JR MOTORSPORTS TEAM PREVIEW:
TRACK: Martinsville Speedway
RACE: Call 811 Before You Dig 250 (250 laps / 131.5 miles)
DATE: Friday, April 8, 2022
Broadcast Information – TV: 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1 / Radio: 7 p.m. ET on MRN and Sirius XM Ch. 90
Sam Mayer
No. 1 Accelerate Professional Talent Solutions Chevrolet
• By virtue of last weeks Dash 4 Cash win at Richmond Raceway, Sam Mayer will compete for his second $100,000 Dash 4 Cash prize this weekend at Martinsville Speedway.
• Mayer has made one start at Martinsville in the NXS. The 18-year-old made a triumphant comeback after being four laps down to finish fourth.
• Mayer’s third-place finish at Richmond is the Franklin, Wis. native’s career best finish in the NXS and now gives him two top-five finishes in 2022.
Josh Berry
No. 8 Harrison’s USA Chevrolet
• Josh Berry returns to Martinsville, the site of his first career NXS win in 2021. Berry started 29th that day and drove to the front as he led a career-high 95 laps.
• In this race last season, Berry led all drivers in driver rating (137.3), laps led (95), fastest drivers late in a run (89.196 mph) and the percentage of fastest laps run (17.5), according to NASCAR’s loop data statistics.
• In 2019, Berry won his first Grandfather Clock by leading all 200 laps in the ValleyStar Credit Union 300, the most prestigious race for Late Model Stock Cars.
Noah Gragson
No. 9 Bass Pro Shops / TrueTimber / Black Rifle Coffee Chevrolet
• Noah Gragson enters this weekend’s race at Martinsville as the most recent winner there. The Las Vegas native rallied to win the 2021 fall race and punched his ticket to the Championship 4.
• In three starts at Martinsville in the NXS, Gragson has earned finishes of third, second and first (2.0 average), and has led 188 laps.
• In seven career starts at Martinsville (in the NXS and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series), Gragson has won two races and finished in the top five in six of his seven starts.
Justin Allgaier
No. 7 BRANDT Professional Agriculture Chevrolet
• In three previous NXS starts at Martinsville, Justin Allgaier has scored two top fives and three top 10s, with a best finish of second coming in the fall of 2020.
• Additionally, Allgaier’s average finish of 5.3 ranks first among all tracks he has competed on in the NXS.
• Allgaier has earned four wins, 24 top fives and 40 top 10s in 66 career starts on short tracks in the NXS.
• According to NASCAR’s loop data statistics, Allgaier ranks second in laps run inside the top 15 at Martinsville (685).
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No. 88 Hellmann’s Chevrolet
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. will make his first NXS start at Martinsville this weekend, driving the No. 88 Hellmann’s Chevrolet for JRM.
• Earnhardt Jr. made 35 starts in the NASCAR Cup Series at Martinsville, winning there in 2014 and adding 13 top-five and 18 top-10 finishes along the way.
• The unique Hellmann’s paint scheme Earnhardt Jr. will run was chosen by a fan vote and features a white base with long-time partner Hellmann’s blue and yellow colors.
• Earnhardt Jr. has run a single race in the NXS for the past four seasons, with a best finish of fourth at Richmond.
Driver Quotes
“This team won here last year with Josh Berry in the seat and we came back in the fall and finished fourth after being four laps down early in the race, so this Accelerate Professional Talent Solutions team knows how to build a car for Martinsville. We also get another chance to race for $100k so the morale and confidence is high as we head in to this weekend.” – Sam Mayer
“I’m really looking forward to getting back to Martinsville on Friday night. It’s going to be a fun night where anything can happen, especially with the bossman coming back and racing with us. I can’t wait to get there and see what we can do with the BRANDT Professional Agriculture Chevrolet.” – Justin Allgaier
“I always enjoy coming to Martinsville, it’s such a special place to me. With theLate Model win in ’19, then coming here last season and winning my first Xfinity race, it just means a lot to me. I know Bummy (Mike Bumgarner, crew chief) and this entire Harrison’s USA team will have a strong car ready for this weekend, so hopefully we can go back there and get it done again.” – Josh Berry
“Last season we had to win to make it into the Championship 4 and that is exactly what this Bass Pro Shops/TrueTimber/Black Rifle Coffee team did. We had some problems last weekend at Richmond but I think we got those figured out and we should have another great day for this No. 9 team. Martinsville is a fun track and it’s also been really good to me in the past.” – Noah Gragson
“Every year, I have a lot of fun driving one of these JRM Chevrolets, and this year I get to do it at Martinsville with Hellmann’s. Last year at Richmond, I had a great time battling the Xfinity Series regulars, and this place will be more of the same.” – Dale Earnhardt Jr
JRM Team Updates:
• JR Motorsports at Martinsville: JR Motorsports has competed at Martinsville Speedway a combined 13 times in the NXS. Over the course of those starts at the .526-mile facility, the organization has tallied two wins, eight top fives and 11 top 10s. JRM’s most recent win came with Noah Gragson during the penultimate race of the 2021 season. The company has won two straight races at Martinsville, as Josh Berry won the spring event in 2021.
• Dash 4 Cash Dominance: With his NASCAR Xfinity Series Dash 4 Cash triumph last week at Richmond, Sam Mayer earned the 18th such bonus for JR Motorsports with his career-best third-place finish. He is also the eighth JRM driver to have won one of the bonuses, joining Brad Keselowski, Elliott Sadler, Regan Smith, Justin Allgaier, William Byron, Noah Gragson and Josh Berry. The 18-year-old Wisconsin driver will compete in the D4C again this weekend for the bonus at Martinsville Speedway as the lone JRM representative. Gragson won the bonus there last year.
• Benefitting Food Insecurity: Earnhardt Jr. will compete this weekend at Martinsville with a special MPI steering wheel. The camouflage wheel, which features TrueTimber’s® Viper Urban Orange camouflage, will be auctioned off through The Dale Jr. Foundation with proceeds going toward the fight against food insecurity. Food insecurity affects approximately one in every eight Americans. Bidding for the wheel begins on Friday, April 8 and continues through Monday, April 11 until 3 p.m. ET. Click here to place your bid.
