TEAM AND RACE NOTES:

Todd Gilliland heads to the Martinsville (Va.) Speedway this weekend with Frontline Enterprises riding along his Ford Mustang. This will be the first race of the season that Frontline Enterprises will be riding with Gilliland and the No. 38 Ford.

Gilliland heads to Martinsville after extending his streak of top-15 finishes to four this past weekend at the Bristol (Tn.) Motor Speedway with an 8th place finish.

Frontline Enterprises has been a longtime partner of Gilliland, going back to his Truck Series days where they were the primary partner for his win at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway.

The NOCO 400 will take place Sunday at 3:00 p.m. ET on FS1.

COMPETITION NOTES:

After adding another top-15 finish to his season stat line this past weekend at the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt race, Todd Gilliland and the No. 38 Frontline Enterprises team head to the Martinsville Speedway as strong contenders for Sunday’s race. Gilliland is no stranger to the beating and banging of the 0.526 mile long track, he captured his first win in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series there just four years ago.

CREW CHIEF RYAN BERGENTY:

“We’re in a great spot as a team right now. Everyone has been working day and night getting our cars ready and its been paying off. The momentum we have built is growing stronger and stronger each week and we have a great car this weekend that will keep that momentum going.”

DRIVER TODD GILLILAND:

YOU’VE HAD TWO TOP-10 FINISHES IN THE LAST THREE RACES. DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE SOME MOMENTUM GOING INTO MARTINSVILLE? “I think the last four weeks in general have been a big confidence booster. I was kind of joking with my crew chief about how fast my expectations have changed. Like I was actually kind of disappointed after Bristol, because I felt like we were few changes away from contending in the top-five… kind of top-three area. Definitely, overall, really confident – especially going into Martinsville, which is one of my favorite race tracks. I see no reason why we can’t keep this momentum rolling.”

YOU HAVE THE MARTINSVILLE CLOCK STRATEGICALLY PLACED BEHIND YOU. THAT IS ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC TROPHIES IN THE SPORT. HOW DID THAT VICTORY FEEL, ALSO KNOWING THAT WAS GOING TO BE YOUR PRIZE? “It is… I actually didn’t do it on purpose. It’s right here in the living room. It’s a perfect place in my opinion. To me, especially, I think Martinsville has such a special place in my heart. I think I ran my first late model race there when I was 15 years-old. Growing up in late model stocks, to me, that was like the biggest race. Going to Martinsville then, I was really close. A second year I went there in late models, and then we always ran well there in the Trucks. So to finally be able to win one was so special. To me, it’s probably one of the coolest trophies out there – top-five coolest in the Cup series I’d say.”

AFTER YOUR FINISH ON BRISTOL DIRT, WHERE DO YOU STAND ON DIRT RACING IN THE SPORT? “I might be the unpopular opinion, but I’ve always loved it. I just feel like it’s so much fun. It’s definitely really tough… to see guys just spin-out on their own… I half spun-out on my own there in Stage 1… it’s very challenging. At some point, it’s maybe not the best look. But when you see the clips of the guys running three-wide for the lead during big slide-jobs, it’s just so much different than what we normally do. To me, it’s a really cool and fun departure from the norm. These cars aren’t probably made for dirt, but to me, they’ve been always so much fun to drive on dirt.”

HOW MUCH IMPROVEMENT HAVE YOU SEEN AT FRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS FROM LAST YEAR? “Especially on my team, I think it has been really cool to see Ryan Bergenty take charge of our team – set expectations high, set the standard high for our team and guys. It’s been really cool to watch from the beginning of the season which didn’t go so well, seeing guys like, ‘I don’t know if this is going to work’ or whatever to the last four weeks, which have been really, really good for my team. It’s been a lot of the same guys that have beaten down for years, and this Cup series is really tough. It can still happen just as easily this weekend. Just going to enjoy the good times, and it shows that the hard work is paying off.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE DYNAMIC BETWEEN YOU AND CREW CHIEF RYAN BERGENTY? “Anytime you get a new crew chief, it definitely takes a little bit of getting used to. He’s a really intense guy, from the Northeast. I always joke with him. He’s really intense, and comes from a modified background. It’s funny, I give him a hard time about that. But overall, it’s really hard to fake trusting and having confidence in each other. To me, I’m very thankful that we’ve had this stretch of races where I feel very confident in him. Hopefully, he feels the same with me. That’s really, really hard to get at the beginning of any relationship, just because you’re not on the same page to begin with and then things just maybe go separate ways. But, I feel very confident right now going to the racetrack with him and the team we have.”

