Larson Captures Maiden Martinsville Victory
Given the projected forecast of rain and potential thunderstorms for the NOCO 400 at Martinsville Speedway, NASCAR made a conscious effort to drop the green flag 10 minutes earlier than originally scheduled – though we’re not sure how much of a difference a mere 10 minutes would have made had a downpour actually occurred. Likely, it’s the soonest they could have gotten underway due to broadcast scheduling. However, as it turned out, the heavy cloud cover eventually made way for full sun, eliminating all talk of “rain tires”.
Martinsville is a track that NASCAR has deemed suitable for wet weather equipment which was dubbed as including “rain tires”. However, that was misleading. As it turns out, the tires are not meant for running in the rain when it comes to oval tracks – they’re meant for a wet track. But even then, there are limitations as to the level of moisture. This very issue caused a great deal of confusion for fans during the truck race on Friday night; thankfully, there wasn’t a need to repeat the situation on Sunday. Instead, the sun was a factor when it came to changing the condition of the track and the way the cars were running. As a matter of fact, it helped to change the entire complexion of the race as cars that were running well in the cooler temperatures of the cloud cover noticeably began dropping back as others came to life with the hotter, slicker track.
Sadly, it wasn’t the new short-track package that was creating any movement on track because it isn’t performing how most people thought it would. The purpose of the changes was to enhance the quality of racing – to prevent the single-file, follow-the-leader type of racing we’ve seen in recent years. Unfortunately, it seems to have had the reverse effect and has seemingly exacerbated the problem. In his post-race interview, Denny Hamlin remarked that passing is nearly impossible, especially further back in the field. And even when there is a rare opportunity to get within passing range, it seems to take several laps to make a pass stick. As seen today, most of the time track position was achieved with pit stops and strategy.
Even more frustrating, it took about 300 laps for the track to get rubbered up enough to produce the kind of Martinsville racing that fans are used to seeing. This caused Stages 1 and 2 to be relatively uneventful, with Ryan Preece in the #41 leading the field for a total of 135 laps and winning the first stage before incurring a speeding penalty coming off pit road.
Preece, who seemed to come alive as of the dirt race at Bristol, wasn’t the only Stewart-Hass driver to score stage points – Kevin Harvick snagged Stage 2, his first stage win since 2020 and the first time he’s led at Martinsville since 2016. Certainly, SHR came to play with all 4 cars qualifying in the top 7, and 2 cars finishing in the top ten – Chase Briscoe in 5th and Aric Almirola 6th.
Most of the memorable action took place during Stage 3 and included Kyle Busch and Corey Lajoie battling at the back in 28th and 29th place. There was quite a bit of pushing and shoving until Busch ultimately moved Lajoie which put him into the wall. And only a few laps later, Bubba Wallace expressed his frustration with Denny Hamlin when Hamlin put him a lap down. Wallace rammed the back bumper of Hamlin repeatedly, which might be part of a heavy discussion during the race debrief back at the shop. But to be fair, they were rough with each other a few times prior to that particular incident.
In the end, it was yet another Hendrick Motorsports win with Kyle Larson taking his second W this season – that’s 2 in 3 weeks with the first win coming at Richmond. Getting out of the car for his post-race interview, you might have noticed Kyle removing a mouthguard, as some other drivers have been doing lately as well. The mouthguards are experimental and are being used to measure G force and acceleration. When it comes to Hendrick, the other big story was Chase Elliott who was back in the seat for the first time since breaking his leg six weeks ago. Despite that Chase spent most of the day near the back of the pack, shuffling between 23rd and 28th place, he brought home a top 10 finish. Not too shabby!
NASCAR selected the #41 of Ryan Preece and the #3 of Austin Dillon to take back to the R&D center for tear down.
Next week the Cup Series moves onto a plate race at Talladega, the fastest track on the circuit.
