Martinsville Speedway
Saturday, April 9, 2022
.526-Mile Oval
7:30 PM ET
Location: Martinsville, Virginia
TV: Fox
Event: NASCAR Cup Series (8 of 36)
Radio: SiriusXM, PRN
5 KYLE LARSON
Age: 29 (July 31, 1992)
Hometown: Elk Grove, California
Resides: Mooresville, North Carolina
Crew Chief: Cliff Daniels
Standings: 12th
No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
TOP FIVE FOR NO. 5: On Sunday at Richmond Raceway, Kyle Larson drove the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to a fifth-place finish – his third top-five finish of 2022. The Elk Grove, California, native is tied with Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron for second in that statistical category, trailing only Ross Chastain who has four finishes this season in the top five. Along with that fifth-place result, Larson has a victory at Auto Club Speedway and a runner-up finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
THIS TIME LAST YEAR: After seven races in 2021, Larson’s deficit to the points leader was 85 markers. He was able to erase that gap in the remaining 19 regular season races to be crowned the NASCAR Cup Series regular season champion. This year, Larson trails the points leader by 58 after seven events.
NIGHTTIME IS THE RIGHT TIME: There were eight Cup Series night races in 2021 and Larson posted top-10 finishes in seven of those with wins coming at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May and Bristol Motor Speedway in September. Only six drivers led 100 or more laps total in those events with Larson leading the way with 767.
APRIL SHOWERS: In April 2021 at Martinsville Speedway, Larson started 19th and finished fifth in the rain-delayed event. Overall, he has two top-five finishes and three top-10s in 14 starts at the .526-mile Virginia short track.
GETTIN’ DIRTY: On Sunday, Larson is scheduled to participate in a dirt late model race at Port Royal Speedway in Pennsylvania. Sponsor HendrickCars.com will appear on Larson’s car, uniform, gloves and helmet.
STOP AND GO: At 12.491 seconds, the No. 5 pit crew is tied for the 12th-quickest average time for four-tire pit stops in 2022. The over-the-wall crew is comprised of fueler Brandon Harder, jackman Brandon Johnson, tire carrier R.J. Barnette and tire changers Donnie Tasser (front) and Calvin Teague (rear).
YOUR CAR NEEDS: This weekend at Martinsville, Larson will drive the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. From the convenience of home, customers can select the category, make, model and vehicle packages that are important to them from the nearly 30,000 new, high-quality pre-owned and certified cars, trucks and SUVs available at HendrickCars.com. The website also makes it easy for customers to find one of Hendrick Automotive Group’s 93 dealership locations nationwide.
WE’RE HIRING: Hendrick Automotive Group is hiring more than 300 technicians at its dealerships throughout the country. Positions are open for all skill levels and offer tuition and training reimbursement. Interested people can apply at HendrickCars.com.
9 CHASE ELLIOTT
Age: 26 (Nov. 28, 1995)
Hometown: Dawsonville, Georgia
Resides: Dawsonville, Georgia
Crew Chief: Alan Gustafson
Standings: 1st-Tied
No. 9 LLumar Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
MARTINSVILLE MOJO: Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 LLumar Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, will make his 14th Martinsville Speedway start in the NASCAR Cup Series on Saturday. The 26-year-old driver made his Cup debut at the track for Hendrick Motorsports on March 29, 2015, and has since led a total of 718 laps there – his most laps led at any track. Across his 13 starts at Martinsville, he has one win (November 2020), five top-five finishes and seven top 10s. Elliott is tied for the most stage wins (four) at the track. In this race last spring, he drove to a runner-up finish.
SHORT-TRACK STATS: On Saturday, Elliott will make his 38th short-track start in the Cup Series. In those races, he has garnered one win (Martinsville 2020), 12 top-five finishes, 17 top-10s and led 1,251 laps.
GUSTAFSON’S PAPERCLIP PAST: No. 9 team crew chief Alan Gustafson is set to call his 35th Martinsville race from atop the pit box this weekend. In his previous 34 Cup Series starts at the track, he has three wins – most recently with Elliott in November 2020 to solidify the No. 9 team’s spot in the Championship 4. Gustafson also has 15 top-five finishes and 24 top 10s at the venue. His other two wins at the paperclip-shaped track came with Jeff Gordon in 2013 and 2015.