HAS BEING YOUNG IN THE SERIES ADDED ANY STRESS? “I mean there was definitely some pressure when we were trying to find fill-in races. But, I don’t know. I was just thinking about that this morning, and I don’t really feel like I’ve prepared any differently or raced any differently at all. Our cars have been faster, and our communication has been better along the way. I think that’s racing in general – sometimes you can prepare as much as you can, but you’ll still run back, and other times you’ll feel a little bit underprepared but still go out and run fast. I’m just thankful for fast cars.”

BOTH YOUR TOP-10 FINISHES CAME FROM A WIDE-VARIETY OF TRACK CONFIGURATIONS – ONE AT A ROAD COURSE AND THE OTHER ON A DIRT SHORT TRACK. HAVE YOU ENJOYED THE TRACK DIVERSITY ON THE SCHEDULE SO FAR? “I think, for me, this is probably one of the most enjoyable parts of the schedule – for sure. It seems like the West Coast is sort of where you get your bearings of where the best teams are going to be, and from there, it’s really fun to go to Atlanta, COTA, to a short-track in Richmond – which I really love short tracks, because I grew up racing those. Love the road courses, and then the dirt race… for Front Row Motorsports, that’s where we kind of feel like we can go and compete well. We need to perform well at those races, because there are going to be other places where maybe we aren’t our best. I think it’s really good, but saying it and going out and doing it are two different things. It’s been really nice to see us be able to execute that. To me, I just love doing something different every week. If we ran mile-and-a-halfs every week, I’d be pretty bored out there.”

YOU SAID YOUR CARS ARE FASTER. CAN YOU ATTRIBUTE THAT TO ANYTHING FROM LAST YEAR, OR IS IT A COMBINATION OF JUST EXECUTING BETTER AND LESSONS LEARNED? “I don’t think there’s really one thing you can point it to. I think that’s racing in general, just all the small details of it. I think I’m definitely in a better place than I was at this point last year – just having a year under my belt of knowing what to expect, kind of managing the race better from start-to-finish. These short practices, I kind of know more of what I need, and I think the team does too. With a whole year of experience with the NextGen car, we can get to a better place. I think we’ve definitely been unloading faster, or just in a better place with a year of notes. I don’t think it’s one thing in particular. My crew chief is very detail oriented. He was the car chief on the No. 34 last year. All that stuff has been really good, to point us in a better direction.”

DOES IT FEEL LIKE YOU’VE ALREADY MADE SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENTS FROM LAST YEAR? “I think it does to me. I think you can pick-out this part of the schedule where we might be stronger than, say, another section. But I am still really proud that we’re able to go out there and do well. The road courses last year are where we were our best. So to get a good finish there [COTA]… I think over the duration of about a month now, we’ve been running way better than we did last year. Last year when we got these finishes, it was kind of random in my opinion – one week we’d show up and be good, and then the next week we’d be really bad. So, just to do it over four weeks against this kind of competition, in my opinion, shows a little bit of improvement.”

HOW MUCH OF A CATALYST HAS ZANE SMITH’S PRESENCE WITH THE TEAM BEEN? “I feel like the answer to that is that I’ve been really giving 100 percent, right? Truthfully, there’s always pressure. There’s always the next best guy coming up. So, I feel like there’s as much pressure last year as there is this year. I think this year it may be more publicized, because it’s all out there. But, there’s always going to be another guy trying to get in your car and do the better job. To me, it’s just nice to be able to come out and have a better year. You never know. You always try to just be better. I try to be better, and maybe subconsciously a little bit, I’ve been more focused. But honestly, I feel like I’ve been doing a lot of the same stuff. Honestly, the Truck team helps just going out and winning races. It brings the whole morale up in the shop – that those are our standards and to be the best we can.”

