). But Legacy has slowly been improving. Maybe that plays into his favor this time around.
Analysis: The start of this season has been a rough go for Cindric, who had just one top 20 after five races. He came alive in a big way at Darlington, though, earning a fifth-place finish on a hard-fought day to collect 38 points, his most in one race since scoring 41 at Richmond Raceway in August 2025. He’s been hot and cold at Martinsville, with one top five, two top 10s and four finishes of 23rd or worse in eight starts. Will momentum from Darlington translate to Martinsville? Cindric sure hopes so.
Tyler Reddick’s dream start to the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season continued in Sunday afternoon’s 293-lap showdown at Darlington Raceway after finding Victory Lane in the Goodyear 400, which puts him in the history books alongside Bill Elliott (1992) and Dale Earnhardt (1987) as the third driver to win four of the first six races in a season.
A few setbacks along the way, such as a slow pit stop and issues with his alternator and cool suit in the opening stage, knocked the pole-winning No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota to the tail of the field for the Stage 2 restart after coming to the pits before it opened. Reddick put his “I know never to give up” attitude to the test, passing Brad Keselowski on Lap 266 to complete the epic comeback.
Other drivers found positives from the historic 1.366-mile South Carolina track, while others left the “Lady in Black” with Darlington stripes and wondered how it all went wrong. Here’s a glance at three drivers on the upswing, plus three more who hope to put a disappointing day in the rearview mirror in this Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
What happened: Cindric finally got his first “long overdue” top five of the 2026 season after his No. 2 team fully executed the race from start to finish. He helped put two Team Penske Fords in the top five, with teammate Ryan Blaney finishing third in the 293-lap event. Before placing fifth at Darlington, Cindric’s first five races of the year were finishes of 19th or worse.
What’s next: The No. 2 Team Penske Ford driver’s top-five day at Darlington moved him up to 21st in the Cup Series standings. Cindric hopes to keep progressing until he is in the top 16 in points, but his eight career starts at Martinsville have produced mixed results. In those eight starts, he has finished 15th or better four times, with the other four races being finishes of 23rd or worse.
Ethan Smith | For NASCAR Digital Media
2. Daniel Suárez, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
Started: 11th
Finished: 7th
What happened: Suárez’s No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet ran strong all weekend in South Carolina. He was fourth in practice, 11th in qualifying and seventh in the race. From the time the green flag waved, Suárez rarely fell out of the top 10 during the race, earning his second top-10 finish of the season. One week after a squabble on pit road at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with former Trackhouse Racing teammate Ross Chastain, the 34-year-old Mexican driver moved on from that incident pretty quickly and locked in for a great result at Darlington.
What’s next: Martinsville is not one of Suárez’s strongest venues, scoring only two top 10s in his Cup Series career. He has also finished outside the top 20 in his last five races at the Virginia short track. However, given how the move to Spire has seemingly given him a “pep in his step,” Suárez could be in line for another strong showing.
Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images
3. Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota
Started: 24th
Finished: 10th
What happened: Once again, the No. 43 Legacy Motor Club driver used his past Darlington success to his advantage to move from 24th into the top 15 early in the race. However, Jones’ progress was interrupted in Stage 2 when Denny Hamlin got into his rear on Lap 111, sending the No. 43 Toyota spinning in Turn 3. The 29-year-old Byron, Michigan, native rallied to collect a top 10, his 10th career top-10 finish at the track “Too Tough to Tame.”
What’s next: With two top 10s in the last three Cup Series races, “That Jones Boy” will look to build momentum and click off more strong results for the No. 43 team. Gaining three spots and moving up to 24th in the standings, Jones will look ahead to Martinsville, hoping for a better run at the Virginia short track after finishing outside the top 30 in both races last year.
