Chase Elliott’s return resonates through NASCAR Cup Series garage

Posted on April 15, 2023April 15, 2023 by Zach Sturniolo

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Chase Elliott’s time sidelined by injury was felt through the NASCAR Cup Series garage, his competitors said Saturday.

The sport’s five-time reigning Most Popular Driver has been absent for each of the last six weeks as he recovered from a broken left leg following a snowboarding accident in early March. Elliott, the 2020 Cup champion, returns Sunday in the NOCO 400 at Martinsville Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

MORE: Martinsville schedule | At-track photos

His comeback is highly anticipated — not just by fans but by the Cup Series fraternity.

“There’s more people that want to watch when Chase Elliott is here,” Kevin Harvick, the 2014 Cup Series champion, said Saturday. “And I think we’re all thankful that he’s back because whether you like somebody, don’t like somebody, get along with somebody, don’t, everybody has a piece of the puzzle that they fall into. And Chase, for us, he’s our biggest star, and he’s the guy that needs to be here every week for it all to make sense currently.

“I think, for me, that’s important from an all-around picture. I know that sounds selfish. But I didn’t intend it to sound selfish. I meant that as a broad perspective on NASCAR racing in general.”

Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images

Two-time and defending Cup champ Joey Logano said any driver’s absence has an effect on the garage. But the races keep running, a harsh reminder for the absent driver.

“Our sport’s kind of funky when you think about it — like all sports, though. You’re very relevant — until you’re not,” Logano said. “And it’s kind of crazy. You see drivers retire, right? And for the first half of the year, ‘Oh, he’s not out there anymore.’ And then you get used to it and you move on and life keeps going. And it’s kind of sad that it’s like that.

“But I think in Chase’s case, obviously the most popular driver and only out for a few weeks, I think the whole sport felt the impact of that a little bit.”

Elliott still played an integral role in Hendrick Motorsports’ regularly-scheduled meetings while he was physically away from the team. But Elliott has competed in just two Cup Series races all year. Teammate Kyle Larson noted lost time behind the wheel meant lost real-life feedback for the entire team.

“I feel like he’s probably the best out of the four of us at describing his car and what he feels,” Larson said. “So obviously, when you don’t have him on the track, he’s not able to talk about his car and continue to get the whole organization better.”

“It’s just a really valuable voice,” added fellow teammate William Byron. “I mean, he’s won what, (18) races in the Cup Series? So I think having that knowledge and that experience to lean on is huge, keeps our company going forward, so yeah, it’s great to have him back.”

Expectations surrounding Elliott’s upcoming results appear mixed — or perhaps realistic. His No. 9 Chevrolet is often one of the fastest on the circuit, and upcoming tracks past Martinsville — Talladega and Dover — are both tracks at which he won in 2022. But that doesn’t negate that Elliott is healing from a broken bone in his leg.

“He’ll settle in,” Harvick said. “It’s not something that you lose, but this deal is really tough when you don’t do it every week. So I’m sure that they’ve been in the simulator and probably driven something else in order to get to this point — maybe not. But I think it is extremely difficult to get it back going.

“But it doesn’t take long. It’s not like he’s been out of it for years, and he’s started the season and has driven the car and things like that this year and all last year. But I’m glad to have him back.”

While not mathematically impossible to score enough points to make the playoffs, Elliott knows his best path to the playoffs will come via Victory Lane. Denny Hamlin knows a healthy, driven Elliott only challenges the field further.

“Certainly, you’re gonna have someone that can contend for a race win each and every week back in the field now, so it’s going to be harder to win, harder to get top fives, top threes, all that,” Hamlin said. “So I think that certainly, the sport has been waiting for this moment, right? And certainly, hopefully, we get the audience tuned in that the most popular driver’s back in the field because it certainly is important to have someone that is super important to our fan base back on the race track.”

MORE: Elliott: ‘Kind of like a reset for me’ | Inside his path to the playoffs

Posted on April 15, 2023April 16, 2023 by Holly Cain

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – John Hunter Nemechek led a dominant 198 of 250 laps to win Saturday night’s Call811.com Before You Dig 250 – besting his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Sammy Smith by 1.518 seconds to earn his second NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the 2023 season and first win in his first series start at Martinsville Speedway.