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT THIS YEAR AT MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY? “I think Martinsville this year should be a little different with the lower downforce package that we’re running there. We’ll see. I think that has helped, and I feel like I’ve noticed more of a difference at Richmond than Phoenix. So, hopefully it’ll be a good race. I love short-track racing – it’s just what I grew up doing. Just beating and banging, I feel like you can do a lot more with the car. Should be a lot of fun. This race can usually go green and gets pretty strung out. So, it’s important to qualify well. I’d say that’s where most of my studying is going into right now, is trying to get a good qualifying lap. We see guys lock-up the left-front tire a lot in qualifying, so just getting a good starting spot can really set you up for the whole weekend.”

DOES THE SHORT TRACK PACKAGE COMPLIMENT YOUR DRIVING STYLE OR IS IT AN ADDED CHALLENGE? “It really hasn’t been a huge difference for just single-car, driving by yourself. I’d like to think it’s a little bit better in traffic, but for me, it honestly hasn’t been a huge difference. I’m hoping we can pass a little bit easier at Martinsville. It’s all directionally, the right way of taking grip away, and it’s pretty interesting with these cars. You can just downshift to fourth gear and pretty much map the gas. That just really shows how much grip these cars have. I’m sure it’ll be a little bit less than that, and that’ll be nice to hopefully get someone loose off the corner and be able to pass them. Maybe more separation within the field, but really, that’s what makes you able to pass is when someone’s slower by a couple tenths instead of a half-tenth which is actually common at Martinsville – the field is so tight. That’s what makes it so tough to pass.”

HOW DOES A DRIVER ADAPT WEEK-TO-WEEK WITH DRASTIC TRACK VARIATIONS – FROM SHORT-TRACKS TO SUPERSPEEDWAYS, ROAD COURSES TO DIRT? “I think last year at this time, it really threw me for more of a loop because you’re really preparing for one thing and then it’s completely different the next week. It seems like by the time you go to another road course, because COTA was just a couple weeks ago, it seems like it’s totally washed out of your memory because you’ve done so many different things since then. But for me, this year, I’ve been trying to plan ahead and be more prepared. My team and engineers have been giving me a lot more data to look at the week of the race. It’s been really good. We’ve been more prepared as a team, rather than kind of two separate entities of the driver and team doing different things. That’s been really nice, to keep everyone on the same page. It is still really tough, especially on the teams. They are preparing a superspeedway car right now and a short-track car at the same time. I’d say it’s more hard on them than me.”

HAS THERE BEEN A DEFINING MOMENT SO FAR THIS SEASON, WHERE YOU FEEL LIKE THINGS ARE CLICKING? “I don’t think there’s really been one moment that made me feel more confident. I think it’s, like anything and in sports, it’s a snowball of getting better and better. Sometimes it’s a little off and you lose a little bit of confidence, but you try to keep the ball rolling in the right direction. For me, we’ve really picked up momentum the last four weeks. So, the whole mood in the shop has been really good. It’s been really cool. It’s been giving me the opportunity to be more of a leader in the shop, just having better results to lift everyone up. And also, Michael [McDowell] has been doing just as well getting a top-10 also at Richmond. So, I’m just really proud of the whole team. They’ve been knocking out some fast cars. I always try to be mature and do the best I can in bringing the people up around me.”

ABOUT FRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS

Front Row Motorsports (FRM) is a winning organization in the NASCAR Cup and CRAFTSMAN Truck Series. The team is the 2021 Daytona 500 and 2022 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series champions. The team was founded in 2004 and is owned by successful entrepreneur, Bob Jenkins. FRM fields the No. 34 and the No. 38 NASCAR Cup Series teams along with the No. 38 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series team from its Mooresville, N.C. headquarters. Visit teamfrm.com and follow FRM on social media: Twitter at @Team_FRM, Instagram at @team_frm and Facebook at facebook.com/FrontRowMotorsports.

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Martinsville Speedway Advance | Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Todd Gilliland, driver of the No. 38 Gener8tor Skills Ford Mustang, builds momentum into Martinsville Speedway following his best finish of the season so far – eighth on dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway. Gilliland, a 2019 Martinsville winner in the Truck series, has two top-10 performances this year (Bristol Dirt, 8th; Circuit of The Americas, 10th). He will be making his 45th Cup series start in his sophomore season.

