FORD PERFORMANCE NASCAR: MARTINSVILLE
All three of NASCAR’s top touring series will be competing under the lights this week at Martinsville Speedway, beginning with Thursday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race and continued the next two nights with the NASCAR Xfinity and NASCAR Cup Series.
This Week’s Schedule:
Thursday, April 7 – NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, 8 p.m. ET (FS1)
Friday, April 8 – NASCAR Xfinity Series, 7:30 p.m. ET (FS1)
Saturday, April 9 – NASCAR Cup Series, 7:30 p.m. ET (FS1)
FORD IN THE NASCAR CUP SERIES AT MARTINSVILLE
· Ford has 30 series wins at Martinsville Speedway.
· Ford has won four of the last 10 series events at Martinsville.
· Brad Keselowski has two of those wins while Joey Logano has one.
FORD IN THE NASCAR XFINITY SERIES AT MARTINSVILLE
· Ford has 1 series win at Martinsville Speedway.
· Kenny Wallace has that lone series win (1994).
FORD IN THE NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES AT MARTINSVILLE
· Ford has five all-time NCWTS wins at Martinsville Speedway.
· Todd Gilliland recorded his first series victory at Martinsville Speedway.
F-150 LIGHTNING SET TO PACE AT MARTINSVILLE
The all-electric 2022 F-150 Lightning will be the official pace vehicle for this weekend’s NASCAR event at Martinsville Speedway. This marks the first time an electric truck will pace a NASCAR race and follows the Mustang Mach-E, which handled pace car duties at Talladega Superspeedway last year. Lightning is scheduled to pace the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event Thursday and then the NASCAR Cup Series race two nights later. Lightning received nearly 200,000 reservations since being unveiled last May and is part of a growing EV portfolio for Ford that includes the Mustang Mach-E and E-Transit. The vehicle is on track for customer deliveries this spring.
LOGANO LIKES MARTINSVILLE
No track on the NASCAR Cup Series circuit has been better for Joey Logano when it comes to qualifying than Martinsville Speedway. Logano enters this weekend with an average starting position of 7.5, which is his best among all tracks in which he has more than five starts. He has five poles, including three in a row in 2015-16, and has an active streak of 18 straight top-10 starts (including races where qualifying was rained out). In 26 career races at the half-mile short track, Logano has an average finishing position of 12.0 and has been running at the finish of every event.
BLANEY ON QUALIFYING HOT STREAK
Ryan Blaney, who leads the current point standings, goes into this weekend at Martinsville having won the pole in each of the last three NASCAR Cup Series qualifying sessions. His streak started at Phoenix and continued at Circuit of the Americas and Richmond. Qualifying was rained out at Atlanta Motor Speedway three weeks ago, but Blaney still started on the front row as NASCAR’s formula placed him second. Blaney now has nine career poles.
Martinsville Highlights
BOWYER NETS FIRST FORD WIN
Clint Bowyer snapped a 190-race winless stretch by leading the final 114 laps to win the weather-delayed STP 500 in 2018. The win was Bowyer’s first with Ford and ninth of his career. He passed Ryan Blaney on lap 285 to gain the lead for the first time, and when Jamie McMurray brought out the caution 100 laps later after hitting the wall, Bowyer’s pit crew got him back out with the lead and that proved to be the difference. That capped a big day for Ford, which had five drivers finish in the Top 10 and saw Blaney win Stage 2.
KESELOWSKI WINS FIRST CLOCK
Brad Keselowski outdueled Kyle Busch down the stretch to win his first grandfather clock after capturing the STP 500 on Apr. 2, 2017. The two drivers waged a memorable battle that saw them swap the lead five times in the last 160 laps, but Keselowski ended up making the decisive pass on lap 458 and led the final 43 circuits to become the first repeat winner in 2017. Prior to winning at Martinsville, Keselowski took the checkered flag at Atlanta in the second race of the season.
A FIRST FOR FRED
The first time Ford won a NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway also marked the first career victory for 2015 NASCAR Hall of Famer Fred Lorenzen. The date was April 9, 1961 and Lorenzen battled Rex White, who led the first 118 laps after starting on the pole. Lorenzen, driving for Holman-Moody at the time, grabbed the lead on lap 119 and held it until rain came ending the race prematurely after 149 circuits. Little did anyone know that 54 years later both men would be enshrined into the NASCAR Hall of Fame as part of the same induction class. Martinsville was a place Lorenzen dominated, winning six times, including four straight from 1963-65. He was absolutely unbeatable in 1964 as he led 990 out of a possible 1,000 laps (487 in the first and 493 in the second) in winning both races.
CRAVEN WINS FIRST CUP RACE
Ricky Craven outlasted Dale Jarrett over the final laps to post the first victory of his NASCAR Cup Series career on Oct. 15, 2001 at Martinsville Speedway. Pit strategy played a key role in this race as Jarrett opted for four tires on his final stop while Craven just got two. That enabled Craven to build a lead following the ensuing restart with 17 to go, but Jarrett gained ground and found himself in position to win on the final lap. That’s when Jarrett went to the outside going into turn one and got side-by-side with Craven coming off turn two. Both Fords made contact door-to-door entering turn three, but Craven emerged off four with the advantage and took the checkered flag.
RUDD ROUGHS IT OUT
No driver displayed more toughness during his career than Ricky Rudd and that was evident again in 1998 when the Virginia native endured burns on his backside to win the NAPA Autocare 500 on Sept. 27. On a day that saw temperatures in the mid-nineties, Rudd found himself in a bad way just five laps into the race when his cooling unit failed. As the cockpit got hotter he asked to have a relief driver standing by, so Hut Stricklin was in the pit area ready to takeover. Ice packs helped momentarily, but his back was blistering so the team tried to cool him off with a hose. Unfortunately, the hose they used had been lying in the sun, so when they doused him the first time the water was hot. That method worked better on later stops, but in the end it was Rudd who toughed it out and led the final 96 laps to win and extend his streak to 16 consecutive seasons with at least one NASCAR Cup Series win.
FORD NASCAR CUP SERIES WINNERS AT MARTINSVILLE
1961 – Fred Lorenzen (1)
1962 – Nelson Stacy (2)
1963 – Fred Lorenzen (2)
1964 – Fred Lorenzen (Sweep)
1965 – Fred Lorenzen and Junior Johnson
1966 – Fred Lorenzen (2)
1969 – Richard Petty (Sweep)
1986 – Ricky Rudd (1)
1990 – Geoffrey Bodine (Sweep)
1992 – Mark Martin and Geoffrey Bodine
1993 – Ernie Irvan (2)
1994 – Rusty Wallace (Sweep)
1995 – Rusty Wallace (1)
1996 – Rusty Wallace (1)
1997 – Jeff Burton (1)
1998 – Ricky Rudd (2)
2000 – Mark Martin (1)
2001 – Dale Jarrett and Ricky Craven
2002 – Kurt Busch (2)
2017 – Brad Keselowski (1)
2018 – Clint Bowyer and Joey Logano
2019 – Brad Keselowski (1)
FORD NASCAR XFINITY SERIES WINNERS AT MARTINSVILLE
1994 – Kenny Wallace
FORD NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES WINNERS AT MARTINSVILLE
1995 – Joe Ruttman
2003 – Jon Wood
2004 – Rick Crawford
2005 – Ricky Craven (2)
2015 – Joey Logano (1)
2020 – Grant Enfinger
