Posted on April 7, 2022April 7, 2022 by Reid Spencer

William Byron proved emphatically Thursday night he hadn’t forgotten how to drive a truck.

Making only his second start in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series since 2016 — after a blown engine knocked him out of last year’s Nashville Superspeedway race — Byron parlayed perfect pit strategy into a decisive victory in the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 200 at Martinsville Speedway.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos

In his last full season in the series in 2016, Byron won seven races before moving on to the Xfinity Series and finally to the Cup Series.

With Kevin “Bono” Manion on his pit box, and with input from Cup crew chief Rudy Fugle, Byron brought his No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet to pit road for the final time on Lap 83 of 200 and took over the lead when the trucks ahead of him pitted at the end of Stage 2 on Lap 104.

The 24-year-old from Charlotte, North Carolina, led all but two of the final 96 laps and beat runner-up Johnny Sauter to the finish line by 1.138 seconds. Kyle Busch ran third, followed by John Hunter Nemechek and defending series champion Ben Rhodes.

“It was a lot of fun,” said Byron, who already has a Cup victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway in hand this season. “Great crowd here at Martinsville. I’ve never won a race at Martinsville and struggled here when I was in late models.

“Yeah, just awesome to get the win tonight — a great truck tonight, the HendrickCars.com Chevrolet. Thanks to Spire, all the guys back at their shop. They don’t have a lot of guys, and they do it right, obviously. It was fun to work with Bono, have a little help from Rudy. Obviously, he knows the trucks pretty well.”

The race was a homecoming for Sauter, too. Making his second start of the season, the 2016 series champion was driving a ThorSport Racing Toyota for the first time since last year, his last full-time season with the organization.

Carl “Junior” Joiner, longtime crew chief for Matt Crafton, returned to call the race for Sauter after retiring from full-time competition at the end of the 2021 season.

“I told Joiner today, I said don’t listen to me when I give you feedback on the first run,” Sauter said. “I called for an adjustment, and I shouldn’t have. I thought we fired off tremendous and just got a little too tight there at the two-thirds mark of the corner…

“It was the first in-house chassis, in-house body for ThorSport. To come home second was pretty solid.”

Sauter chased Byron after the final restart with 36 laps left but couldn’t match the speed of Byron’s Silverado.

The race featured 11 cautions for 71 laps. Zane Smith won the first stage wire-to-wire, and Rhodes claimed the second stage win.

Chandler Smith, Crafton, Grant Enfinger, Zane Smith and Tyler Ankrum finished sixth through 10th, respectively. Rhodes leads the Truck Series standings by four points over second-place Chandler Smith.

The Truck Series returns to action for the Pinty’s Truck Race on Dirt next Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Note: Post-race inspection in the Truck Series garage is complete with no issues, confirming William Byron as the winner.

Contributing staff reports.

Posted on April 7, 2022 by Zack Albert

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Five days after their intra-team clash last weekend at Richmond Raceway, sometimes Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Ty Gibbs and John Hunter Nemechek indicated they had followed up with each other, but crossed signals kept them from hashing out any differences in a team debrief.

Gibbs came out victorious after a full-contact final lap in last Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, leaving Nemechek to lament a runner-up finish in his first start in JGR equipment this season. Thursday, the two were back at Martinsville Speedway but competing in different NASCAR series – Nemechek in Thursday night’s Camping World Truck Series race and Gibbs prepping for Friday’s Xfinity Series go, where he’ll start from the pole position.

Coach Joe Gibbs had said last weekend he had encouraged his grandson to address the conflict head-on, to attempt to sort out any lingering bitterness among themselves. Thursday at Martinsville, the younger Gibbs said post-qualifying their talk didn’t take place in the organization’s debrief.

“Well, Coach doesn’t come to our Xfinity debriefs, and John Hunter didn’t show up,” Ty Gibbs said after Thursday’s Xfinity Series qualifying session. “So I got to call John Hunter, but he never showed up to the drivers’ meeting, which I was surprised about. But you know, it is what it is.”