The 25-year-old Nemechek, of Mooresville, North Carolina, took the lead for good on a race restart with 32 laps remaining after winning the first two stages of the race. He, Smith and third-place finisher Cole Custer were easily the class of the field all night running some version of 1-2-3 for most of the race.

Smith was able to nudge his way past Custer on the final lap for that runner-up showing.

As Nemechek took his No. 20 JGR Toyota to the frontstretch to do a traditional burnout celebration, he literally set the track on fire briefly – perhaps a fitting finale to his hot night behind the wheel. Not only did he win the race, he won the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash incentive prize awarded by series sponsor Xfinity.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

“I can’t say enough about this whole team, if you would have asked me yesterday if we would have won, I thought we were a 10th-place car in practice,’’ said Nemechek, whose car was ironically sponsored by a fire extinguisher company (Pye Barker Fire & Safety). “Just grateful the guys made the right adjustments.

“Let’s celebrate.’’

While Nemechek’s car was so good on the night, there was still a lot of compelling wheel-to-wheel competition behind him. Fourth-place finisher Josh Berry, for example, led the next highest number of laps (27) – his No. 8 JR Motorsport Chevrolet looking especially strong until a tire situation forced a long pit stop midway through the race. He rallied back through the field, however, to take his seventh-consecutive top-10 finish on the year tying the longest stretch of his career.

Berry’s JR Motorsports teammate Brandon Jones finished fifth – his first top 10 of the season in the No. 9 JRM Chevrolet – followed by another teammate, Justin Allgaier, who was able to keep his No. 7 JRM Chevy in the lead group of cars despite not feeling well himself and finishing the race on much older tires than the rest of the lead group.

Nemechek – who swept both stage wins – Smith, Custer and Berry are now eligible for the next installment of the Xfinity Dash 4 Cash $100,000 award – next week at Talladega Superspeedway. The top finishing driver from among that four gets the big check.

“Congrats to them, they were the best car all night,’’ Smith said.

Kaulig Racing teammates Daniel Hemric and Derek Kraus, AM Racing’s Brett Moffitt and Kaulig’s Chandler Smith rounded out the top 10.

Austin Hill – who leads all drivers with three wins this season – finished 16th and with Nemechek’s win the second-generation driver takes over the points lead by 21 points over Hill.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series moves from the shortest track in the sport to the largest track in the sport – Talladega where it will race the Ag-Pro 300 (4 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Note: Post-race inspection was complete with no issues. The Nos. 8, 18 and 39 each had one missing/loose lug nut, resulting in a monetary fine for each.

Posted on April 15, 2023 by Brandon White

A long Michigan winter did little to disrupt Evan Shotko’s momentum at Berlin Raceway.

The defending track champion on Saturday picked up where he left off at Berlin last year by conserving his tires during the opening half of the season-opening Icebreaker before passing Blake Rowe on the final restart to claim another victory at the historic facility.

Earning a win in the Icebreaker was a refreshing change of pace for Shotko, who quickly grew accustomed to success at Berlin in 2022.

“For the past few years, we haven’t been able to start the season off very strong,” Shotko said. “I’ve got high hopes, because we have such a hot rod at the beginning of the year. It’s a long season and anything can happen.”

After being a regular contender in Berlin weekly events at the beginning of his career, Shotko emerged as the best Super Late Model driver at the track with a dominant 2022 that saw him tally seven victories and a Michigan State Championship in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series.

During his brief-but-successful career, Shotko has developed a reputation for being one of the more intuitive drivers at Berlin, which he credits to bouncing ideas off competitors he assists through his own business, Shotko Motorsports.

That intelligence was a key factor in helping Shotko win his title at Berlin and keeping him at the front Saturday in the Icebreaker. He knew the tires would wear considerably during the 75-lap race and did not want to drive too aggressively in the early stages.

Shotko watched as pole-sitter Blake Rowe pulled away from him in the first 33 laps before a competition caution brought the field back together. Rowe’s aggression proved costly, as it only took Shotko one lap to make the race-winning pass.

Having already won the Battle at Berlin last year, Shotko had plenty of practice on perfectly executing tire strategy. He was confident he’d park his black No. 22 in Victory Lane once again Saturday as long as he avoided trouble.

“You have to run a real smart race,” Shotko said. “There’s a lot of strategy into [the Icebreaker], but I ran my own race and knew what my car could do.”

