Posted on April 7, 2022April 7, 2022 by Staff Report

Although Idaho is primarily known for its mountains and potatoes, the Gem State also boasts a thriving asphalt bullring in the form of Meridian Speedway.

Since the 1950s, Meridian has provided Idaho short track fans an ideal opportunity to see their local heroes battle for victories in the weekly edition while also occasionally hosting NASCAR-sanctioned events featuring the next generation of stars.

Over a half-dozen divisions currently encompass a stacked weekly program for Meridian that now includes the facility’s own crown jewel event, the NAPA Auto Parts Idaho 208, which is set to take place on Aug. 20.

Meridian’s new season formally gets underway April 9 with the ATS Inland Season Opener. The on-track action starts at 6 p.m. MT and will include races for Meridian’s Modified, Sprint Car, Street Stock, Pro 4 and Hornets divisions.

Below is everything to know about Meridian Speedway.

Meridian Speedway

Track Profile

NASCAR K&N Pro Series West racing at Meridian Speedway on September 30, 2017. (Otto Kitsinger/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Track	Meridian Speedway
Location	Meridian, Idaho
Opened	1951
Length	0.25 miles
Surface	Asphalt

A proud racing heritage has been built at Meridian over its seven decades of operation, with plenty of drivers permanently etching themselves into the track’s record books.

Sean Miller currently holds the most championships in Meridian’s Late Model division following a dominant stretch during the mid-1990s that saw him claim five consecutive titles. Other multi-time champions in that division include Jerry Bowers, Jim Dillon and John Nesmith.

Meridian has also seen women drivers break barriers on numerous occasions.

Along with Melissa Weaver claiming six Street Stock titles and Hannah Newhouse becoming the only female Late Model champion in 2016, Hailie Deegan notably captured her first of three NASCAR K&N Pro Series West (now ARCA Menards Series West) wins at Meridian in 2018 following a last lap pass on Cole Rouse.

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In the six K&N West races at Meridian, none of them featured a repeat winner.

Ray Elder, who won six K&N West titles between 1969-75, was victorious during a one-off appearance for the series at Meridian back in 1972. When K&N West returned to Meridian during the late 2010s, Deegan, current NASCAR Cup Series competitor Todd Gilliland and six-time NASCAR Xfinity Series winner Noah Gragson all earned victories at the facility.

During its existence, the NASCAR Northwest Series also infrequently visited Meridian. Former track champion John Dillon picked up a popular victory in front of the home crowd back in 1989 while Ron Eaton accumulated the most wins with two in 1986 and 1990.

Below are the complete list of NASCAR winners and track champions during Meridian’s long and storied history.

NASCAR K&N Pro Series West racing at Meridian Speedway on September 24, 2016. (Otto Kitsinger/NASCAR via Getty Images)

NASCAR K&N Pro Series West (now ARCA Menards Series West) races at Meridian

Year-Race No.	Date	Winner
1972-13	6/30/72	Ray Elder
2015-11	9/5/15	Noah Gragson
2016-13	9/24/16	Todd Gilliland
2017-12	9/30/17	Michael Self
2018-12	9/29/18	Hailie Deegan
2019-11	9/28/19	Derek Kraus

NASCAR Northwest Series races at Meridian

Year-Race No.	Date	Winner
1985-05	6/15/85	Bob Fox
1986-04	5/17/86	Ron Eaton
1989-08	7/24/89	John Dillon
1990-07	6/23/90	Ron Eaton
1991-08	6/22/91	Tobey Butler
2006-01	4/30/06	Brandon Riehl

Meridian Speedway track champions

Year: Track champion

1966: Gary Brown

1967: Rick Poulton

1968: Bob Mitich

1969: Bob Mitich

1970: No champion

1971: Jim Dillon

1972: Bob Mitich

1973: Jim Dillon

1974: Steve Mason

1975: Steve Mason

1976: Jerry Bowers

1977: Jim Dillon

1978: Jerry Bowers

1979: Jerry Bowers

1980: LeeRoy Nelson

1981: Marv Whiteman III

1982: Larry Bowers

1983: Kenny Bowers

1984: Marv Whiteman III

1985: Steve Mason

1986: Pat Minegar

1987: John Dillon

1988: Keith Postlewait

1989: Steve Nesmith

1990: Kim Bradford

1991: Willie Ransom

1992: Willie Ranson

1993: Matt Klaas

1994: Sean Miller

1995: Sean Miller

1996: Sean Miller

1997: Sean Miller

1998: Sean Miller

1999: Mike Marston

2000: Dennis Wurtz II

2001: Jim Tremuan

2002: Dennis Wurtz II

2003: John Nesmith

2004: No champion

2005: Scott Durbin

2006: Craig Bell

2007: John Nesmith

2008: Chris Ratterree

2009: John Nesmith

2010: Dan Buckley

2011: Chris Fenton

2012: Dylan Caldwell

2013: Travis Anderson

2014: Lee Hackney

2015: Dennis Wurtz II

2016: Hannah Newhouse

2017: Chris Fenton

2018: Kyle Tellstrom

2019: Kyle Tellstrom

2020: John Newhouse

2021: Daytona Wurtz (Pro Late Model)

Posted on April 7, 2022April 7, 2022 by Zach Sturniolo

Martinsville Speedway hosts the first scheduled night race of the NASCAR Cup Series season this weekend.

The Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 gets underway on Saturday night (7:30 ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) from the shortest track on the points-paying schedule. For the first time since October 1956, the race is scheduled for 400 laps around the 0.526-mile oval instead of 500.

Find everything you need to know for this weekend’s racing here:

PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING

Cup Series drivers will hit the track for practice on Friday at 4:30 p.m. ET (FS1), with all 36 teams separated into Group A and Group B, determined by a metric that factors results and fastest laps from last week’s race at Richmond Raceway, in addition to points position. Each group will get 15 minutes of practice.

After practice, each group will go out for single-car qualifying for two laps. The fastest five cars from each group will advance to the second round, in which the 10 remaining drivers will fight for the Busch Light Pole Award.

MARTINSVILLE HISTORY

— Built in 1947, Martinsville Speedway hosted its first race on Sept. 7, 1947, a modified stock car race that preceded NASCAR’s inception. Bill France Sr. convinced track founder Henry Clay Earles that stock cars were the future of racing and promoted the event for a percentage.

— Martinsville appeared on the first Cup Series schedule in 1949 and is the only track on today’s circuit that remains from that year.

— The first 12 Cup races at Martinsville were run on dirt.

— Earles partnered with Ridgeway Clock Company in 1964 to begin awarding race winners with a grandfather clock. Fred Lorenzen took the first one home on Sept. 27, 1964. Richard Petty won the most at 12 (not including his three prior victories), Darrell Waltrip won 11, and Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson each won nine.

— The track’s turns were resurfaced with concrete in 1976, and the track wasn’t resurfaced again until 2004, after Gordon struck a loose chunk of concrete during that year’s spring race.

– LED lighting surrounded the 0.526-mile track starting in 2017.

Source: Racing Insights

GOODYEAR TIRES

Because the track’s surface consists of both asphalt and concrete, Goodyear faces a unique challenge at Martinsville.

The tire provider will supply the same left-side tire compound utilized at the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum, February’s exhibition race on the 0.25-mile track built inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

“For our setup at Martinsville, we have a challenge to address with both the construction of the tires and the tread compounds,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “As far as the construction, it has to be robust enough to handle the hard braking and acceleration on and off the corners, which have no banking to speak of to help. What we try to do with the compounds is bring something that will wear and rubber-in the concrete corners in sometimes cool conditions. Rubbering-in the lower groove creates a second lane on the track and gives drivers more opportunity to pass. This Cup setup is very similar to what teams ran in The Clash, including the same left-side tire.”

MARTINSVILLE STORY LINES

— Martin Truex Jr. has been king at Martinsville lately, winning three of the last five races at the paperclip-shaped oval. Truex has also won each of the last two spring races and led 80 laps a week ago at Richmond.

— Kyle Busch leads all active drivers with 16 short-track victories, but his last such win came in the spring of 2019 at Bristol. The two-time champion has two Martinsville wins.

— Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports have won each of the last six Martinsville races, with each organization winning three races in that span.

— Hendrick Motorsports is just 18 laps away from 10,000 laps led at Martinsville becoming the first team to reach 10,000 laps led at a track.

— Expect more cautions in the final stage at Martinsville. Ten yellows flew in Stage 3 there in November and nine last spring.

— Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson have won four of the last six night races, each claiming two.

— Denny Hamlin’s win last week at Richmond ended a 12-race winless streak for himself and a 12-race winning streak for drivers younger than 30 years old. Hamlin is 41.

Source: Racing Insights

MONEY AT MARTINSVILLE

The statistics don’t lie — Martin Truex Jr. is the man to beat.

A 5-1 favorite, according to BetMGM, Truex has notched each of his last seven wins on tracks 1.366 miles in length or shorter. The 2017 series champion has won in each of the past three seasons at Martinsville and should be in contention Saturday night.

Behind him are Chase Elliott (7-1), Kyle Busch (8-1), Denny Hamlin (8-1) and Ryan Blaney (8-1). Elliott, Busch and Hamlin have all gone to Victory Lane at Martinsville, but Blaney is still seeking that first career win.

At 14-1 odds, keep eyes peeled for both Alex Bowman and Christopher Bell. Bowman won the fall race last year after contact with Hamlin, and Bell enters with top 10s in each of his last two starts in 2022.

