Toyota Martinsville NASCAR Advance
Week of March 27- April 2, 2017
Martinsville Madness: Toyota drivers are no strangers to victory lane at Martinsville with the manufacturer enjoying a combined 20 victories in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS – six wins) and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS – 14). In the MENCS, Denny Hamlin reigns supreme with five Martinsville victories (March 2008, Oct. 2009, March 2010, Oct. 2010 and March 2015) while Kyle Busch captured his first win at the short track last spring. Busch’s win completed the first NASCAR national series sweep at Martinsville after he visited victory lane in the NCWTS a day earlier. It was also Toyota’s 14th overall NCWTS win at the track, marking the most series wins for a manufacturer at The Paperclip.
Rookies on the Rise: MENCS Toyota rookies Erik Jones and Daniel Suárez head back east after finding success during NASCAR’s three-race West Coast swing. Suárez captured a career-best seventh-place finish at Phoenix, tying that same finish at Auto Club Speedway one week later. Meanwhile, Toyota teammate Jones logged a career-best eighth-place finish in Phoenix and looked to have back-to-back top-10 finishes before a loose tire on pit road relegated him to a 12th-place finish in Fontana, Calif. Both rookies will make their MENCS debuts at Martinsville, but have a combined nine NCWTS starts at the short track, including six top-10 finishes.
My Old Virginia Home: Three Toyota drivers return to their home state of Virginia during Martinsville weekend – Gray Gaulding (Colonial Heights, Va.), Hamlin (Chesterfield, Va.) and Timothy Peters (Danville, Va.). Statistically, Hamlin’s best on-track performances occur in Virginia with Darlington (6.3) being the only track on the MENCS circuit where he’s accumulated a higher average finish than Martinsville (9.2) or Richmond (10.1). Peters also has a history in Virginia as he captured his first NCWTS win at Martinsville in 2009.
Picture of Youth: Nine full-time Toyota drivers competing at Martinsville are 25 years old or younger. In the MENCS, rookie of the year contenders Gaulding (19), Jones (20) and Suárez (25) lead the youth movement while Christopher Bell (22), Harrison Burton (16), Cody Coughlin (21), Noah Gragson (18), Brett Moffitt (24) and Ben Rhodes (20) round out the NCWTS. At age 16, Burton is the youngest of the Toyota group, and is able to compete only at tracks 1.25 miles or shorter due to NASCAR’s age restrictions. It will be Burton’s second NCWTS start after he finished 22nd in his series debut at Martinsville last fall.
Staying Connected… You can follow Toyota Racing on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter by using #ToyotaNation and online at www.toyotaracing.com. For media images, please visit www.toyotaracingmedia.com.
Toyota at Martinsville: Notes & Numbers:
Three Toyota drivers earned top-five finishes at Martinsville in October 2016 – Denny Hamlin (3rd), Matt Kenseth (4th) and Kyle Busch (5th) … Martin Truex Jr. captured his first pole at Martinsville in October 2016, earning Toyota’s fourth MENCS pole at the track … Hamlin’s average finish of 9.2 in the MENCS at Martinsville is the second-highest among active drivers … Matt Kenseth ranks fifth in average finish among active drivers at the track in the Cup Series (13.5) … Matt Crafton owns a NCWTS series record 30 starts at Martinsville where he has earned two wins, eight top-five results and 17 top-10 finishes.