Although Shotko has not fully committed to defending his championship at Berlin, he does plan to run plenty of races at the facility with the goal of adding more victories to his growing Super Late Model resume.

Brian Campbell finished behind Shotko in second, with Andrew Scheid, Joe Bush and Chase Burda rounding out the top-five finishers in the Icebreaker.

Posted on April 15, 2023 by Zach Sturniolo

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — The NASCAR Cup Series is prepared for wet-weather racing on its shortest tracks this season. The question is whether the series and its drivers are ready to do it this weekend.

Forecasts for Sunday’s NOCO 400 at Martinsville Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) appear promising for a dry start on the 0.526-mile track. But showers may move into the area in the late afternoon, providing the intriguing possibility of running on Goodyear’s wet-weather tires on an oval for the first time in Cup history.

MORE: See the latest forecasts | Martinsville schedule

The good news is that the sanctioning body got its first taste of real-world experience in Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race. With rain soaking the track ahead of the green flag, NASCAR officials decided to start the race with their competitors on wet-weather tires. Before the green flag, the track’s concrete corners were largely dried, while the asphalt straightaways remained damp.

“I think, all in all, it was a success,” said Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition. “There were a lot of things that we learned. The way we executed getting the wets on, that worked out well. We got started. I think the big learning that we’ve got to work through and make sure we’re executing this properly is when we have a wet or damp pit road and keeping that as safe as possible.

“Going back and forth between wet and dries, does that need to be a competitive pit stop? Or does that need to be a non-competitive pit stop? We’ve still got to work through that to make sure we’re getting to the right place.”

Kyle Busch and Ross Chastain both competed in Friday’s Truck Series event and applauded the tire, which was run for approximately 25 laps. A competition caution was called by officials at Lap 27 as NASCAR deemed the track dry enough to mandate a swap to the traditional slicks.

But more rain entered the area as the night progressed, leading to two red flags and a premature finish to the event, calling it over at Lap 125 of 200. NASCAR hesitated to use the second set of wet tires with heavier rain in the area, but teams thought conditions were race-able.

“I think the biggest (piece of feedback) was that we could have been a little more aggressive,” Sawyer said. “The teams thought we could have raced, maybe. Even at 11:30 last night, they thought we could have went. And once you get that late in the day — we looked at the weather forecast. We were (scheduled for) 45 minutes of pretty good rain. And then we’re probably looking at another 15 to 20 minutes to get the track in a place where we could actually go green.

“So that was really the decision-making (Friday) night what to call it at 11:15, Lap 125, where if you get into a day race and you’re mid-afternoon, late afternoon, early evening, you have some opportunities there to maybe continue on.”

Kyle Larson, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion, participated in a wet-weather test at Martinsville during his title-winning campaign.

“It was honestly better than I thought it would be,” Larson said of his 2021 laps, “but you’re going so slow. I would be nervous to go to New Hampshire or something with it — or really anywhere besides Martinsville, but I guess until you do it, you don’t know. … I think for Martinsville, if it’s not too wet or even raining, maybe I think it’d be OK.”

23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin is a five-time winner at Martinsville and kept a watchful eye on the Truck event. The product left him satisfied with NASCAR’s precautions in easing into uncharted territory, noting Friday provided “a perfect scenario” to try.

“I think from the very beginning, they (officials) said that this is a tire that can get them back to racing 20, 30 minutes early, and I thought that it did that,” Hamlin said. “Certainly, it seemed like when the track was fully damp, they weren’t really comfortable with running them in those conditions, which I probably agree with.”

The hesitancy comes with good reason. The Cup Series raced in full rain conditions in May 2021 at Circuit of The Americas, which led to poor visibility and subsequent accidents in the aftermath.

“We learned so much at Circuit of The Americas a couple of years ago about racing in a monsoon, if you will, and we won’t do that,” Sawyer said. “That’s never been the goal for the short-oval, wet-weather package. And we didn’t last night. We didn’t race in the rain.

“Now, that doesn’t mean down the road we couldn’t. But that was never the goal. From the start, it was more to get us going quicker or to be able to get back to racing faster in the middle of an event.”

That brings the focus back to Sunday’s Cup Series race. Taking the green flag on slicks with impending weather presents a different scenario from Friday when the Truck Series put wets on before the green.