POINTS LEADER: Seven races into the 2022 season, Elliott continues to be a front runner in the Cup Series point standings and is currently tied with Ryan Blaney for the top spot. Elliott is one of only six drivers to score at least four top-10 finishes in 2022. His best result of fourth came at Circuit of The Americas just two weeks ago.
RECAPPING THE WIN: Elliott’s November 2020 victory at Martinsville was his first Cup Series short-track win. The Dawsonville, Georgia, native won the second stage and led 236 of 500 laps en route to the victory, locking himself and the No. 9 team into the Championship 4. The following week Elliott came from the back of the pack to win at Phoenix and secure his first Cup Series championship.
LLUMAR COLORS: LLumar will have its colors carried on the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 this weekend at Martinsville. It’s the second of two races that the Eastman Performance Films brand is serving as the primary partner during the 2022 season. It was also on board Elliott’s Chevrolet during his fourth-place run at COTA in March. LLumar’s window tint and paint protection film is produced at Eastman’s manufacturing facility located just over 10 miles from the Virginia track.
24 WILLIAM BYRON
Age: 24 (Nov. 29, 1997)
Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina
Resides: Charlotte, North Carolina
Crew Chief: Rudy Fugle
Standings: 4th
No. 24 RaptorTough.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
William Byron, driver of the No. 24 RaptorTough.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, will be available to members of the media at the Martinsville Speedway media center on Friday, April 8, at 3:45 p.m. local time.
REVVED-UP RICHMOND: Qualifying second for last Sunday’s race at Richmond Raceway, Byron maintained that position until the end of stage one. With issues on the right rear during the stage break pit stop, Byron restarted deeper in the field for the start of stage two. Crew chief Rudy Fugle was able to use pit strategy later in the run to get Byron back to the front of the field. In the final stage, the Charlotte, North Carolina, native took the lead and commanded the field for 122 laps – the most he has led in a single race – and was poised to take home his second win of the season. However, with varying pit strategy taking place, two cars with fresher tires were able to catch him with five laps to go, leaving Byron with a third-place finish – a personal best for him at Richmond.
POINTS, POINTS, POINTS: So far in 2022, Byron has captured two stage wins, both coming in stage one of the races at Phoenix Raceway and Atlanta Motor Speedway. His two stage wins are tied for the third-most this season. Byron has collected the most playoff points (7), most stage points in the opening stage of races (46) and the second-most stage points overall (64).
SUCCESS AT SHORT TRACKS: With the Cup Series taking on its second short track of the 2022 season, Byron has momentum on his side after his third-place finish in last weekend’s short-track race at Richmond. In his last three short-track starts, he has collected three top-five finishes – the longest active streak in the Cup Series and his longest streak on short tracks. He and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman are tied for second with the longest active streak of top-10 finishes (three) on short tracks behind only Martin Truex Jr., who has six.
MARTINSVILLE MINUTES: Despite his young age, Byron’s time at Martinsville goes back to when he attended his first Cup Series race at the paperclip-shaped track in 2006 as a fan. Since then, the 24-year-old driver has moved through the NASCAR ranks and is now poised to make his ninth Cup start at the half-mile venue. Of his eight Cup Series starts there, Byron has a personal-best finish of second in the fall of 2019 when he came within car lengths of scoring the win. Last season, Byron raced to back-to-back top-five finishes – one of only two drivers (Truex) to do that at Martinsville in 2021. He has three top-five finishes total at Martinsville – the most at any track in his Cup career.
NIGHT MOVES: In eight night races in 2021, Byron battled to three top-five finishes – tied for the sixth-most. In those events, he ranked fourth with 140 laps led.
THE FUGLE FILES: Sunday’s race will mark Fugle’s third in the Cup Series at Martinsville. Last season, he and the No. 24 team raced to two top-five finishes, a fourth in the spring and fifth in the fall at the Virginia track. Aside from his Cup starts, the Livonia, New York, native has 14 races at the paperclip-shaped track already under his belt, all in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. In those 14 races, Fugle has accumulated one win (May 2019), six top-five finishes and 12 top-10s. Two of those previous starts were with Byron, both in 2016, where the duo grabbed a top-five finish and two top-10s.
TWO-FOUR: The No. 24 has won at Martinsville nine times – tied for the fourth-most Cup Series wins by a car number at the venue, all coming with Jeff Gordon. If Byron were to end up in victory lane Saturday night, the No. 24 would tie the No. 48 for the third-most wins at Martinsville.