TODD GILLILAND, No. 38 Gener8tor Skills Ford Mustang – YOU’VE HAD TWO TOP-10 FINISHES IN THE LAST THREE RACES. DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE SOME MOMENTUM GOING INTO MARTINSVILLE? “I think the last four weeks in general have been a big confidence booster. I was kind of joking with my crew chief about how fast my expectations have changed. Like I was actually kind of disappointed after Bristol, because I felt like we were few changes away from contending in the top-five… kind of top-three area. Definitely, overall, really confident – especially going into Martinsville, which is one of my favorite race tracks. I see no reason why we can’t keep this momentum rolling.”

YOU HAVE THE MARTINSVILLE CLOCK STRATEGICALLY PLACED BEHIND YOU. THAT IS ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC TROPHIES IN THE SPORT. HOW DID THAT VICTORY FEEL, ALSO KNOWING THAT WAS GOING TO BE YOUR PRIZE? “It is… I actually didn’t do it on purpose. It’s right here in the living room. It’s a perfect place in my opinion. To me, especially, I think Martinsville has such a special place in my heart. I think I ran my first late model race there when I was 15 years-old. Growing up in late model stocks, to me, that was like the biggest race. Going to Martinsville then, I was really close. A second year I went there in late models, and then we always ran well there in the Trucks. So to finally be able to win one was so special. To me, it’s probably one of the coolest trophies out there – top-five coolest in the Cup series I’d say.”

AFTER YOUR FINISH ON BRISTOL DIRT, WHERE DO YOU STAND ON DIRT RACING IN THE SPORT? “I might be the unpopular opinion, but I’ve always loved it. I just feel like it’s so much fun. It’s definitely really tough… to see guys just spin-out on their own… I half spun-out on my own there in Stage 1… it’s very challenging. At some point, it’s maybe not the best look. But when you see the clips of the guys running three-wide for the lead during big slide-jobs, it’s just so much different than what we normally do. To me, it’s a really cool and fun departure from the norm. These cars aren’t probably made for dirt, but to me, they’ve been always so much fun to drive on dirt.”

HOW MUCH IMPROVEMENT HAVE YOU SEEN AT FRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS FROM LAST YEAR? “Especially on my team, I think it has been really cool to see Ryan Bergenty take charge of our team – set expectations high, set the standard high for our team and guys. It’s been really cool to watch from the beginning of the season which didn’t go so well, seeing guys like, ‘I don’t know if this is going to work’ or whatever to the last four weeks, which have been really, really good for my team. It’s been a lot of the same guys that have beaten down for years, and this Cup series is really tough. It can still happen just as easily this weekend. Just going to enjoy the good times, and it shows that the hard work is paying off.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE DYNAMIC BETWEEN YOU AND CREW CHIEF RYAN BERGENTY? “Anytime you get a new crew chief, it definitely takes a little bit of getting used to. He’s a really intense guy, from the Northeast. I always joke with him. He’s really intense, and comes from a modified background. It’s funny, I give him a hard time about that. But overall, it’s really hard to fake trusting and having confidence in each other. To me, I’m very thankful that we’ve had this stretch of races where I feel very confident in him. Hopefully, he feels the same with me. That’s really, really hard to get at the beginning of any relationship, just because you’re not on the same page to begin with and then things just maybe go separate ways. But, I feel very confident right now going to the racetrack with him and the team we have.”

HAS BEING YOUNG IN THE SERIES ADDED ANY STRESS? “I mean there was definitely some pressure when we were trying to find fill-in races. But, I don’t know. I was just thinking about that this morning, and I don’t really feel like I’ve prepared any differently or raced any differently at all. Our cars have been faster, and our communication has been better along the way. I think that’s racing in general – sometimes you can prepare as much as you can, but you’ll still run back, and other times you’ll feel a little bit underprepared but still go out and run fast. I’m just thankful for fast cars.”