“Hypothetically, we could throw the caution and say we’re gonna put wets on this time, everybody has to put them on,” Sawyer said. “It’s a non-competitive pit stop. And then we’re kind of back in the same business of figuring out — and we still have to work on this with a short period of time to do it, but get ready for (Sunday) night, and how that will look from, again, a competitive or non-competitive pit stop.

“But I think once the race starts, it’s really no different than prior to. We can get the wets on. We proved last night we can do that in a manner that looks pretty straightforward and execute that.”

Posted on April 15, 2023 by Staff Report

See where your favorite driver will pit in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series NOCO 400 at Martinsville Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on April 15, 2023April 15, 2023 by Staff Report

For the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career, Ryan Preece will lead the field to green in his 124th start for Sunday’s NOCO 400 at Martinsville Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Preece’s blazing speed of 94.780 mph in Saturday’s final round was the one and only lap to break 20 seconds around the 0.526-mile short track.

RELATED: See Cup lineup | At-track photos

“I was fighting loose that first lap,’’ Preece said with a smile, adding, “It’s a pole. Not a race.

“So I guess from a company standpoint, it makes us all very optimistic for tomorrow, and can to just be smart and we can have good days. It certainly shows that our short track program is really good, and I know our superspeedway program has been extremely good too, and we’ll keep working on that.’’

Of note, Preece has won a pole in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – and he won both those races (at Iowa in 2017 and at Nashville in 2022, respectively).

Daniel Suárez will join Preece on the front row after putting down a lap of 94.298 mph.

Aric Almirola and Chase Briscoe locked out Row 2 as both earned their best starts of the 2023 season. Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top five in qualifying.

An impressive showing in practice rolled into qualifying for Tyler Reddick as he starts sixth on Sunday, and all four Stewart-Haas Racing Fords will start inside the top 10 as Kevin Harvick was seventh fastest. Last year’s spring Martinsville winner William Byron, Bubba Wallace and Chris Buescher completed the top 10.

Many heavy hitters were left out of the pole round in Saturday evening’s qualifying session. In his return to Cup Series action after six weeks away due to injury, Chase Elliott will roll off 24th in Sunday’s race.

“Felt pretty good, but abysmal qualifying lap and I can’t really blame my leg on that one,’’ Elliott said. “I had a pretty good first lap and then really messed up in [Turn] two on the second one. Judging off of practice, starting in the back is going to be a lot of fun, looking forward to that in the ole’ NAPA Chevy.”

Of his comfort level, Elliott said, “I feel fine in the car. My entire practice run, I felt fine, and once you kind of get out there on the track and start focusing on the little things that you need to be doing in your car, some of that goes away, so that’s a good thing. My qualifying lap wasn’t because of that, just a poor effort.’’

Hendrick Motorsports will see three of their Chevrolets start outside the top 15 as Kyle Larson was 19th fastest in qualifying, and Alex Bowman’s qualifying effort was only good enough for 23rd.

Christopher Bell, the Bristol Dirt Race winner and most recent winner at Martinsville, will have a lot of work to do Sunday as he starts 22nd.

After showing good pace in practice, Ross Chastain had a hot-lap run he’d like to forget as he will start toward the rear in 34th.

PRACTICE

Tyler Reddick put down the fastest lap in Saturday’s practice session at a clip of 93.664 mph. Racking up the five quickest single-lap times were two-time 2023 winner Byron (92.846 mph), Chastain (92.837 mph), Buescher (92.615 mph) and Harvick (92.615 mph).

Byron had the best average through 25 consecutive laps, along with Harvick, Reddick, Wallace and Ryan Blaney.

Despite Reddick putting down pace that could make him a threat on Sunday, Toyota saw a mixed bag of results as all four Joe Gibbs Racing cars were outside the top 15 for single-lap speed. Truex was the only one from the stable to squeak into the top 15 in 10 consecutive lap average.

MORE: Full practice results

Contributing: Holly Cain — NASCAR Wire Service

Posted on April 15, 2023 by Zach Sturniolo

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Tucked neatly behind pit road at Martinsville Speedway, squarely at the start/finish line, sits the Martinsville hot dog stand.

There is nothing flashy about the building, much like the famous hot dog itself. But the rectangular, single-story cinderblock stand is the original – there since the beginning, according to track president Clay Campbell, although it has seen its fair share of change over the decades.

MORE: Weekend schedule at Martinsville | At-track photos

Its origins were laid as a two-story building – one part concession stand, one part NASCAR control tower.

