NASCAR
Stratta’s Six: Who Can Beat the Half-Mile of Mayhem Sunday?
The NASCAR Cup Series’ three-week short track swing ends Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. Southern Virginia’s half-mile is steeped in NASCAR history for countless memorable moments and winners. Martinsville will add its pages onto the sport’s 75th anniversary season this weekend. The NOCO 400 offers one driver a chance at a coveted Playoff berth, and a nifty Grandfather Clock trophy. Here are a few favorites heading into Sunday’s next battleground for the 2023 NASCAR season.
Denny Hamlin
Hometown hero Denny Hamlin has an otherworldly track record at Martinsville. Despite none of his five wins coming since 2015, the paperclip is one of Hamlin’s best venues on the circuit. A 10.5 average finish is second-best among all active drivers; the 11 also boasts 23 top-10s in 34 starts. On his podcast this week, Hamlin felt ultra confident in his Martinsville chances, predicting a win for team 11.
“I think the racing will be better than what we saw last year,” Hamlin said. “The aero package this year has helped with some of the problems we had, but definitely not all of them. You’re still going to have to shift at both ends every lap. So that’s going to be a factor and will make it difficult to pass. But like in the fall, we had a strong car and were able to make passes on guys. So I’m looking forward to this weekend. I think this is a good stretch for me and our 11 team based on past results. We need to take advantage of these upcoming tracks to get some stage points and be up front in contention for wins.”
Hamlin has had a very up-and-down season to date, with off-track controversies dominating the headlines rather than on-track success. After teammate Christopher Bell won at Bristol Dirt, Hamlin hopes to make it back-to-back victories for Coach Gibbs.
Joey Logano
Few get around Martinsville as well as Joey Logano, as the 2018 fall winner eyes another clock. Even with just one lone win here across 28 starts, Logano narrowly trails Hamlin’s track record with an 11.5 average finish. Driver 22 also has nearly 1100 laps led here across 28 starts. Nine of the last 10 trips to the tricky half-mile track also ended with the 22 in the top-10.
Logano hopes to add onto his Playoff point total with another win. Everyone knows how pivotal Martinsville fall is to a championship; the 22 aims to come back defending a win.
Martin Truex Jr
The man they seemingly named Martinsville after, Martin Truex Jr has claimed a trifecta of clocks since 2019. The 19 should be seen as a favorite coming into Sunday. At Richmond just two weeks ago MTJ was in the mix late until running out of new tires. If the 19 team’s strategy remains together, then Truex could be in position for his first win in 19 months.
“Definitely high confidence going into Martinsville compared to last year,” Truex said. “Short tracks were a struggle for us last year, Martinsville especially. To be able to go run like we did at the Clash and win, and then how we ran at Richmond, it gives me a lot of confidence going forward that our Martinsville stuff should be good. I love going there, it’s been a really good track for us over the years aside from last year. Hopefully we can continue that and use that going forward with our Bass Pro Shops Camry.”
“The biggest thing is just the beating and banging that happens there and getting knocked out of the way. For me, I’ve really only had one issue there, which was getting taken out of the race at the end in 2018. It gets like that at Martinsville, it’s just a tough track. When it comes down to a few laps to go, you can go down there and blow the corner and run into somebody and can get the spot. That’s where the frustration comes from there, from a lot of drivers over the years.”
Much like Hamlin, Truex wants to deliver back-to-back wins for Joe Gibbs Racing. Between both the 11 and 19 teams, Toyotas could be very dominant in Sunday’s 400-lap contest.
Kyle Busch
Surprisingly only a two-time Martinsville winner, Kyle Busch could be a snake in the grass this weekend. The winningest active short track driver, Busch was within sight of another checkered flag at the Clash. Rowdy believes that can somewhat translate to the half-mile.
“Running well at the Clash I think gives me some pretty good optimism for Martinsville,” Busch said. “I think we’re running the lower downforce package at Martinsville so to me, unfortunately, right now we’re kind of at a deficit with the lower downforce package. But if we can figure that out, then I feel like what we were able to do at the Clash will resonate and give us something for Martinsville that will keep us up front.”
“Martinsville is a challenging short track. I think with the Next Gen car it’s become a bigger challenge just with the fact that everybody being a lot closer. Little setup differences with the old car meant an awful lot in speed and it seems like little setup differences with this car doesn’t really mean a whole lot so everybody runs the same speed no matter what so it just makes it tough to pass. Track position is everything. The aero affects when you get behind guys makes it tough to move around and find grip in other grooves in order to make moves. It seemed like with the old car you could definitely follow a lot better and keep yourself closer to the guy in front of you so if he made a little, tiny mistake you could pounce on that and make a pass.
“The racing there is pretty demanding. I mean, you’re on the brakes all the time and steering all the time. You’re trying to feel that grip and not slip. You want to carry your speed as fast as you can while off the gas. The biggest thing that I learned that made me better at Martinsville is how fast can you go slow. You actually spend more of the lap off the throttle than you do on the throttle so it’s about figuring out how to go slow fast.”
Knowing how to go slow fast is precisely what makes Busch so good more often than not at Martinsville. Last fall ended a four-race streak of Rowdy being in the top-10 here. Now with his new team, Busch hopes to reignite his Martinsville prowess and possibly grab another clock. Busch will also run Friday’s Truck race as added practice and track time.
Ryan Blaney
Perhaps the best active driver at Martinsville without a Grandfather Clock is Ryan Blaney. The 12 has a series-best average finish of 9.7, in addition to eight top-10s and 377 laps led in 14 starts. A Martinsville triumph would have added significance for Blaney, as his hometown is in the shadows of the half-mile.
“I’ve always looked at Martinsville as a home race for me,” Blaney said. “I grew up closer to there than I did to Charlotte Motor Speedway being from High Point. I went up there a lot to go and watch dad run and then it became even more special running for the Wood Brothers with them being from Stuart. It’s a place I always have circled on the calendar because it was special to me as a kid and it still is.”
While no longer with the Virginia race team, Martinsville may be Blaney’s best shot yet at a win. Unforced errors have kept the 12 team from greatness for much of 2023. Martinsville may be a glimmer of hope for the Penske crew.
Kyle Larson
The only Hendrick Motorsports driver without a Grandfather Clock, Kyle Larson was as close as he’s been to a Martinsville win last fall. While all attention was on Christopher Bell’s win and Ross Chastain’s hail melon move, the 5 was quietly in second. On top of 68 laps led, Larson may finally be figuring out the Half-Mile of Mayhem.
“I want to win at any track that I haven’t won at,” Larson said. “Martinsville has been a place I’ve struggled at pretty regularly. Last year, we had two good races at Martinsville. I feel like it is potentially in our future to win a race there. If I did, that would probably be the all-time biggest win of my life, because any time you can accomplish something that is difficult to you or you don’t think you can accomplish, it means a lot.”
The 5 team was in grade-A position for a win last week on Bristol Dirt, only for an early DNF to end their day. Still riding high from their Richmond win two weeks ago, Larson could sneak into victory lane again at Martinsville.
Eight races into 2023, we’ve seen seven different NASCAR Cup Series winners. With so many past Martinsville masters still trying to get their feet under them this season, the odds are high for a new winner. The NOCO 400 goes green Sunday at 300 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. Don’t miss a lap of action as plenty of hungry drivers eagerly await a chance at breaking through again at the tricky half-mile.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credit to Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images for NASCAR