BOTH YOUR TOP-10 FINISHES CAME FROM A WIDE-VARIETY OF TRACK CONFIGURATIONS – ONE AT A ROAD COURSE AND THE OTHER ON A DIRT SHORT TRACK. HAVE YOU ENJOYED THE TRACK DIVERSITY ON THE SCHEDULE SO FAR? “I think, for me, this is probably one of the most enjoyable parts of the schedule – for sure. It seems like the West Coast is sort of where you get your bearings of where the best teams are going to be, and from there, it’s really fun to go to Atlanta, COTA, to a short-track in Richmond – which I really love short tracks, because I grew up racing those. Love the road courses, and then the dirt race… for Front Row Motorsports, that’s where we kind of feel like we can go and compete well. We need to perform well at those races, because there are going to be other places where maybe we aren’t our best. I think it’s really good, but saying it and going out and doing it are two different things. It’s been really nice to see us be able to execute that. To me, I just love doing something different every week. If we ran mile-and-a-halfs every week, I’d be pretty bored out there.”

YOU SAID YOUR CARS ARE FASTER. CAN YOU ATTRIBUTE THAT TO ANYTHING FROM LAST YEAR, OR IS IT A COMBINATION OF JUST EXECUTING BETTER AND LESSONS LEARNED? “I don’t think there’s really one thing you can point it to. I think that’s racing in general, just all the small details of it. I think I’m definitely in a better place than I was at this point last year – just having a year under my belt of knowing what to expect, kind of managing the race better from start-to-finish. These short practices, I kind of know more of what I need, and I think the team does too. With a whole year of experience with the NextGen car, we can get to a better place. I think we’ve definitely been unloading faster, or just in a better place with a year of notes. I don’t think it’s one thing in particular. My crew chief is very detail oriented. He was the car chief on the No. 34 last year. All that stuff has been really good, to point us in a better direction.”

DOES IT FEEL LIKE YOU’VE ALREADY MADE SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENTS FROM LAST YEAR? “I think it does to me. I think you can pick-out this part of the schedule where we might be stronger than, say, another section. But I am still really proud that we’re able to go out there and do well. The road courses last year are where we were our best. So to get a good finish there [COTA]… I think over the duration of about a month now, we’ve been running way better than we did last year. Last year when we got these finishes, it was kind of random in my opinion – one week we’d show up and be good, and then the next week we’d be really bad. So, just to do it over four weeks against this kind of competition, in my opinion, shows a little bit of improvement.”

HOW MUCH OF A CATALYST HAS ZANE SMITH’S PRESENCE WITH THE TEAM BEEN? “I feel like the answer to that is that I’ve been really giving 100 percent, right? Truthfully, there’s always pressure. There’s always the next best guy coming up. So, I feel like there’s as much pressure last year as there is this year. I think this year it may be more publicized, because it’s all out there. But, there’s always going to be another guy trying to get in your car and do the better job. To me, it’s just nice to be able to come out and have a better year. You never know. You always try to just be better. I try to be better, and maybe subconsciously a little bit, I’ve been more focused. But honestly, I feel like I’ve been doing a lot of the same stuff. Honestly, the Truck team helps just going out and winning races. It brings the whole morale up in the shop – that those are our standards and to be the best we can.”

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT THIS YEAR AT MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY? “I think Martinsville this year should be a little different with the lower downforce package that we’re running there. We’ll see. I think that has helped, and I feel like I’ve noticed more of a difference at Richmond than Phoenix. So, hopefully it’ll be a good race. I love short-track racing – it’s just what I grew up doing. Just beating and banging, I feel like you can do a lot more with the car. Should be a lot of fun. This race can usually go green and gets pretty strung out. So, it’s important to qualify well. I’d say that’s where most of my studying is going into right now, is trying to get a good qualifying lap. We see guys lock-up the left-front tire a lot in qualifying, so just getting a good starting spot can really set you up for the whole weekend.”

DOES THE SHORT TRACK PACKAGE COMPLIMENT YOUR DRIVING STYLE OR IS IT AN ADDED CHALLENGE? “It really hasn’t been a huge difference for just single-car, driving by yourself. I’d like to think it’s a little bit better in traffic, but for me, it honestly hasn’t been a huge difference. I’m hoping we can pass a little bit easier at Martinsville. It’s all directionally, the right way of taking grip away, and it’s pretty interesting with these cars. You can just downshift to fourth gear and pretty much map the gas. That just really shows how much grip these cars have. I’m sure it’ll be a little bit less than that, and that’ll be nice to hopefully get someone loose off the corner and be able to pass them. Maybe more separation within the field, but really, that’s what makes you able to pass is when someone’s slower by a couple tenths instead of a half-tenth which is actually common at Martinsville – the field is so tight. That’s what makes it so tough to pass.”