“It actually was a control tower then a viewing level on top of that,” Campbell told NASCAR.com. “So it was a taller building. And then we removed the top part. And voila, you got the concession stand. … We actually dressed it up some years ago. It was a block building. We put the aluminum siding on it and dressed it up. And that was the concession stand.”

Track staff quickly realized nobody was referring to it as the concession stand, though.

Zach Sturniolo | NASCAR Studios

“All the crew members say, ‘Let’s go to the hot dog stand and get some hot dogs,’” Campbell said. “They’d never call it, ‘Let’s go the concession stand to get hot dogs.’ It was always, ‘Let’s go to the hot dog stand.’ So then we made that kind of retro old sign to go on top of it. And there you go. That’s the hot dog stand.”

The dog has become a rite of passage for any Martinsville goer. Built in 2001, the garage stalls along the backstretch quickly saw crewmen’s etchings marked on support beams – clearly keeping a tally of something.

“I saw those hash marks. You got the four and then across; four and then across. Well, what is that? Surely they didn’t use that many tires or whatever,” Campbell said. “And then I come to find out it was how many hot dogs they had.”

Like the building from which they’re sold, the Martinsville hot dog was never meant to be anything special. Campbell will tell you as much.

In reality, that is the beauty behind the concession-stand staple in southern Virginia. Dressed in chili, slaw, onions and mustard, the Martinsville hot dog was never meant to be a groundbreaker – just familiar to those who frequented the 0.526-mile short track.

Tyler Barrick | Getty Images for NASCAR

Campbell, grandson of the oval’s founder, H. Clay Earles, got his start at the speedway working in maintenance before moving to concessions. The growth of the legend behind the fans’ food favorite grew organically over the years.

“The hot dog was just something my grandfather started way back during (the track’s) infancy,” Campbell said. “And as time went on, it was just something he wanted. You know, you go to the most ballparks, you get a hot dog, nothing on it. You go to the condiment stand, put whatever you want on it. Here, it comes fully dressed with the works. You know, you can say, ‘I don’t want onions,’ or whatever. But it’s the works.

“The bun is supposed to be soft and warm. So that’s the uniqueness of it. It’s much like what you would have it at your home or at a cookout or whatever. It’s not just a plain old hot dog.”

That hot dog, however, has its own lore, featuring two 21st-century talking points. The first came in 2004 when Martinsville Speedway was sold from the Earles family to International Speedway.

The sale was announced in May at Richmond Raceway, with Campbell joined on stage by then-ISC president Lesa France Kennedy as well as Jim France and John Saunders. The quartet fielded questions from the media – “nothing perplexing,” said Campbell.

Well, that was until former NASCAR chairman and CEO Bill France Jr. raised his hand from the back of the media center.

“Oh no, what does Mr. France want to know?” Campbell recalled thinking.

“Yes, sir, Mr. France.”

“You’re not going to screw up the hot dog, right?” France asked.

“No sir. It will not be screwed up,” Campbell laughed.

Jeff Zelevansky | NASCAR via Getty Images

Fast forward to October 2004, when NASCAR returned to Martinsville for the first time since the sale. ISC, which later merged with NASCAR, then used its own caterers for concessions at each of its facilities.

“The very first race after the changeover, they had changed the hot dog,” Campbell said. “Changed the process that it was made. It always came in a wax paper. (Instead), it came in a Styrofoam cup. That didn’t go over too well. And you had to put everything on it yourself.

“I’ll tell you what, the year before that happened is when the third-turn concrete came up and went through Jeff Gordon’s radiator grill. I thought that was a bad day. That was nothing. This was a bad day. I mean, teams, drivers, car owners were going to the NASCAR hauler complaining,

“I got a call from the president of the caterer. And these were his words: ‘If Mr. France calls you, tell him we’ve got boots on the ground, and we’re correcting it.’ It was a high alarm.”

The other uproar around the dog came after Martinsville opted for a different hot dog provider beginning in 2016. Jesse Jones’ Southern Style red hot dog was the staple ingredient dating back to 1947, but the track opted for another company seven years ago.

Jason Smith | Getty Images

That change was short-lived, and the partnership with Jesse Jones was rekindled in 2018.