Ethan Smith | For NASCAR Digital Media
THREE DOWN ⬇️
1. Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Started: 4th
Finished: 32nd
What happened: With 10 laps to go, Larson was running 11th and seemed destined for a solid result and points day at Darlington. However, the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet smacked the Turn 1 wall and suffered damage. Larson spent the final laps nursing his car home and simply trying to finish the race. Scoring points in the first two stages allowed him to salvage 19 points in all in what turned out to be a frustrating ending in South Carolina.
What’s next: If the defending Cup Series champion wants to break his 30-race winless streak, Martinsville might be the perfect destination to return to Victory Lane. Martinsville is one of Hendrick’s most successful tracks as an organization, and Larson has not finished worse than sixth in his last seven races at the “Paperclip.”
Ethan Smith | For NASCAR Digital Media
2. Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford
Started: 29th
Finished: 33rd
What happened: The No. 22 team’s entire weekend at Darlington was a major head scratcher. Logano was 35th in practice, 29th in qualifying and 33rd in the race, three laps down. Speed was nonexistent from the time the No. 22 Team Penske Ford rolled off the hauler, which is very uncharacteristic of the group led by crew chief Paul Wolfe. Watching teammates Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric pick up a pair of top fives for Team Penske made Logano’s lackluster performance more shocking.
What’s next: With Darlington proving to be “Too Tough to Tame” for Logano this time around, he dropped from 11th to 16th in the Cup Series standings. Look for the No. 22 Ford driver to return to form at Martinsville, where he has an impressive streak of 13 consecutive top-10 finishes.
Brittney King | NASCAR Digital Media
3. Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota
Started: 2nd
Finished: 34th
What happened: Wallace got off to a strong start with a fourth-place result in Stage 1 before a slow pit stop during the stage break cost the No. 23 Toyota driver 12 spots. The lost track position put Wallace in a treacherous spot as he was caught in an incident involving Jones and Hamlin on Lap 111. The damage was too much to overcome, with Wallace settling for his first finish of the 2026 season lower than 11th place. In reference to the slow pit stop that put him in harm’s way, Wallace told his team over the radio: “That’s what we [expletive] get.”
What’s next: The 23XI driver’s bad day at Darlington only cost him a spot in the Cup Series standings, leaving South Carolina third in points behind teammate Reddick and Team Penske’s Blaney. Before the misfortune at the “Lady in Black,” Wallace had five straight finishes of 11th or better. With Martinsville next on the schedule, the chances of rebounding seem high; Wallace has two top fives in the last four races at the Virginia short track.
The NASCAR Cup Series treks to Virginia for the first half-mile bout of the 2026 season with a race at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The short-track contest will be the first of two consecutive races on such tracks, with Bristol Motor Speedway following on April 12. Denny Hamlin, who already has a 2026 victory to his ledger (Las Vegas), is the defending Martinsville spring winner.
The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series travels to Virginia for the first of two races at Martinsville Speedway this season, racing at the iconic venue on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Martinsville will be the first half-mile track on the docket for the circuit. Austin Hill is the defending spring winner.
Luke Baldwin will make his O’Reilly Auto Parts Series debut as driver of the No. 5 Hettinger Racing Ford. Baldwin, the two-time and reigning SMART Modified Tour champion, recently ran a part-time schedule in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2025, tallying five starts with ThorSport Racing.
MOORESVILLE, N.C. – Rising star Luke Baldwin will grab another rung on the NASCAR ladder when he makes his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series debut on Saturday in the NFPA 250 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
The two-time and reigning SMART Modified Tour champion will drive the No. 5 Victory Custom Trailers Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Hettinger Racing.
“With all that Luke has achieved of late, a lot of people have their eyes on him. We’re proud to be the ones he chose to make his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series debut,” said team owner Chris Hettinger.
“The O’Reilly Series is a big step up, but Martinsville is a flat and fast short track, and it’s the kind of place where Luke has excelled. He’s proven he can adapt quickly and run up front driving all kinds of cars. Martinsville is the right track and this is the right time for Luke to have this opportunity.”