RELATED: Odds for Martinsville

FANTASY LIVE

Want to manage a team and race your way to the top of the leaderboards? Check out NASCAR Fantasy Live, which is open now. The free-to-play game lets you choose your drivers each week and show off your crew-chief instincts by garaging a driver by the end of Stage 2, and there is a $25,000 prize for the winner.

The 2022 Fantasy Live points leaders are Chase Elliott (235), Ryan Blaney (233) and William Byron (218).

How to play: Fantasy Live | Set up a team today!

ALSO ON NASCAR.COM

Get additional camera views by logging on to NASCAR Drive, where each week a select number of in-car cameras will be available — as well as a battle cam and an overhead look.

NASCAR has partnered with LiveLike to add fan engagement in the NASCAR Mobile App. Log in to the mobile app during the race for polls, quizzes, the cheer meter and more — and see instant results from NASCAR fans like you.

Posted on April 7, 2022April 7, 2022 by Adam Fenwick

SALISBURY, N.C. — Kyle Larson and several of his NASCAR friends took a trip to Millbridge Speedway in Salisbury, North Carolina, on Wednesday night.

Larson, the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion, was on hand at the eighth-mile dirt track to compete in the non-winged 600cc Micro division alongside several other NASCAR and ARCA stars.

Joining Larson in the field for Wednesday’s race were two-time ARCA Menards Series West champion Jesse Love, Joe Gibbs Racing NASCAR Cup Series driver Christopher Bell, 2020 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Sheldon Creed, two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series champion and current Richard Childress Racing Cup Series driver Tyler Reddick and multi-time NASCAR Xfinity Series race winners Brandon Jones and Noah Gragson.

The 30-lap feature started with Larson and Love on the front row, with Love taking the lead from the outside.

A caution and subsequent restart gave Larson the opportunity to battle Love for the lead with 26 laps left. After trading the lead multiple times in two laps, Larson eventually emerged with the lead ahead of Love.

Larson led the remainder of the distance while Bell raced from the 10th starting position to finish second.

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A post shared by Kyle Larson (@kylelarsonracin)

Brent Crews, driving a car sponsored by Trackhouse Racing, was third. Love and Creed completed the top-five.

Reddick finished 12th and Jones finished 17th. Gragson failed to qualify for the feature.

Posted on April 7, 2022 by Staff Report

This weekend’s NASCAR trip to Martinsville Speedway kicks off the 75th-anniversary celebration of the legendary short track. Ahead of Saturday’s Cup Series Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), try your hand at some props on the race.

Prime props for ‘The Paperclip’

Featured Matchups of the week

Race-specific data props

Posted on April 7, 2022July 29, 2022 by Staff Report

When William Byron’s crew chief, Rudy Fugle, opted against a late pit stop last weekend at Richmond Raceway, Byron knew pushing the tires on his No. 24 Chevrolet to approximately 100 miles was a gamble.

The gamble, however, was his only option in attempting to hold off Martin Truex Jr. in, to the best of his knowledge, a two-car race over the final 20 laps in the Toyota Owners 400.

“I thought there at the end, when they told me that I was just racing the 19 (Truex), I’m like ‘OK, I got him,'” Byron said. ‘But the 4 (Kevin Harvick) and the 11 (Denny Hamlin) were on a totally different planet. Just part of it. Different tire strategies and it didn’t work out.”

What Byron believed was a two-car race was actually a four-car race as both Hamlin and Harvick passed him in the final laps en route to a fourth-place finish as he failed to become the first driver with two NASCAR Cup Series wins this year.

“We just needed five less laps,” Byron said. “It didn’t quite work out there. There were times when lappers were passing me, it got me out of shape, especially if they got to me on the corner exit. It would really get me out of shape. I had to manage the throttle so much. I was only quarter throttle so as soon as I would slip up it was game over. Just trying to keep that pace, I thought we did probably the best job we could.”

One week later, 180 miles southwest at Martinsville Speedway, Byron and Truex will battle in a two-car race … at BetMGM.

Truex vs. Byron is among the blockbuster featured matchups at BetMGM for the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400, which Truex is attempting to win for the third straight year.

Before Truex’s first win (in 2020) at the shortest track on the Cup Series circuit, no driver had won the race’s grandfather clock in back-to-back years since Rusty Wallace won four straight from 1993-96.

Here’s a look at Truex vs. Byron and the other featured matchups for NASCAR betting at the BetMGM online sportsbook:

Martin Truex Jr. (-175) vs. William Byron (+145)

For more than two decades, parity ruled the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400. Sixteen different drivers won in the 23 years between Wallace’s four-peat and Truex’s win in 2020.

Now, Truex is on the verge of ruling the race as he seeks a third straight win and fourth overall win at Martinsville in the last three years. Through his first 18 career Cup Series races at the track, Truex had only four top-10 finishes and never finished higher than fifth. In his last 14 races, he has 11 top-10 finishes, including three wins and two more second-place finishes.