“We went through a process because we couldn’t find anything just like it,” Campbell said. “So we actually dyed them in the concession stands to match the color. Problem is one guy that worked for the company that lost the bid, he started going on social and ratting on us and that got everything up in an uproar. Nobody would have known it. It tasted the same. But now we’re back to the original. Everything is just like it was.”

From the grandfather clock awarded as the winner’s trophy to its spot on the Cup circuit, Martinsville is surrounded by tradition. Snagging a hot dog from the stand is just part of the Martinsville experience.

“We’ve always thought it was really nice to have a signature product that you’re kind of known for on the food line,” Campbell said. “There are other places that have tried things. There are other places that have even tried the hot dog. But there’s one thing you can’t overcome and that’s history. You know, we’re 76 years old this year. I would say that hot dog is at least 60-something years old. You can’t surpass history in just a few years’ time.”

Posted on April 15, 2023April 15, 2023 by Zach Sturniolo

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Heavy rain dumped plenty of water onto Martinsville Speedway Friday night, resulting in a weather-shortened win for Corey Heim. But a clearing offered the unique opportunity to debut Goodyear’s wet-weather tires to begin the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race.

The event began without a hitch, running 27 laps before NASCAR officials displayed the competition caution, necessitating all competitors to change back to slicks. All three of NASCAR’s national series — trucks, Xfinity and Cup — have utilized rain tires on road courses but never on an oval until Friday night.

MORE: Recap the race | At-track photos: Martinsville

Feedback following the rain-shortened Long John Silver’s 200 after heavier rain washed over the 0.526-mile facility was generally positive — notably from two Cup Series veterans.

Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images

“I thought it was great,” Ross Chastain told NASCAR.com. “I thought they did a good job to get the track dry of like standing water and then let us go. Tire had plenty of grip. This generation of rain tire, really everything I’ve seen out of it, is OK and right for the situation.”

Though the asphalt straightaways were still wet, the concrete corners dried significantly as the run went on. That blistered Chastain’s tires — “blew apart basically the tread” — and eventually landed his No. 41 Chevrolet a lap down. That didn’t dissuade last year’s Martinsville star from advocating for more wet-weather tires in future situations.

“I saw other guys being fine. They were a half second, maybe a second faster than me at the end,” Chastain said. “That’s something that we’ll learn, right? Niece and (crew chief) Mike Hillman will learn about the rain tires now. And then we went back to slicks, and everything was fine. The track still had wet spots, but everybody raced good.”

Two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch found early success on the wets, moving past polesitter Zane Smith for the early lead.

“For us, it was good,” said Busch, the winningest driver in Truck Series history. “I thought we were fast. We were able to hold on to it really well. A couple of the other guys seem to be struggling with it. But yeah, it was fine by me.”

Ultimately, the race was red-flagged for the second and final time at Lap 125 as rain moved back over the speedway. NASCAR officials deemed the event over, but some competitors wanted another shot to learn on the treaded tires.

“It rains again, and I’m like, ‘Hey, we’ve got another set of wets, let’s put them on and let’s keep learning. Let’s keep doing this,'” Chastain said. “I think this is the perfect scenario for racing in the rain, where the track won’t dry out. The tires will last longer. We won’t need those (competition) cautions to change them. I think right now we could with this (rain), we will not dry the track out and we can keep running, and I’ll take that to NASCAR as my opinion.”

Busch was a little more hesitant but agreed it would have been worth a shot.

“Right now, I mean honestly, this is a little bit heavy of a rain, maybe depending on the spray, but we didn’t even give it a chance,” he said.

Heim managed to pass Busch for the lead on slicks on a Lap 43 restart and was never passed again. But the driver of the No. 11 Toyota credited crew chief Scott Zipadelli for the opening stint on wets, nailing the tire setup to allow Heim to work from fourth to second and have a shot at the lead.

“It seemed like a lot of people had a lot of different reactions with their trucks. I think it was all about air pressures,” Heim said. “Scott and my crew hit it on the dot right there and really gave us a good opportunity right there from the start.”

Another takeaway from the opening stint was just how much the tires wore. As rubber laid down and the track dried, lap times slowed significantly.

“Yeah, there was falloff. We need more tires like those,” Busch said.

Goodyear Eagle Wet-Weather Radials used Friday night. Photo by Sean Gardner of Getty Images.

