Who… should you be talking about after the race?
Last fall, William Byron came to Martinsville Speedway on a roll, with six straight finishes of ninth or better. But the little track in Virginia got the best of Byron. It didn’t completely derail his title hopes by any stretch of the imagination, but a 13th-place run took a little wind out of his sails. Ryan Blaney won the day and entered the title race with enough momentum to win it all, while Byron rode his top-five run to third on the year.
This time around, Martinsville didn’t get the better of Byron. He started 13th but was in the top 10 by the end of stage one. The Daytona 500 winner went on to lead 88 laps en route to the victory over teammate Kyle Larson. It comes 40 years after team owner Rick Hendrick’s first Cup Series win as a car owner.
All four Hendrick cars had ruby red paint schemes to mark the milestone, and they didn’t disappoint Hendrick, with the quartet all finishing in the top 10. Chase Elliott led 64 laps and finished third, marking the first one-two-three finish for an organization in Martinsville history. Alex Bowman came home eighth, keeping all the Hendrick cars in the top 10.
And don’t forget Ryan Preece. Preece took home his first top 10 of 2024 and his first at Martinsville in the Cup Series. The short track ace has two grandfather clocks from Martinsville wins with the Whelen Modified Tour, but the track had gotten the best of him in Cup until Sunday. Preece entered the day feeling confident in his No. 41 car, and his confidence was justified after he came in ninth.
What… is the big question leaving this race in the rearview?
Martinsville put on some of the best racing on the Cup circuit not so long ago. It still does when the Xfinity Series shows up. But since the Cup Series adopted the Next Gen racecar, it’s been just OK at best.
Will NASCAR do anything to help?
The tires helped the racing at Bristol Motor Speedway exponentially, though it wasn’t perfect. A tire that lasts roughly 50-60 laps before giving up the ghost seems like it would be ideal on the Martinsville paperclip.
But if there are plans to develop this kind of tire for Martinsville and other tracks, they haven’t been released.
More horsepower seems to be off the table (with no good reason ever given). Is there another way to get back to the kind of racing the fans deserve, the better to keep the track’s two dates secure? Horsepower is…
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