FORD PERFORMANCE NASCAR: MARTINSVILLE PLAYOFF NOTES
The Round of 8 in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs begins this weekend at Martinsville Speedway with three Ford drivers still in contention for the championship. Ryan Blaney (Wood Brothers Racing), Brad Keselowski (Team Penske) and Kevin Harvick (Stewart-Haas Racing) all have a chance to become Ford’s first series champion since 2004. Here’s a look at how each driver will begin this next three-race round and how they have performed at Martinsville.
FORD’S ROUND OF 8 UPDATE
BRAD KESELOWSKI (Currently 3rd in the standings, trailing leader Martin Truex Jr. by 43 points):
Notched his first MENCS win at Martinsville in 15 starts during the tour’s last stop there in April…Has finished first or second in three of the last five series races at the half-mile paperclip, and comes into the weekend having scored three straight Top-5 efforts.
KEVIN HARVICK (Currently 4th in the standings with the same point total as Jimmie Johnson):
Has one win and one pole in 32 career MENCS starts at Martinsville and is coming off a spring weekend that saw him qualify ninth and finish in 20th-place…Since joining Stewart-Haas Racing, he has posted three Top-10 finishes in seven starts.
RYAN BLANEY (Currently 7th in the standings, eight points out of the final transfer spot):
Still looking for his first MENCS Top-10 finish at Martinsville, although he’s only had three career starts. Posted a pair of 19th-place efforts in 2016 before qualifying seventh in the spring race eventually finishing 25th.
KESELOWSKI ENDS STREAK
Ford had gone 28 races without a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win at Martinsville Speedway, but Brad Keselowski ended that drought in the spring by outdueling Kyle Busch down the stretch. 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. The win was Keselowski’s first series triumph at the half-mile oval and followed up his victory at Atlanta in the second race of the season.
A FIRST FOR FRED
The first time Ford won a Monster Energy 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.
THE KING REIGNS
Richard Petty holds the record for most Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series wins at Martinsville with 15, including a sweep of both events in 1969. That marked the only year ‘The King’ drove a Ford, which ended with him winning nine times overall and finishing second to David Pearson in the championship standings.
CRAVEN WINS FIRST CUP RACE
Ricky Craven outlasted Dale Jarrett over the final laps to post the first victory of his Monster Energy 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 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup win.
BUSCH BEATS BENSON
When Kurt Busch won at Martinsville Speedway was on Oct. 20, 2002 he set a track record for winning from the furthest starting position after taking the green flag in 36th-place. It took him all day to eventually get to the front of the field, but he took the lead on lap 389 and surrendered it for only one lap to Johnny Benson the rest of the way in posting his second career win. Benson was all over Busch’s bumper in the closing laps as lap traffic created plenty of drama, but Busch was able to weave his way through and take the checkered flag.
FORD WINNERS AT MARTINSVILLE
6 – Fred Lorenzen (1961,’63,’64*,’65,’66)
4 – Rusty Wallace (1994*,’95,’96)
3 – Geoffrey Bodine (1990*,’92)
2 – Richard Petty (1969*)
2 – Ricky Rudd (1986,’98)
2 – Mark Martin (1992, 2000)
1 – Nelson Stacy (1962)
1 – Junior Johnson (1965)
1 – Ernie Irvan (1993)
1 – Jeff Burton (1997)
1 – Dale Jarrett (2001)
1 – Ricky Craven (2001)
1 – Kurt Busch (2002)
1 – Brad Keselowski (2017)
* Denotes season sweep