NASCAR and Goodyear worked at Martinsville and Richmond Raceway to develop a tire capable of handling damp conditions on short ovals. That led to the introduction of a wet-weather package for most tracks 1 mile in length or shorter — the exceptions being Bristol Motor Speedway and Dover Motor Speedway.

“The testing they did, I didn’t put any stock into it. It was a water truck on a sunny day,” Chastain said. “Tonight, as a sport and industry, I think we will study this, and they (officials) will ask drivers up and down pit lane. And I will encourage drivers and NASCAR to talk and let’s get these Truck Series drivers — this field has the most knowledge now. And let’s learn from this for all of us because I’m telling you, man, I know it stinked to sit up there and the stands and watch this, but we could’ve finished this race in these conditions.”

Posted on April 14, 2023April 15, 2023 by Holly Cain

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Corey Heim prevailed at Martinsville Speedway late Friday night to earn his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory of the season after persevering through both rain and dry conditions, two red flag periods for weather and multiple charges by the highly-motivated veteran Kyle Busch.

The 20-year-old Georgia native, Heim, led his first laps of the 2023 season at exactly the right time – holding the point for an impressive 82 of the 124 laps of the Long John Silver’s 200. Including the most important lap.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

An accident with 85 laps remaining brought out the yellow flag and after several circuits under caution, NASCAR brought the trucks to pit road where the red flag flew for rain and the race was declared official on lap 124 of the scheduled 200 laps.

“Rain, rain, come on,’’ Heim told his TRICON Garage crew on the radio, just before climbing out of his No. 11 Toyota truck during that final red flag period.

“This race was cut short and that’s definitely unfortunate, but this truck was fast all night,’’ Heim said. “I couldn’t ask for a better group of guys.’’

Heim had to work for this, holding off Busch – who was racing for Kyle Busch Motorsports’ 100th win – and reigning series champion Zane Smith on four different re-starts to claim the famed one-of-a-kind grandfather clock Martinsville trophy only minutes before that clock would strike midnight.

“We just didn’t have a good enough short-run truck,’’ said Busch, who finished second. “Being a little bit loose and free that we were, we were hoping that would pay off in the long run but never had a long run. The longest run of the race was on rain tires.

“It did not go our way today, unfortunately.’’

Heim swept both stage wins – his first of the season as well.

“I bring a 100% effort to every race every week so to be able to sit here and have it pay off is phenomenal,’’ Heim said.

Smith finished third in the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford with ThorSport Racing’s Ty Majeski and Heim’s Tricon teammate Tanner Gray rounding out the top five.

Ben Rhodes, Matt DiBenedetto, Taylor Gray, William Sawalich and Chase Purdy completed the top 10. It was the 16-year-old Sawalich’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut – helping the Tricon team to four top-10 finishes.

Majeski maintains the points lead after Martinsville by 26 points over Smith and 49 over Rhodes.

The trucks take a couple of weeks off and will return to competition on Saturday, May 6 at Kansas Speedway in the Heart of America 200 (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Note: Inspection is complete in the Truck Series garage with no issues, confirming Heim as the winner.

Posted on April 14, 2023 by Zach Sturniolo

Nick Sanchez will honor racing legend Mario Andretti in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Darlington Raceway on May 12, Rev Racing announced Friday.

With primary sponsorship from Gainbridge, Sanchez’s No. 2 Chevrolet will bear the powder blue, gold and red that Andretti wheeled to Victory Lane in the 1967 Daytona 500, the only NASCAR triumph of his glorious and monumental career.

MORE: Full Truck Series schedule | Buy Darlington tickets

Rev Racing

An integral part of racing history, Andretti will be on site in Darlington to see his cherished Holman-Moody paint scheme don Sanchez’s Silverado while helping celebrate NASCAR’s 75th anniversary.

“You don’t really get pressure as a race car driver a lot,” Sanchez told NASCAR.com. “But driving his paint scheme that he won the ’67 Daytona 500 in at a place like Darlington on throwback weekend? That’s pressure — a good kind of pressure, though.”

Keen on racing as ever at age 83, Andretti showed sincere gratitude that Rev Racing and Gainbridge wanted to honor a livery so important to his illustrious past.

“That’s definitely special,” Andretti told NASCAR.com via teleconference, eager to show a rendering of the truck he’d printed out. “I mean, it brings back such special, very treasured memories of a great time in my career. I’m just totally flattered that the team is doing this for me, and I’m going to really enjoy watching Nick put this baby up there – maybe on the top step at the end of this race.”