While new to the O’Reilly Series, Baldwin is not new to Martinsville. The 19-year-old has a pair of NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour starts at the .526-mile oval, along with a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start. Boding well for Baldwin’s O’Reilly Series debut is that he earned his best Martinsville result in his first race there – Oct. 26, 2024, when the third-generation racer qualified second and finished seventh in the Modified Tour season finale.
There is also a family connection to Martinsville. Baldwin’s grandfather, Tommy Baldwin Sr., is a two-time Modified Tour winner at Martinsville (April 23, 1988, and Oct. 30, 1988), and Baldwin’s father, Tommy Baldwin Jr., was the crew chief for those wins. Today, Tommy Baldwin Jr., is the competition director for Rick Ware Racing’s NASCAR Cup Series team after successful stints as a Cup Series crew chief and team owner.
“Martinsville has always meant a lot to my family, so to have my own opportunity at the track is definitely special,” Baldwin said. “It’s a place where I have a decent level of comfort in terms of feel and what I need in the racecar to make a fast lap. It’s tight, it’s physical, and you have to race smart to be there at the end. I’ve been fortunate to have some good experiences there already, so the goal is to lean on that and keep learning throughout the race.”
Baldwin comes into 2026 after an impressive 2025. His back-to-back SMART Modified Tour titles made him the youngest two-time champion in series history. At the season-ending awards banquet, Baldwin was named Driver of the Year, as he also led the series in wins (four), poles (three), laps led (293), and top-five finishes (10).
At the same time, Baldwin helped deliver the 2025 zMAX CARS Tour owners’ title to Rick Ware Racing (RWR) in the Pro Late Model division. The Mooresville, North Carolina, native split driving duties with four other drivers, but Baldwin still led the way with two victories. His pole run and second-place finish in the season finale Oct. 18 at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway clinched the championship for RWR.
“I’m really proud of what we accomplished last season,” Baldwin said. “Winning back-to-back SMART Modified Tour championships takes a lot of hard work from a lot of people, and being able to help RWR win a CARS Tour owners’ title made it even more special. Opportunities like this don’t come around without results, so I’m really thankful for everyone who’s helped me get to this point.”
Baldwin made five Truck Series starts in 2025 and is set to more than double that effort in 2026 with a 12-race stint for Team Reaume that begins next weekend at Rockingham (N.C.) Speedway.
“This is a really good way to head into Rockingham,” Baldwin said. “The O’Reilly Series is a step up in competition, and Martinsville is a place that really challenges you as a driver. There’s a lot to learn in a short amount of time, and that’s how it’ll be at Rockingham, too. A solid weekend at Martinsville is the best preparation for next week’s Truck race.”
Baldwin’s O’Reilly Series debut begins Friday with a 50-minute practice starting at 4:30 p.m. EDT before qualifying at 5:35 p.m. The NFPA 250 goes green on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live, flag-to-flag coverage provided by The CW and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
DARLINGTON, S.C. — Ryan Blaney has built some momentum in the early going of the NASCAR Cup Series season, with top-10 finishes in four of the last five races and a victory at Phoenix Raceway already in the bank. Heading into one of his best tracks and a week off after that, however, his No. 12 Team Penske group has some areas of improvement to smooth out on pit road.
“It’s something we’ve gotta work on,” Blaney said.
A resilient rally lifted Blaney to a third-place result in Sunday’s Goodyear 400, marking the best finish of his Cup Series career at rugged Darlington Raceway. He earned the last spot on the podium with a low-line move around Chase Briscoe with 12 laps remaining in the 293-lap event, but couldn’t muster enough from his No. 12 Ford to challenge race winner Tyler Reddick or runner-up Brad Keselowski.
“Proud of the fight back to run third,” Blaney said. “I thought our car was pretty good, just got set back too many times, and it was hard to make it back up. But yeah, proud of our effort. Made gains on it all day, so that’s good. So I was third and Austin (Cindric) was fifth, so a good showing for the Penske cars and yeah, proud of the comeback.”