HOW DOES A DRIVER ADAPT WEEK-TO-WEEK WITH DRASTIC TRACK VARIATIONS – FROM SHORT-TRACKS TO SUPERSPEEDWAYS, ROAD COURSES TO DIRT? “I think last year at this time, it really threw me for more of a loop because you’re really preparing for one thing and then it’s completely different the next week. It seems like by the time you go to another road course, because COTA was just a couple weeks ago, it seems like it’s totally washed out of your memory because you’ve done so many different things since then. But for me, this year, I’ve been trying to plan ahead and be more prepared. My team and engineers have been giving me a lot more data to look at the week of the race. It’s been really good. We’ve been more prepared as a team, rather than kind of two separate entities of the driver and team doing different things. That’s been really nice, to keep everyone on the same page. It is still really tough, especially on the teams. They are preparing a superspeedway car right now and a short-track car at the same time. I’d say it’s more hard on them than me.”

HAS THERE BEEN A DEFINING MOMENT SO FAR THIS SEASON, WHERE YOU FEEL LIKE THINGS ARE CLICKING? “I don’t think there’s really been one moment that made me feel more confident. I think it’s, like anything and in sports, it’s a snowball of getting better and better. Sometimes it’s a little off and you lose a little bit of confidence, but you try to keep the ball rolling in the right direction. For me, we’ve really picked up momentum the last four weeks. So, the whole mood in the shop has been really good. It’s been really cool. It’s been giving me the opportunity to be more of a leader in the shop, just having better results to lift everyone up. And also, Michael [McDowell] has been doing just as well getting a top-10 also at Richmond. So, I’m just really proud of the whole team. They’ve been knocking out some fast cars. I always try to be mature and do the best I can in bringing the people up around me.”

CHASE BRISCOE
Martinsville Advance
No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: NOCO 400 (Round 9 of 36)

● Time/Date: 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, April 16

● Location: Martinsville (Va.) Speedway

● Layout: .526-mile oval

● Laps/Miles: 400 laps/210.4 miles

● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 80 laps / Stage 2: 100 laps / Final Stage: 220 laps

● TV/Radio: FS1 / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Chase Briscoe enters Sunday’s NOCO 400 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway fresh off his first top-five finish of the season. Briscoe finished fifth in the Food City Dirt Race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway last weekend to earn his fourth finish inside the top-15 in the last five races.

● Briscoe’s best finishes this season have come on tracks 1 mile or less in length. He finished seventh on the mile oval at Phoenix Raceway on March 12 and 12th two weeks ago on the .75-mile oval at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. Though his most recent finish was on the Bristol half-mile oval, its concrete surface was covered for the lone dirt race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule.

● In four Cup Series starts at Martinsville, Briscoe has two top-10 finishes. He placed ninth in both 2022 events at the .526-mile paperclip-shaped track, and was seventh in his last NASCAR Xfinity Series start there in October 2020. Briscoe also owns two NASCAR Truck Series starts at Martinsville with a best result of 11th from the eighth starting position in April 2017. He returned with the Truck Series that October to start on the pole and lead the first 39 laps before a late-race accident relegated him to a 19th-place finish.

● HighPoint.com makes its second appearance of the season on the No. 14 Ford Mustang this weekend at Martinsville, the first coming at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where Briscoe finished 24th. This weekend will also mark HighPoint.com’s first time appearing as the primary sponsor on the No. 14 at Martinsville for a Cup Series event.

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

The trend of doing well on the short tracks for you and the team has continued this year. Do you feel good about what you’ve learned heading into Martinsville?

“I’m really excited about Martinsville. We definitely have a better grasp of what we need on short tracks than we had before the NextGen and we’ve done really well the last two years. We gambled a little in the fall Martinsville race trying to get into the championship race, but we had a really good car and that’s what allowed us to come out with the finish that we did.”

