Dale Earnhardt Jr. entered Martinsville Speedway with high hopes after scoring his first Grandfather Clock last fall. However, he wouldn't have anything close to the day that he wanted, finishing 36th.
From the first short track of the season with the grandfather clock as the trophy, here is what was surprising and not surprising from Martinsville Speedway’s STP 500.
Will Power dominated the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, but Juan Pablo Montoya would get the advantage following the final set of pit stops. He then held off his Team Penske teammate throughout the final laps, scoring the victory.
Team Penske has dominated so far this weekend in St. Petersburg, and that continued during qualifying as the organization would sweep the top four spots.
The box score shows that Cole Custer finished 16th, but that doesn't represent the speed that the 17-year-old showed at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday.
It will be the 133rd time the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series visits the .526 mile paper clip in southern Virginia, and the winner of the STP 500 will go home with one of the most unique and coveted pieces of hardware in the sport - a grandfather clock from the Ridgeway Clock Company.
On Friday, Team Penske swept the top three spots with Will Power, Juan Pablo Montoya and Helio Castroneves. On Saturday, they swept the top three spots once again, just with a new face mixed in the middle.
When Dale Earnhardt Jr. made his first trip to Martinsville Speedway, it didn't go well as he hit everything, even the pacecar. In his eyes, "it looked like that it was going to be quite a challenge to sort it out and understand what I needed to do." However, a test in the early 2000s paid dividends as Earnhardt was able to hit on something during that time and has since done well at Martinsville, scoring the victory last year.
Following only a pair of top-fives to start the season, Denny Hamlin feels that Joe Gibbs Racing's program could be improved to match the likes of Stewart-Haas Racing, Hendrick Motorsports and Penske Racing. He also feels last week "showed signs of progress" as he ran inside the top-10 all day, before a pit road penalty for an "uncontrolled tire" took him out of contention, resulting in a 28th place finish.
Building on one of the most successful INDYCAR partnerships in recent memory, Team Penske and Hitachi Group announced today that Hitachi will return as a sponsor for all of the team’s cars competing in the Verizon IndyCar Series.
Elite Motorsports hits the halfway mark of the Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series season with this weekend’s Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park (SMP).
The NHRA announced today that its broadcasting team has been honored with six prestigious Telly Awards, including a Gold Telly award for its Chasing Speed documentary.
The NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) heads to Sonoma Raceway for the Toyota / Save Mart 350 on Sunday, June 28 at 3:30 p.m. ET on TNT, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).
Certainly when the Cup Series heads a little more than 530 miles north to Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway for this Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350k, decorum and civility will return.
After competing on an active military base for the first time, the NASCAR Cup Series will return to a more traditional road course this weekend as Sonoma Raceway hosts its annual event on Sunday.