Truex ranks first in driver rating at Martinsville (121.0) and all short tracks (114.4) since 2019, while Byron ranks eighth (92.5) and 12th (84.1), respectively. And bettors are buying another Truex win this weekend; as of Wednesday, he leads the field in both ticket share (11.3%) and handle share (15%).

Byron, however, is dominating the featured matchup betting. At +140 to finish ahead of Truex, Byron has 75% of the tickets — the highest ticket share of any matchup at BetMGM — and 90% of the handle.

Chase Elliott (-115) vs. Denny Hamlin (-110)

“You’ve got to figure out how to lead the last lap, that’s pretty much all that matters,” Hamlin said after surrendering a late lead at the 2021 Toyota Owners 400 en route to a fifth-place finish at his hometown track, the eighth of nine straight winless starts at his hometown track.

The Chesterfield, Virginia, native expressed similar frustration throughout the first two months of this year as he posted zero top-10 finishes through six starts, the second-longest top-10 drought of his 18-year Cup Series career, and lamented missed late-race opportunities.

He seized the opportunity Sunday at Richmond and now is looking to win back-to-back races for the first time since June 2010. To do so, he must conquer a track he once dominated and, at minimum, finish ahead of Chase Elliott, who has the second-highest driver rating at Martinsville since 2019 (116.4).

The public likes Hamlin in race-winner betting (14.6% of the handle), but Elliott has 99% of the handle in their head-to-head option.

Kyle Busch (-125) vs. Kyle Larson (+100)

No driver has more short-track top-10 finishes (14) or a better average finish (7.71) than Busch since 2019. However, the winner of the 2016 STP 500 has just one win (the 2022 Busch Light Clash) in his last 18 short-track starts after 15 wins in his previous 59 short-track starts.

Busch is tied with Hamlin and Ryan Blaney for the second-best race-winner odds, but with only 5.1% of tickets (eighth-highest percentage), most bettors aren’t buying him and/or his value at +800. And they’re not buying him against Kyle Larson.

Larson has only two career wins in 44 short-track starts but been in contention more often than not, including a fifth-place finish one year ago at Martinsville. The ticket share is split 50/50, but Larson has 91% of the handle in this featured matchup.

Ryan Blaney (-165) vs. Ross Chastain (+125)

Blaney didn’t earn his first win of the season last weekend at Richmond, but in leading 129 laps and posting a fourth top-10 finish, he did earn a spot beside Elliott atop the points standings for the first time in his Cup Series career.

“The No. 12 Ford has been the fastest car this season, and Blaney is one streak of dominance away from being the championship frontrunner,” Pat DeCola wrote in placing Blaney atop this week’s Power Rankings.

The sportsbook responded to another strong race by giving Blaney his best odds of the season (+800), which bettors are pounding to the tune of a 13.9% handle share, third highest to only True and Hamlin. Against Ross Chastain, one of the least-experienced short-track drivers in the field, however, Blaney has just 18% of the handle.

You can view updated Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 odds and more online sports betting opportunities at BetMGM.

Posted on April 6, 2022April 6, 2022 by Chase Wilhelm

A grandfather clock awaits the winner at Martinsville Speedway. Ryan Blaney hopes the time is now to earn his first victory of the 2022 season.

Saturday’s Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) will serve as Blaney’s 13th start at the 0.526-mile Virginia short track. His past six trips have included a pair of second-place results in 2020 and a combined average finish of 5.83.

Blaney is now focused on executing a complete race to have a shot at victory under the lights.

“I feel like three of the last four times we’ve been there, we’ve had a really good shot to win that race and probably had the best car and just we did not execute at the end of that race,” Blaney told NASCAR.com. “Kind of gave those away, to be honest with you. That’s something we’ve tried to work on — being able to rise to the occasion coming down to late pit stops and just not making mistakes. Hopefully, we’ve gotten that better. You just never know how you’re going to run at these places, especially with the new car.”

The speed in the No. 12 Team Penske Ford has been prevalent each weekend, which showcases how Blaney and company have achieved an early grasp on what it takes to be successful in the Next Gen car. But the notes are slim for what it will take to be fast at Martinsville, relying on lessons learned at Phoenix Raceway and Richmond Raceway this year to piece together a game plan for the second short-track event of the year.

“Hopefully you can still use some of the things you did well with the old car at this track that you can apply to the new car,” Blaney said. “You don’t really know that until you get out there and practice and get into the race and see how everything’s going.

“A little bit is known, but a lot of it is unknown.”

After the retirement of Todd Gordon at the conclusion of the 2021 season, Blaney was tasked with finding a new crew chief to guide the ship. That effort led him to Jonathan Hassler, who came over from the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing team after his term as crew chief for Matt DiBenedetto came to a close.

Blaney has reaped rapid benefits from having Hassler atop the pit box. In his seventh full-time Cup venture, Blaney is enjoying his second-best seven-race stretch to a season with a 13.14 average finish. In 2018, he earned an average finish of 8.0 in the first seven events.