You see guys who really excel at places like Martinsville, and others who have a really hard time figuring out how to get up front and make it work. What have you learned as a driver that has helped you run up front there?

“I didn’t grow up doing this kind of racing, so I had a really hard time when it came to short tracks. It’s a different kind of aggressive driving and you really have to have a car that can stick to the bottom and turn well to be able to do anything. I think the biggest thing I’ve had to learn, and I think it’s probably something I’ve just had to learn in general, but taking care of the tires is so important. It’s a long race, tempers get heated and, if you end up using everything up, you’re going to get run over or moved out of the way.”

No. 14 HighPoint.com Team Roster

Primary Team Members

Driver: Chase Briscoe
Hometown: Mitchell, Indiana

Crew Chief: John Klausmeier
Hometown: Perry Hall, Maryland

Car Chief: J.D. Frey
Hometown: Ferndale, California

Engineer: Mike Cook
Hometown: Annapolis, Maryland

Spotter: Joey Campbell
Hometown: Berlin, Connecticut

Over-The-Wall Members

Front Tire Changer: Shayne Pipala
Hometown: Frankfort Square, Illinois

Rear Tire Changer: Dakota Ratcliff
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee

Tire Carrier: Jon Bernal
Hometown: Shelby, North Carolina

Jack Man: Dylan Moser
Hometown: Monroe, North Carolina

Fuel Man: Corey Coppola
Hometown: Bluefield, West Virginia

Road Crew Members

Underneath Mechanic: Stephen Gonzalez
Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina

Interior Mechanic: Trevor Adams
Hometown: Naples, Florida

Tire Specialist: Keith Eads
Hometown: Arlington, Virginia

Engine Tuner: Jon Phillips
Hometown: Jefferson City, Missouri

Transporter Co-Driver: Todd Cable
Hometown: Shelby, North Carolina

Transporter Co-Driver: Rob Fink
Hometown: Mocksville, North Carolina

Race Information

• Round: NASCAR Cup Series race No. 9 of 36
• Track Location: Martinsville Speedway- Martinsville, Virginia
• Race Name: NOCO 400
• Broadcast: Sunday, April 16th at 3:00 PM ET live on FS1 (TV), MRN (Radio) Sirius XM NASCAR Ch. 90
• Team Entrants:

No. 42 | Noah Gragson & Luke Lambert – Sunseeker Resort Chevrolet Camaro Zl1
No. 43 | Erik Jones & Dave Elenz – Allegiant Chevrolet Camaro ZL1Suns

Noah Gragson, No. 42 Sunseeker Resort Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Martinsville Speedway Stats

• NCS Starts: 1 Best start: 17th; Best finish: 25th

NASCAR Xfinity Series Stats

• Starts: 5; Best start: 2nd; Best finish: 1st (Fall, 2021); Top Fives: 4 Top 10s: 4

NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Stats

• Starts: 4; Best start: 3rd; Best finish: 1st (2017); Top Fives: 3; Top 10s: 4

2023 NCS Season Stats

• Starts: 8; Best start: 10th; Best finish: 12th (Atlanta); Laps led: 1; Current points position: 30th
• About Sunseeker Resorts: Opening in 2023, Florida’s newest luxury resort located in Charlotte Harbor is the first resort property of Sunseeker Resorts, a wholly owned subsidiary of Allegiant Travel Company. Sunseeker Resort Charlotte Harbor occupies over 22 waterfront acres with 785 guest rooms, including 189 Signature Sunsuites™. Set upon the Peace River and Florida Gulf Coast, this premier resort offers 20 original food and beverage concepts; including seven stand-alone restaurants, eleven bars and lounges, two poolside offerings and a 25,000-square-foot multi-dining experience. Additional hotel amenities include a waterfront promenade, two unique rooftop and waterfront pool experiences, 60,000-square-feet of combined convention space, full-service spa and salon, a 7,100-square-foot state-of-the-art fitness center with four group exercise studios with specialty instructor lead classes, three retail and market shops, and an 18-hole championship level golf club exclusive to hotel guests only. The resort is conveniently located within a short drive of Punta Gorda, Fort Myers, Sarasota, St. Petersburg-Clearwater, and Tampa airports. For more information, visit www.sunseekerresorts.com. Follow on Instagram: @sunseekerresorts and like us on Facebook: @sunseekerresorts.
• Clocking in: Noah Gragson scored his first ever NASCAR series win on Oct. 28,2017 at Martinsville Speedway. Racing for Kyle Busch Motorsports, Gragson passed two-time series champion Matt Crafton on a restart with 10 laps to go for his first career victory. The win for Gragson – who was only 18 years-old – came in his 22nd career start.