Andretti has been keeping a watchful eye on Sanchez’s inaugural Truck Series campaign, a rookie year that coincides with Rev Racing’s first endeavor at NASCAR’s national levels, thanks in part to an alliance with Kyle Busch Motorsports.

Sanchez, the 2022 ARCA Menards Series champion, has shown impressive speed, with two poles and an Atlanta runner-up finish in six starts. A dominant performance at Texas Motor Speedway saw Sanchez lead 168 of 171 laps before a last-lap crash eliminated him from competition.

“I’ve been watching the young lad the last few races, and he’s definitely a comer for sure,” Andretti said. “He’s no stranger to the winner’s circle coming through the ranks, and now obviously, with NASCAR with the trucks, it looks like he’s definitely with the right team and a competitive truck and a driver that knows what to do with it.”

NASCAR Research & Archives Center | Getty Images

The victor over a half-century ago, Andretti celebrated his Daytona triumph in only the ninth running of the Great American Race. His No. 11 Holman-Moody Racing Ford led 112 of 200 laps on Feb. 26, 1967, en route to the checkered flag.

“I think the significance grows, quite honestly,” Andretti said of the win. “The stature of the event grows as well, then you have the strong tradition. And to be part of that tradition, let’s face it, the Daytona 500 for NASCAR is like for IndyCar the Indianapolis 500. I mean, there’s a marquee event, and then there’s a (season-long) championship.

“But sometimes, there’s as much value to winning that one particular race on either side as there is winning the championship. It’s unfair, but that’s a fact. And to see my name there in that roster of Daytona 500 winners is something I’m very proud of.”

Gainbridge serves as the primary sponsor for both Sanchez and the Andretti Autosport team in IndyCar. Having an opportunity to bridge the gap between series while honoring a legend in Andretti was something Gainbridge and Rev Racing seemed too perfect to pass up.

A conversation with Rev Racing led Mike Nichols, Gainbridge’s chief of sponsorship strategy and activation, to start brainstorming throwback ideas. In reality, that meant bouncing the question to his 17-year-old son, Michael, who himself is an avid NASCAR fan.

NASCAR Research & Archives Center | Getty Images

“Without hesitation, he said ‘1967 Daytona 500’ – and within 5 minutes, I had a half-dozen photos and drawings of that car texted to me by him,” Nichols said in an email. “Now I also have the good fortune of having an in-house graphic designer who spent 30 years designing paint schemes before he joined Gainbridge. … I texted the images to him and said, ‘I want to do a throwback to this car. Can you pull something together for me to approach Mario?’

“Within 48 hours, I had the amazing drawings with incredible attention to detail that you’ve now seen – and I fired off an email to Mario asking his permission to honor him and if he would be interested in being a part of it. As you saw today, he enthusiastically accepted and wanted to be as involved as he could be.”

Rev Racing has been a key part of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program, a driver development initiative created in 2004 to develop and train ethnically diverse and female drivers both on and off the track. NASCAR Cup Series drivers Bubba Wallace, Daniel Suárez and Kyle Larson are alumni of this program, which is operated by Rev Racing in Concord, N.C.

MORE: See the 2023 Drive for Diversity class

That aspect connects Rev Racing further with Andretti, a native of Italy whose Daytona 500 victory made him NASCAR’s first internationally-born driver to win. He has seen the benefits of diversity across motorsports – including at Andretti Autosport, where one of the top race engineers that he once worked with in IndyCar testing was a woman.

“I was very impressed with the way that she was analyzing situations and so forth and that I was giving her my practical side,” Andretti said. “So her and I bonded immediately. And again, that’s something that we all encourage. I mean, it’s definitely an open door. Anyone with those wishes and talents obviously will be looked at very seriously.”

NASCAR’s throwback weekend at Darlington offers a look in the rear-view mirror of the sport’s 75-year history. Andretti has been honored before – defending Cup Series champion Joey Logano ran his 1971 Formula One livery in 2021 commemorating Andretti’s inaugural South Africa triumph.

With Sanchez set to pay tribute to Andretti’s lone stock-car triumph, the memories keep flowing back.

“These throwback situations are something that, they’re much more valuable than a lot of people think,” Andretti said. “You know that some of these moments are not totally forgotten in time.”