Brian Lawdermilk | Getty Images

“He and I kind of have the same personalities,” Blaney said. “Him and I just understand each other, and we kind of understood each other from the get-go. We started testing in the offseason. We understood each other’s language, he understood what I liked, and I understood what he liked to change. It’s kind of one of those things where the relationship kicks off the right way.”

With three poles in the last four races, two top fives and four top 10s this season, it has amounted to a tie atop the points standings with Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott. Despite a crash at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and a last-lap brush with the wall on the final lap at Atlanta Motor Speedway that took him out of contention, Blaney leads the Cup field with three stage wins and 66 stage points.

“Everyone’s had their issues,” Blaney said. “We’ve just been able to overcome some of those and be tied leading the points. We’d like to obviously have a win already. I thought we had a shot to win a couple of them, just didn’t really fall in our favor.”

After starting on the pole last Sunday at Richmond Raceway, Blaney led a race-high 128 laps, the 10th time in his career where he led 100 laps or more but didn’t wind up in Victory Lane. On the flip side, five of Blaney’s seven Cup victories have come with green-flag passes for the lead inside 10 laps to go.

For Blaney, it’s tough to look back on those 10 races and place blame on why the checkered flag didn’t fall his way. But it’s about being around at the end to give yourself a shot, not what you did to get there.

“I don’t really think about that stuff too much,” Blaney. “Just try to figure out how to do the best you can all race. I don’t care if we go out and lead the whole race or I don’t care if we go out and lead one lap, as long as you go out and win the race, right? That’s the main goal. I don’t care how you get it done, as long as you do it.”

As the series prepares for another short-track showdown at Martinsville, where aggression and tempers are bound to happen, a credit to Blaney’s success is how well he’s able to shake the frost off after dustups he has had with other competitors.

That ability was apparent at Richmond, where hard racing with Ross Chastain led to fiery radio chatter from Blaney and a chain of payback between them. But what happens on the race track, stays on the race track.

“That’s just kind of how I am,” Blaney said. “I’ll get fired up about something in the moment. That’s just the competitive side of any sport, you get fired up in the moment. I’ve kind of always been that way. I gotta have my two cents about it for 15-20 seconds and then I’m over it and move on from it. I’ve just got to get some things off my chest in the moment and then I just move on and focus on other things.

“Everyone handles it in different ways. Other guys hold grudges for longer. It’s just not what I do.”

Posted on April 6, 2022 by Dustin Albino

Last summer, Sam Mayer was doing media rounds to pump up his Xfinity Series debut with JR Motorsports. He set out on being a record breaker, saying aloud he wanted to become the youngest driver to ever win an Xfinity Series race.

High bar, sure, but Mayer would have had to win one of his first three starts to eclipse Joey Logano’s record of being the youngest driver to win in NASCAR’s second-highest level. It didn’t happen. Until last Saturday at Richmond Raceway — Mayer’s 25th series start — the 18-year-old hadn’t won anything at the Xfinity Series level. Alas, he won the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus and picked up his best career finish of third.

“I have said this ever since I started racing, if you shoot so high and so far out there that you feel like if you can actually get there, it would be one of the craziest things ever that you could be better than Kyle Busch, then you’re better than Kyle Busch,” Mayer said. “But if you don’t quite get there, it’s still really impressive and you met a lot of expectations and goals for other people.”

Admittedly, Mayer hit the reset button after the 2021 season. Beginning last June at Pocono Raceway, he ran the final 18 races of the season for JR Motorsports. In that time, there were flashes of brilliance and other moments where he needed to take a step back.

It was all a learning experience.

“Sam doesn’t lack speed at all; he never has and probably will never be accused of that,” said Taylor Moyer, Mayer’s crew chief. “He’s naturally fast, but what we lacked was seat time, experience, the gamesmanship and the mental aspect of racing.

“Nobody ever questioned last year that he wasn’t fast; we weren’t wrecking, running 32nd. We were racing in the top 10, but we were tearing up a lot of race cars and not getting the finishes we deserved.”

Entering the 2022 season, Mayer knew he needed to put complete races together. He didn’t want a repeat of his results from last year, which included six DNFs and an average finish south of 20th.

Because of that, once Mayer returned to North Carolina after Christmas break, he began becoming more prepared for what was to come having recent experience in the Xfinity Series.

“I worked 10 times harder than last year with note-taking and watching videos,” Mayer said. “I did everything the exact same way I did last year, just way more.”

But even with the frustration, Mayer never lost confidence. He did, however, need to learn race craft, which Moyer believes is 70% of a driver’s success, with the other 30% being directed toward talent.

“We have worked 90% between the ears of understanding race situations, the bigger picture and risk versus reward in each situation,” Moyer said. “We’ve been extremely fast off the truck all year and now we’re starting to finish some races and put them together.”

Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images

The No. 1 team is coming off consecutive top-five finishes for the first time in Mayer’s career. Last week at Richmond, he made a late charge on the long run. One week earlier at Circuit of The Americas, Mayer won his first career stage and finished fifth.

And the scary thing is, the team is starting to build some momentum.

“I came into this year with a lot of confidence and a lot of speed,” Mayer said. “We’ve had a lot of speed the last few races; we’ve been up front and finished top five in just about every stage thus far. We just have to manage staying out of other people’s trouble and being there at the end.”

A former racer himself and Mayer’s current spotter, Brandon McReynolds, has a birds-eye view of the driver’s progression this year.

Despite it taking some time, Mayer is starting to execute.

“He’s learning these race tracks in a heavier car in comparison to the ARCA car,” McReynolds said, “helping him see what other drivers with a lot of experience are doing and seeing that he has the capability and talent to run with it. He has the speed, and I think what you’re seeing is him starting to put these full races together.”

Like last year when Moyer was crew chief for Josh Berry, he believes the No. 1 bunch is beginning to turn the corner. Once Berry began figuring out the cars, he was a consistent frontrunner.

“I think we’re just hitting our stride,” Moyer said. “There’s the potential to peak sooner rather than later. We just hadn’t put a full race together and we’re just now beginning to do that. It feels good and I think we’re 7/10, with 10/10 being perfectly executed races in which we win. We won’t settle until we hit that.”

Posted on April 6, 2022 by Holly Cain

There are seven different race winners in the seven-week-old NASCAR Cup Series season and plenty of reason to believe that trend of 2022 first-timers continues in Saturday’s Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Martinsville Speedway.

MARTINSVILLE: Weekend schedule | Paint Scheme Preview

Last week, for the first time since he won the 2021 Las Vegas Motor Speedway playoff race, 41-year-old Denny Hamlin hoisted a trophy, snapping a streak of 12 consecutive wins by drivers under the age of 30 and also putting the perennial championship contender Hamlin back on course after a rocky start to the season.

The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota shows up at Martinsville as the winningest active driver (five wins) at the 0.526-mile track — and easily one of the most motivated after an uncharacteristically slow start to the year. His win at Richmond Raceway last Sunday marks his only top 10 this season.

There is a robust list of traditional annual race winners – from Hamlin’s JGR teammates, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch, to former series champions Chase Elliott, Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick – still vying for that first 2022 victory. And there’s plenty of reason to make any of them a favorite for this weekend’s race – officially shortened from the historical 500-laps (to a scheduled 400-laps) for the first time in 50 years.

Truex, driver of the No. 19 JGR Toyota, has three wins in the last five Martinsville races and is the defending spring race winner – taking the victory by a full 1.972 seconds over Elliott and Hamlin last March – despite Hamlin’s race-best 276 laps out front.

Elliott won in 2020, Logano did in 2018, and both brothers Kyle and Kurt Busch have two victories at Martinsville as well.

As with Hamlin, William Byron, who led late at Richmond last week but was overtaken in the final laps, finished top five in both Martinsville races last year. Elliott, Byron’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, finished among the top five in the first but not second 2021 race. The driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet’s laps-led total (525) in the last three Martinsville races (including his 2020 fall victory) is most in the series. Elliott, who has advanced to the last two Championship 4s, is the only member of the four-driver Hendrick team without a win so far this year.

Neither Elliott nor Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney have won this season, however, the pair is currently tied atop the championship standings by 19 points over Truex. Blaney has won a season-best three pole positions — including the last two — and led a series-best 334, laps but a pair of fourth-place finishes (at Daytona International Speedway and Phoenix Raceway) are his best showings.

The driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford is looking for his first win at Martinsville, although he has an impressive six top-10 and five top-five finishes in 12 career starts — including runner-up showings in both 2020 races. He was 11th in both races last year — leading 157 laps in this spring race.

Kyle Busch, who finished runner-up to Bowman in last fall’s race, is another driver with past Martinsville success ready to get in the win column this year. He has a pair of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series wins as well as his two Cup Series trophies. He has only a single top-five finish this season – fourth place at Las Vegas.

“There are all kinds of different ways Martinsville has always put on really good and exciting racing,” Busch said, “and we’ll see how things look with the new car and trying to adapt as best we can.”

Posted on April 6, 2022April 7, 2022 by Staff Report

Editor’s Note: Before Friday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Martinsville Speedway — a race in which NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. will compete in his lone national series start of the year — we look back at Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s iconic 2014 Cup Series victory at the historic track.

The scene

It was the first year of NASCAR’s elimination-style format, and drivers still were getting accustomed to the strategies and nuances of the 16-driver postseason. Title favorites Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Jeff Gordon were still in the playoffs as the series moved to Martinsville to open the Round of 8. Upstart Joey Logano joined the three title favorites in advancing from the Round of 12, along with Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and the plucky Ryan Newman. Others, like regular-season points stalwarts Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr., had been eliminated following the Round of 12.