Those setbacks that necessitated the series of comebacks were a source of angst from the early going. Blaney started seventh but maneuvered to third place at the end of Stage 1, but during the caution period, the 32-year-old driver radioed his crew: “I think I have a loose wheel, left rear.” The team remedied the issue by stopping for a tighten-up in teammate Cindric’s pit stall, but the extra time and ensuing penalty left Blaney 20th for the Stage 2 start.
“C’mon, guys,” Blaney told his crew on the team radio. “We’ve gotta be clean on that.”
Blaney regained some of that ground to 12th by the end of Stage 2, but another pair of issues emerged. At the Stage 2 break, Blaney rear-ended Daniel Suárez’s No. 7 Chevrolet after a traffic jam on pit entry, but the impact’s net effect was minimal. “I don’t know what the stack-up was,” Blaney said. “I nailed the 7.”
No. 12 crew chief Jonathan Hassler told Blaney that he intended to pit just once more, splitting the final stage into two runs of roughly 50 laps each. When Riley Herbst nosed into the inside wall shortly after the restart, it juggled the strategy plans. Blaney entered pit road 10th, but slightly sluggish service on the left side cost him precious time. Blaney lined up 20th for the restart after six teams stayed out on the track.
“I guess we’re good here,” the No. 12 team radio indicated, putting to rest the initial thought that a wheel wasn’t fully tight. “Far from good, man,” Blaney replied on the radio. “Far from (expletive) good.” Blaney picked off plenty of spots in the run to the checkered flag that followed, but unlike Phoenix — where the No. 12 won despite another instance of pit-trouble flare-up — he came up just short of Victory Lane.
“We had some issues on pit road that kind of set us back,” Hassler told NASCAR.com. “Honestly, I think our car got a little bit better there in the third stage, kind of once we got back in the traffic. I thought honestly, that was probably the best we’ve done all day. So we were able to kind of work forward and get back to where I thought we kind of were capable of running most of the day. I don’t think we had anything for the 45 (Reddick). He was something pretty special, but I thought we could race with about the rest of them.”
Blaney moved up one spot to second in the Cup Series standings, a whopping 95 points behind Reddick, who has assembled four wins in six races. Next on the schedule is Martinsville Speedway, where Blaney has two recent wins and a splendid 8.2 average finish in 20 career starts.
Blaney offered a solid review for Darlington’s racing under a new rules package, which blended adjustments in horsepower, aerodynamics and tires. The configuration placed an emphasis on tire management and handling, and Blaney was among those with positive feedback.
“It’s a handful,” Blaney said. “I mean, you could (expletive) the bed quickly if you were kind of rough on your stuff, which was good. So that part was good — tons of falloff. I think you saw guys kind of get too much early, and then they were done. Very rarely in my Cup career that I’ve just let guys go, whether it’s on restarts or green-flag runs and say to myself, ‘I’m gonna see you in about 20 (laps).’ And that was kind of the way it went today, so I think it was good. So yeah, looking forward to running it at more places that are a little bit bigger.”
Hassler offered his own kudos after watching the race play out from atop the pit box.
“It’s definitely a lot of work, which is fine,” Hassler said. “But yeah, a lot of changes between aero package, engine, tire being different, but that’s why we do it. We enjoy the challenge and want to come out and outwork the others. So yeah, I’m all good with it, and so if the drivers like it, and if there’s more tire wear, more falloff, more variability, I think that’s good for the sport.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Virginia is for Racing Lovers 200 at Martinsville Speedway, originally scheduled for Friday, March 27, was postponed to Saturday, March 28 due to weather. Saturday night’s race is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. ET and be shown live on FloRacing.