TRUCKIN’: In addition to his full-time driving duties in the Cup Series behind the wheel of the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, Byron will compete in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race Thursday night at Martinsville for Spire Motorsports. Byron will wheel the No. 7 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado with Axalta highlighted in Thursday night’s race. Byron has two Martinsville starts on his résumé in the Truck Series, both coming in 2016 when he qualified seventh for both events and raced to one top-five finish and two top-10s.
RAPTOR® TOUGH: Unveiled earlier this season, Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet will sport the RAPTOR® brand this weekend at Martinsville. Making its debut for 2022 at Circuit of The Americas, RAPTOR® will return in 2022 for multiple races with Byron and the No. 24 team. RAPTOR® is a durable protective coating and bed liner that is designed to tolerate the toughest climatic conditions and can be applied to a wide range of substrates from steel, wood, concrete and plaster to plastics and composites. Resistant to common fuels, U.V., scratches and stains, RAPTOR® is available at local paint distributors, auto parts stores and can also be purchased from online retailers like Amazon. For a better look at Byron’s No. 24 RaptorTough.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, click here.
48 Alex Bowman
Age: 28 (April 25, 1993)
Hometown: Tucson, Arizona
Resides: Concord, North Carolina
Crew Chief: Greg Ives
Standings: 7th
No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, will be available to members of the media at the Martinsville Speedway media center on Friday, April 8, at 3:15 p.m. local time.
NO WASTED TIME: Alex Bowman won the penultimate race of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season at Martinsville Speedway in October. The driver led nine laps, including the final eight before tallying the fourth and final win of his career-best year. The 28-year-old driver finished eighth in the first stage and second in the second stage en route to his victory.
MR. CONSISTENT: Bowman is tied for the most top-10 results (four) in the 2022 Cup Series season. He is joined by teammate Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr., Ross Chastain and Kyle Busch. Bowman has two top-five finishes this year, making him one of nine drivers with multiple top-fives this year.
ON REPEAT: Driving the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, Bowman is one of two competitors in the Cup Series to earn multiple wins on short tracks since the start of the 2021 season. Bowman is tied with Truex for two wins on the small circuits after winning at Richmond Raceway in April 2021 and Martinsville in October.
SHORT-TRACK STREAK: Bowman is tied with teammate William Byron for the second-longest active streak of top-10 finishes on short tracks (three). His three consecutive results mark his longest streak of top-10s on short tracks in his Cup career. Only Truex holds more with six consecutive top-10 results at the smaller venues.
RICHMOND REWIND: Continuing to show consistency in 2022, Bowman garnered his third straight top-10 finish after his eighth-place result at Richmond last Sunday. Following a 28th-place start, he finished the first stage in 14th and the second stage in 11th. His string of early-season success positions the No. 48 team seventh in the regular-season standings through seven points-paying events.
IVES AT THE PAPERCLIP: Greg Ives will make his 15th Martinsville start atop the pit box in the Cup Series on Saturday. The 42-year-old crew chief has garnered one win (October 2021), two top-five finishes and six top-10s in his 14 starts.
CLOCKING IN: Hendrick Motorsports’ 26 NASCAR Cup Series wins at Martinsville Speedway are the most for the organization at any one track. The total includes victories in two of the last three races held there.
MASTERS OF MARTINSVILLE: If Hendrick Motorsports leads 18 laps Saturday night at Martinsville, it will become the first to lead 10,000 laps at a single track in the Cup Series.
REMEMBER THE FIRST: On April 29, 1984, at Martinsville, driver Geoff Bodine earned the first of Hendrick Motorsports’ 283 NASCAR Cup Series victories. Last season, the organization surpassed the legendary Petty Enterprises as the winningest team in Cup history. Car owner Rick Hendrick founded Hendrick Motorsports in 1984.
VIRGINIA IS FOR VICTORY: Entering Saturday night’s race, Hendrick Motorsports has grabbed 37 victories in the Commonwealth of Virginia — its most in any one state. That mark is followed by North Carolina (32 wins) and California (22). Only Petty Enterprises (44) has more Virginia wins.
SHORT-TRACK SAVVY: Hendrick Motorsports will seek its Cup Series-best 55th points-paying win on a short track under the bright lights of Martinsville. The team has won 54 times on short tracks with 13 different drivers, which is 10 more victories than next-best Joe Gibbs Racing.