Harvick was widely considered the championship favorite, as he and crew chief Rodney Childers — both in their first year together at Stewart-Haas Racing — were in the midst of a season for the ages. Jeff Gordon looked like the Jeff Gordon of old, and Keselowski and Logano gave Team Penske a powerful 1-2 punch.

PHOTOS: Dale Jr. through the years

The action

Gordon controlled the first half of the race among the playoff contenders, leading 105 circuits in the first 250 laps despite qualifying 15th. One of the best racers in the garage on the unique .526-mile layout, it appeared to be Gordon’s race to lose early as he battled with non-playoff driver Jamie McMurray at the front of the pack.

Harvick, meanwhile, struggled at a venue that hadn’t been kind to him over the years. Keselowski, a strong short-track racer, had an issue with fewer than 100 laps to go and was caught up in a calamitous wreck that sent his mangled car to the garage.

With those two titans out of the picture, a final late-race wreck stacked the field back up for a restart and set the stage for a magical ending. Tony Stewart led a small group of drivers to stay out on old tires, with Earnhardt Jr. and Gordon behind them as the first drivers with fresh rubber.

In a five-lap sprint to the finish, Junior bumped his way to the front and moved past Tony Stewart, and Gordon followed suit.

RELATED: See full race results

Jeff Zelevansky | Getty Images

The winner

The final three laps consisted of Gordon chasing down his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, but not quite being able to catch him. Dale Jr. won his first Martinsville race and earned his first grandfather clock, capping a four-win season that was his best in years.

“When we won there, just … I had been trying to get that win for so long,” Earnhardt Jr. would say years later. “And everybody wants a clock. … It’s a hard race to win. It’s an easy track to have the best car and get beat.”

Goes on the list of “ones that got away”. One of the best cars I ever drove at @MartinsvilleSwy. https://t.co/rzuJgxyCoX

— Jeff Gordon (@JeffGordonWeb) October 25, 2018

The impact

Dale Jr. would go on to win three more times in his Cup Series career, but this was one he cites to this day as his most memorable. Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick exited Martinsville well below the cutoff line and needing a win over the next two races to qualify for Miami. That led to a gutsy, risky move from Keselowski the next week at Texas that ensnared Gordon in a wreck, sending the drivers and pit crews into a fistfight on pit road.

Kevin Harvick would rally to win at Phoenix and go on to win the title, while Ryan Newman bumped Gordon by a single position at Phoenix to qualify for the championship race — the same one position Gordon was short at Martinsville.

Junior, meanwhile, would retire from full-time driving following the end of the 2017 season. He’s annually competed in one Xfinity Series race since, notching three top-five finishes in those four starts.

Posted on April 6, 2022April 7, 2022 by Staff Report

The 2022 season will see the historic Langley Speedway kick off its 72nd season of competitive, short-track racing.

During its seven decades of operation, Langley has served as a proving ground for many drivers that include seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champions Richard Petty and Jimmie Johnson, as well as current Cup Series drivers like Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin.

Langley remains a hotspot for short track racing with a busy schedule that features plenty of marquee events that include the 14th Annual Hampton Heat, the Shawn Balluzzo Memorial 100 as well as the first NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race at the facility since 2019.

Local favorite Brenden Queen is looking to continue a recent string of success by tallying his third consecutive Langley track championship, but he will have to hold off plenty of talented veterans that include two-time champion Mark Wertz and six-time track champion Greg Edwards.

Below is everything to know about Langley Speedway.

Langley Speedway

Track Profile

NASCAR K&N Pro Series East racing at Langley Speedway on June 23, 2012. (Jason D. Smith/Pixelcrisp for NASCAR)

Track	Langley Speedway
Location	Hampton, Virginia
Opened	1950
Length	0.397 miles
Banking	Six degrees in turns; Two degrees on straightaways
Surface	Asphalt

Prior to Langley’s formal grand opening back in 1950, the property was known as Dude Ranch, which primarily hosted thoroughbred racing along with occasional stock car events.

Former promoter Henry Klich was responsible for revitalizing the track during its early years. Among Klich’s initiatives included bringing the first Cup Series race to Langley back in 1964 before later paving the facility ahead of its first planned Cup date in May of 1968.

The Cup Series left Langley after the 1970 season, but the track has remained popular amongst fans and drivers, with Lennie Pond, Elton Sawyer and C.E. Falk III all recording multiple track titles.

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Only nine Cup Series events have taken place at Langley. David Pearson took home the most victories during that stretch with three consecutive wins while Richard Petty and Ned Jarrett each tallied two of their own.