Nemechek, a Truck Series regular for Kyle Busch Motorsports, confirmed before Thursday’s Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 200 the two had spoken since Richmond.

“I had a phone call with him. I was not in the team debrief when we had it on Tuesday. I guess it was my mistake for saying it was Monday,” Nemechek said. “That’s normally when our Truck debrief is, so just figured it was Monday. But I had Trucks then, trying to get ready for here, so I wasn’t able to be there for the team debrief. But him and I have had a call and exchanged some words and different things of that sort, so that’s pretty much it.”

Was a resolution reached?

“I mean, he pretty much told me the same thing that he said in his post-race interview and all that stuff,” Nemechek said. “We’ll just see where it goes. It’s hard racing, I guess.”

Gibbs, 19, has won three times already in his first full season of Xfinity Series competition, and Thursday’s pole was his third consecutive. His rise has been meteoric – seven total wins in just 25 Xfinity starts – but he has also become known for his tendency toward aggressive racing.

Asked if he felt additional pressure with those tactics becoming his calling card, Gibbs sidestepped: “Not really. You know, we’re all out here doing the same thing. I mean, last year, I got wrecked from the lead, so it’s not like it’s different, you know. So I’m gonna do the best I can.”

Nemechek, 24, is in his second full season with Kyle Busch’s Truck Series operation, and he was tapped just last month to drive in three Xfinity Series events in JGR’s No. 18 Toyota. The first of those was a doozy at Richmond.

Asked if he looked back on the last-lap proceedings any differently, given some time by Thursday to cool off and reflect with a fresh perspective, Nemechek maintained he expected a more sporting battle among teammates.

“I mean, I’m mad I didn’t win the race, right?” Nemechek said. “And I guess you can look at it from different ways, right, and you can think of it from you must win no matter what, but at the same time as a teammate, you I guess expect a little more respect than that, but it is what it is. We just move on and keep racing.”

Posted on April 7, 2022April 7, 2022 by Zack Albert

The National Motorsports Appeals Panel ruled Thursday that penalties against RFK Racing’s No. 6 Ford team and driver-owner Brad Keselowski will stand.

A three-member panel heard the appeal Thursday, confirming that RFK Racing violated Sections 14.1 and 14.5 of the NASCAR Rule Book. Those sections both relate to modification of a single-source supplied part on the Next Gen stock car that debuted in the Cup Series this year.

NASCAR competition officials handed down an L2-grade penalty March 24 after an inspection of RFK’s No. 6 Ford at its Research & Development Center after the previous weekend’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. That punishment included 100-point penalties in both the driver and owner standings, the loss of 10 playoff points, a four-race suspension to crew chief Matt McCall and a $100,000 fine.

After Thursday’s ruling, those penalties have been upheld. The decision keeps Keselowski in 31st place in the Cup Series standings.

RFK Racing had indicated its intent to appeal the penalties a day after they were first issued, but instead of deferring the crew chief’s suspension, McCall has sat out the last two races. Engineer Josh Sell has served as interim crew chief, helping the No. 6 team register finishes of 14th (Circuit of The Americas) and 13th (Richmond) the last two weekends.

The organization had the option to appeal the decision to the National Motorsports Final Appeals Officer, but the team released a statement saying it would not.

NASCAR officials announced Jan. 24 that a tougher deterrence system would be in place for 2022, with a three-tiered structure that marked its most strict penalties for alterations to or unapproved fabrication of Next Gen-specific parts. RFK Racing was the first organization to draw a penalty at the L2 level under the new system.

The three members of the National Motorsports Appeals Panel who served in Thursday’s hearing were: Mr. Dixon Johnston, Mr. Bill Mullis and Mr. Dale Pinilis.

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.

FOLLOW MERIDIAN: Facebook | Twitter

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.”