NASCAR Cup Series

The championship three-car Team Penske organization already owns two wins through the opening five races of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season and has quite a strong recent history at this week’s stop, Virginia’s Martinsville Speedway. Already, Brad Keselowski has a victory at Atlanta and Joey Logano at Las Vegas. Their young teammate, 25-year old Ryan Blaney, posted his best effort of the season two weeks ago – third place – at Phoenix’s ISM Raceway and answered with another top-10 on Sunday in California.

IN ADVANCE OF THE FIRST SHORT TRACK RACE OF THE SEASON, RYAN PREECE, NO.47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 MET WITH MEDIA AND DISCUSSED THE YEAR TO DATE, HIS EXPERIENCE AND EXPECTATIONS OF RACING AT MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY, AND MORE. FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Martinsville Speedway, the smallest track on NASCAR’s Cup circuit, holds a big place in the hearts of the Wood Brothers, whose home base is just 30 miles away in Stuart, Va.

Spire Motorsports has reached an agreement with Go-Parts to sponsor the team’s No. 77 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 at this weekend’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway where D.J. Kennington will handle the driving assignment.

John Rich, one half of the superstar country music duo Big & Rich, will sing the national anthem prior to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover International Speedway on Sunday, May 5, part of the Monster Mile’s 50th Anniversary celebration, track officials announced today.

DIBENEDETTO BY THE NUMBERS: In eight Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career starts at Martinsville, Matt DiBenedetto has an average start of 31.8 and an average finish of 33.0 and he’s completed 3,497 of 4,005 (87.3 percent) career laps at the half-mile Virginia track.

Richard Childress Racing at Martinsville Speedway … In 169 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts at Martinsville Speedway, Richard Childress Racing has earned four pole awards and posted seven victories with drivers Dale Earnhardt (five times), Ricky Rudd (1983) and Kevin Harvick (2011). RCR Chevrolet teams have earned 30 top-five and 63 top-10 finishes at Martinsville dating back to the team's first start there on April 10, 1972. Richard Childress, a former driver in NASCAR's top division, contributed four of those top-10 finishes from 1976-1978.

Stenhouse has 12 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) starts at Martinsville with an average starting position of 22.8.

Newman will make his 35th start at Martinsville this weekend. In 34 prior starts, Newman has eight top-five and 16 top-10 finishes with one win and an average finish of 14.7.

“Martinsville is where I made my Cup Series debut, so it's always been a special place for me. Because it's such a tight, flat track, it's so important to try and have a clean race. The track can really take a toll on the car, especially with all the bumping and banging that we've seen in the past.”