Saturday’s event marks the 41st visit for the Modified Tour to Martinsville and the first time the series has visited the 0.526-mile asphalt oval in the spring since 2021. Justin Bonsignore has won the last two series events at Martinsville and will try to become the first driver in series history to win three consecutive events at the track.
Mike Stefanik is the all-time Modified Tour wins leader at Martinsville with five. Other notable winners include Mike Ewanitsko, Jeff Fuller, Reggie Ruggiero, Charlie Jarzombek, Tom Baldwin, Brett Bodine, Ryan Preece and the aforementioned Bonsignore.
Tickets to Saturday’s Virginia is for Racing Lovers 200 are available here. Below is everything you need to know about the second race of the 2026 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season.
Justin Bonsignore (51) and Kyle Bonsignore (22) lead the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour field at the start of the 2025 Virginia is for Racing Lovers 200. (Ted Malinowski/NASCAR)
Virginia is for Racing Lovers 200 at Martinsville Speedway
Statistically speaking, no one has been better at Martinsville Speedway over the last two years than Justin Bonsignore.
The four-time Modified Tour champion has led 258 of a possible 406 laps in the two most recent events at Martinsville, and he walked away with the Grandfather clock each time.
Bonsignore with the help of his Ken Massa Motorsports team will try to do something no other driver has done: Win three consecutive Modified Tour events at the track known as the paperclip. The team already has a win this year at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway, making them an obvious favorite heading into Saturday’s race.
More than 30 drivers will look to deny Bonsignore’s bid for history Saturday night, including defending Modified Tour champion Austin Beers. The Northampton, Pennsylvania driver is still looking for his first Martinsville victory and could very well be the man that denies Bonsignore his record third consecutive win at the track.
One driver who shockingly has never won at Martinsville is two-time Modified Tour champion Ron Silk. The Connecticut driver has struggled at Martinsville during his career, earning only one top-five finish in nine previous Martinsville starts. He’ll be in the field Saturday looking to add his name to the list of Martinsville winners.
A slew of other drivers could be in the running to find Victory Lane on Saturday night. Eric Goodale, who won the last time the Modified Tour raced at Martinsville in the spring, is an obvious contender aboard the family-owned No. 58. Matt Hirschman in his eighth start at the track will look to join his father Tony as a Martinsville winner.
Tyler Rypkema, who enters Saturday’s race second in points following a runner-up result at New Smyrna in the Ole Blue No. 3, is a former Martinsville pole winner who could be a contender. Patrick Emerling is another driver who is winless at Martinsville and could be a threat to take home a Grandfather clock. Ryan Newman will make his second straight start with the series Saturday, but he’ll do so in a car fielded by first-time Modified Tour car owner Glenn Styres.
Two drivers will be making their NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour debuts Saturday evening. Paulie Hartwig III, who turned heads in February when he scored wins during Tour Modified and 602 Modified competition at New Smyrna, will pilot his family’s No. 73. Jack Baldwin will join the series for the first time in the PSR Products No. 38. His brother, Luke Baldwin, will also be in the field in the No. 7 for Tommy Baldwin Racing.
Other notable entrants include Andrew Molleur, who is scheduled to race the No. 82 for Danny Watts Racing for the remainder of the season, Craig Lutz, Jon McKennedy, Jimmy Blewett, Stephen Kopcik, Kyle Bonsignore, Mike Christopher Jr., Danny Bohn, Andy Seuss, Tommy and Trevor Catalano, and Timmy Solomito, among others.
The complete entry list for Saturday’s Virginia is for Racing Lovers 200 can be found here.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour has raced 40 times at Martinsville Speedway since the formation of the series in 1985. (Photo: Ted Malinowski/NASCAR)
TIRE ALLOTMENT: The maximum tire allotment available for this event is twelve (12) tires per team. All tires used for qualifying and the race must be purchased at the track and scanned by NASCAR Officials, unless otherwise approved in advance by the Series Director. Four (4) tires must be used for qualifying and to begin the race. All qualifying tires must remain in impound until released by NASCAR Officials. The remaining tire allotment may be used for practice and/or change tires during the event. A maximum of four (4) tires of the allotment may be used as change tires. The tire change rule is two (2) tires per stop. This includes “swapping” tires from front to back.