Langley hosted the NASCAR Xfinity Series twice a year from 1982-88 for a total of 14 appearances. Tommy Ellis, who won a track championship at Langley in 1975, led all other drivers with five victories at the facility. Jack Ingram followed closely behind him with four of his own.

The 2010s saw Langley branch out to host NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and Whelen Modified Tour events. Drivers like William Byron, Todd Gilliland, Ryan Preece and others each got to add to the track’s storied history by visiting Victory Lane.

Below are the complete lists of winners across all NASCAR divisions at Langley along with the track champions since 1963.

NASCAR K&N Pro Series East racing at Langley Speedway on June 23, 2012 (Jason D. Smith/Pixelcrisp for NASCAR)

NASCAR Cup Series races at Langley Speedway

Year-Race No.	Date	Winner
1964-22	5/15/64	Ned Jarrett
1965-16	5/14/65	Ned Jarrett
1966-16	5/7/66	Richard Petty
1967-19	5/20/67	Richard Petty
1968-17	5/18/68	David Pearson
1968-38	8/24/68	David Pearson
1969-20	5/17/69	David Pearson
1970-15	5/18/70	Bobby Isaac
1970-48	11/22/70	Bobby Allison

NASCAR Xfinity Series races at Langley Speedway

Year-Race No.	Date	Driver
1982-10	5/8/82	Jack Ingram
1982-21	8/7/82	Tommy Ellis
1983-09	5/7/83	Jack Ingram
1983-22	8/6/83	Jack Ingram
1984-09	5/5/84	Sam Ard
1984-20	8/11/84	Jack Ingram
1985-08	5/4/85	Tommy Ellis
1985-16	8/3/85	Tommy Ellis
1986-08	5/3/86	Tommy Houston
1986-21	8/2/86	L.D. Ottinger
1987-06	5/2/87	Mike Alexander
1987-17	8/9/87	Larry Pollard
1988-07	4/30/88	Tommy Ellis
1988-20	7/30/88	Tommy Ellis

NASCAR K&N Pro Series East (now ARCA Menards Series East) races at Langley Speedway

Year-Race No.	Date	Winner
2011-07	6/18/11	Sergio Pena
2012-07	6/23/12	Corey LaJoie
2013-07	6/22/13	Dylan Kwasniewski
2014-09	6/21/14	Ben Rhodes
2015-06	6/20/15	William Byron
2017-12	9/4/17	Todd Gilliland
2018-03	4/28/18	Tyler Dippel

NASCAR Southeast Series races at Langley Speedway

Year-Race No.	Date	Winner
1995-19	10/21/95	Mike Cope

NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour races at Langley Speedway

Year-Race No.	Date	Winner
2017-04	5/13/17	Timmy Solomito
2018-06	6/23/18	Ryan Preece

NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour races at Langley Speedway

Year-Race No.	Date	Winner
2010-08	9/4/10	Tim Brown
2011-09	9/3/11	Andy Seuss
2012-08	9/1/12	Jason Myers
2013-08	8/31/13	Kyle Ebersole
2014-04	4/12/14	George Brunnhoelzl III
2014-08	8/30/14	Burt Myers
2015-04	4/11/15	Burt Myers
2015-08	9/5/15	George Brunnhoelzl III

Langley Speedway track champions

Year: Track champion

1963: Bruce Warren

1964: Bruce Warren

1965: Lennie Pond

1966: Bruce Warren

1967: Bruce Warren

1968: No champion

1969: Ray Hendrick & Sonny Hutchins

1970: Al Grinnan

1971: Al Grinnan & Lennie Pond

1972: No champion

1973: Sonny Hutchins

1974: Bob Smith

1975: Tommy Ellis

1976: Joe Falk

1977: Billy Smith

1978: No champion

1979: No champion

1980: No champion

1981: Charlie Doyle

1982: Bubba Adams

1983: Elton Sawyer

1984: Elton Sawyer

1985: Elton Sawyer

1986: Phil Warren

1987: Roger Sawyer

1988: Phil Warren

1989: Danny Edwards Jr.

1990: Chip Hudson

1991: Roger Sawyer

1992: Danny Edwards Jr.

1993: Eddie Johnson

1994: Phil Warren

1995: Phil Warren

1996: Mike Buffkin

1997: Phil Warren

1998: Greg Edwards

1999: Dany Edwwards Jr.

2000: Phil Warren

2001: Phil Warren

2002: Jammie Goode

2003: Mark Wertz

2004: Tommy Cherry

2005: Tommy Cherry

2006: Greg Edwards

2007: Danny Edwards Jr.

2008: Danny Edwards Jr.

2009: C.E. Falk III

2010: C.E. Falk III

2011: C.E. Falk III

2012: Greg Edwards

2013: C.E. Falk III

2014: Greg Edwards

2015: Greg Edwards

2016: No champion

2017: Matt Waltz

2018: Danny Edwards Jr.

2019: Greg Edwards

2020: Brenden Queen

2021: Brenden Queen