APPROACHING 2,000: Hendrick Motorsports is nearing its 2,000th top-10 finish in points-paying NASCAR Cup Series competition. With 1,997 results inside the top 10 since the team was founded in 1984, it is only three away from the milestone. The organization holds the record for the most top-10 finishes in Cup Series history – nearly 600 more than anyone else.
AND 100,000: Since Hendrick Motorsports was founded in 1984, it has led a record 99,023.61 miles in points-paying Cup Series races. The team is less than 1,000 miles from hitting 100,000 led at NASCAR’s top level. Last season, Hendrick Motorsports led 5,662.77 miles. Through seven races in 2022, it has led 566.14 miles.
RACKING UP THE WINS: Since the beginning of the 2021 Cup Series season, Hendrick Motorsports has won 20 points-paying races. During that period, all other teams combined have posted 23 victories.
QUOTABLE /
Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on racing at Martinsville Speedway: “I love racing at Martinsville, but I haven’t been that fast there in the past – at least fast enough to win. I always go there with enthusiasm, with the mindset to continue to work hard and evolve and to become better. Hopefully we can battle for the win.”
Cliff Daniels, crew chief of the No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on preparing for the flat short track: “The closest track we’ve raced this year is the (Los Angeles Memorial) Coliseum where we ran the Clash. Still, it’s very, very different compared to Martinsville. We try to piece together from that data point, from the Phoenix test, the Phoenix race and from Richmond. None of those are like Martinsville, but we can base our approach on the differences of those tracks compared to Martinsville in years past.”
Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on the team’s performance in 2022: “I feel like we’ve been solid at times. Other than Vegas, I felt like there’s been signs of pace for us. We just haven’t put a whole day together yet. We’ll keep doing our thing and continue to move forward. That’s really all you can do. This deal pays in November. We’ve got a long ways to go, and I feel like we have a great team, and that’s the part of the year we want to be prepared for most. We want to win and we want to gain as many bonus points as we can, don’t get me wrong, but a lot of racing to be done.”
Alan Gustafson, crew chief of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on heading to Martinsville in the Next Gen car: “Martinsville is super unique and that’s what I like about it. I really like going there. With this new car, it’s just going to be a huge difference for us to get it to do what the old car did setup-wise, so that’s going to be a learning curve for us.”
William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on how he approaches racing at Martinsville: “I think Martinsville has always been a good track for us especially with two top-five finishes last year. We just need to hit on the things that are crucial there and work on it. With the shape of the corners and the rhythm it takes, I feel like I have an eye for what a car should look like to get around there just from coming to so many races growing up. I think some of that translates to inside the car when you’re thinking through what lines to take and how to pass somebody. Growing up short-track racing helps too. Similar to Denny (Hamlin), I grew up racing around the Southeast and running a lot of late model races. I’ve gone back and done some of that this year and that helps reaffirm how I race at tracks like this.”
Rudy Fugle, crew chief of the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on his thoughts of racing 400 miles at Martinsville: “I’m excited to race under the lights this weekend at Martinsville, especially for 400 laps. I’m excited to have a little bit of a shorter race honestly. I like that style. It’s a bit more up my alley of racing from the other series. You really have to try to get all the work done early. You won’t have as much time to recover from mistakes now, so you really have to minimize those. Realistically the way we race these races is we race to the end of stage one, we race to the end of stage two and then to the race end. It makes them all shorter races essentially. With every call you make, and even how you start the race, you can’t be as far off and need to make better decisions early on. I like those situations and the pressure it brings. I welcome that challenge.”
Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on his current momentum: “We have had three back-to-back top-10 finishes, which is getting us closer to our goal of being consistent. Having a great race at COTA and then following that up with an eighth place at Richmond boosts the confidence of everyone on the team, not just myself. Greg (Ives) and the rest of the guys at the shop work really hard to give me the best Ally Chevy they can put together and it’s showing. Going back to Martinsville, a place that I won late last year, is something that keeps us looking in the right direction. I think we can go down there and repeat our success from last season.”
Greg Ives, crew chief of the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on his approach to Martinsville and the wave of confidence the team has: “Martinsville has been a great racetrack for Hendrick Motorsports. You always want to go there and perform well. It definitely boosts our confidence coming off our recent win there at the end of last year in addition to how we have been performing at short tracks recently. We are going to go there with a solid race car and a strategic plan. Barring any mistakes, I feel like we have what it takes to go out and contend for another win.”