DARLINGTON, S.C. — The revival of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing has been a relatively slow process. Brad Keselowski signed on as an owner-driver in 2022 with hopes of returning the team founded by Jack Roush to its glory days, and the process has been challenged by detours, hurdles and accelerated efforts by the competition.
The team has won just once since Keselowski scored almost two years ago at Darlington Raceway.
On Sunday, on an unusually hot day and on a track that eats tires like Homer Simpson throws down donuts, RFK almost flipped its script in a very big way, showing the kind of full-race strength the team needs weekly to return to the fast lanes of the Cup Series.
There was no win for the RFK colors (Tyler Reddick ran through, by and around the RFK Fords and, by the way, the rest of the field to breeze to the win), but the day’s results were as close to victory as is possible without taking home the big trophy. Keselowski led a race-high 142 laps (almost double Reddick’s total), won the first two stages and finished second. Chris Buescher was a better-than-it-sounds ninth, and Ryan Preece was 13th.
At one point in the second stage, the RFK Mustangs — all donning throwback tributes to Greg Biffle — were running one-two-three on the hard road that is Darlington, and somewhere Jack Roush, who had been celebrated by the team and some of its former drivers at a gathering only a few days ago, was smiling.
All three RFK drivers made point gains Sunday.
Last year, with the team still evolving, Keselowski, Buescher and Preece combined for 43 top-10 finishes. None of those ended in Victory Lane, however, so the climb continued with the dawn of a new season. Sunday was a big leap.
“We needed some speed to run with the 45 (Reddick),” Jeremy Bullins, Keselowski’s crew chief, said. “You know, if you go all the way back to last year, we had a lot of problems and had a lot of things go wrong, but we had plenty of races last year that showed what we are capable of. Today was an opportunity for everybody coming here with a new package for this place and trying to be good, and we were. A lot to be proud of today. All three cars were good.”
Keselowski climbed from his car with the sweat and grime of the day marking his face but seemed quite pleased, all things considered, even after riding through another Sunday with a damaged leg, the cane he still needs waiting for him post-race.
“All in all, a great day for us,” he said. “Won two stages, led a lot of laps, scored a bunch of points. So, a lot to be proud of. The team just needs a little pace. All three of our cars are executing really well and getting good finishes. With a little bit of pace, we can win these races. We’re showing ourselves as a team that is highly capable.”
Early-race evidence indicated that Keselowski and Buescher, who led 41 laps, were strong enough to possibly race each other for the win, a moment that would have sealed RFK’s rebirth. That idea faded, but they raced together lap after lap in close quarters and danced a tightrope between wrecking each other — sometimes too close for comfort — and rolling along in a fun tandem at the front.
Preece dropped out of the front pack but said the team’s triple dose of strength early in the race showed growth across the board.
“It felt really good to drive up to the top three, and all of us were right there just working hard,” Preece said. “That’s a huge testament to Brad Keselowski, Jack Roush and RFK and all the men and women at the shop because you can’t drive slow cars fast and we don’t have slow cars.
“I think it all starts back to November, the day after Phoenix. You know, I may not look like Carl Edwards, but I promise you I am in that gym and I am working as hard as anybody. And what I noticed is Brad was in there every day, up until his leg got hurt and what happened. That determination and drive, just because what happened, you’ve got two roads that you can go down. You can play the ‘poor me’ route or you can get up on the horse and figure it out, and he did. They’re running really strong, and we’re all as a company working toward that goal of every week that we show up, you’re going to worry about us.”
For a long time Sunday they had to worry about each other, a relatively unusual circumstance. The end results left the team eager to go again. Next stop: Martinsville.