-Closest finish ever – Last fall, Gragson let 153 of 257 laps and edged out competitor Daniel Hemric at the finish line by .064 seconds for the closest Xfinity Series finish ever at Martinsville Speedway. The dramatic overtime win was Gragson’s eighth victory of the 2022 season.

-See Noah- Fans at Martinsville Speedway on raceday will have the opportunity to see Gragson at the Team Chevy Stage in the Martinsville Speedway fan zone. He will participate in a question and answer session at 11:50 a.m. Sunday, April 16.

• From the Driver’s Seat: “I am really excited for Martinsville, I had the opportunity to drive there in the 48-car last year, so going in with an idea in mind of what it is going to be like is a big learning opportunity from last year. I am excited to get the chance to battle with the No. 42 Sunseeker team this weekend, Martinsville has always been a good track for us. I’ve won Martinsville in Trucks and Xfinity, so I am excited for it.”

Erik Jones, No. 43 Allegiant Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Martinsville Speedway Stats

• NCS Starts: 12; Best start: 8th (Fall, 2019) Best finish: 8th (Fall, 2021); Top 10s: 1

NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Stats

• Starts: 5; Best finish: 3rd (2015); Top 5s: 2; Top 10s: 4; Laps led: 2

2023 NCS Season Stats

• Starts: 8; Best start: 8th; Best finish: 8th (Atlanta); Top 10s: 1, Laps led: 14, Current points position: 26th

-About Allegiant: Las Vegas-based Allegiant (NASDAQ: ALGT) is an integrated travel company with an airline at its heart, focused on connecting customers with the people, places and experiences that matter most. Since 1999, Allegiant Air has linked travelers in small-to-medium cities to world-class vacation destinations with all-nonstop flights and industry-low average fares. Today, Allegiant’s fleet serves communities across the nation, with base airfares less than half the cost of the average domestic roundtrip ticket. For more information, visit us at Allegiant.com.

-Leaving Bristol in the dirt – Erik Jones and the No. 43 team’s weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway was anything but clean. The dirt proved challenging as Jones recovered from a spin, a flat tire and powered back from three laps down to avoid the chaos and finish 14th. Jones and the team were very happy with their recovery and finish.

• Where it all started – A very young Jones made his first NASCAR national series debut at Martinsville Speedway on April 6, 2013, driving the No. 51 truck for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Jones was just 16 years old that day, starting the .5-mile paperclip-shaped track from the 19th position and finishing ninth. Running a limited schedule of five races for KBM that year, Jones proved to be a quick study and found victory lane in just his fifth start.
• From the Driver’s Seat: “I am excited about Martinsville, last year in the fall I felt like we ran pretty well, so hopefully we can take some of that momentum and learn a little bit about the short track package and what we had in Richmond to try and make it a little bit better. I am ready to get out there, hoping for another solid run, hopefully get up in the top 10 and contend.”

ABOUT LEGACY MOTOR CLUB:

LEGACY MOTOR CLUB is a professional motor racing team that competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, owned by Maury Gallagher and Jimmie Johnson. LEGACY MOTOR CLUB operates two full-time entries, the No. 42 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 of Noah Gragson and the No. 43 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 of Erik Jones. The team also fields a third part-time entry, the No. 84 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, for Johnson’s limited racing schedule in 2023.

Based in Statesville, N.C., LEGACY MOTOR CLUB operates alongside GMS Racing, which fields three full-time entries in the NASCAR Truck Series. Since the formation of GMS Racing in 2012, Gallagher, along with one of the NASCAR garage’s most accomplished figures, Team President, Mike Beam, built a victorious organization, capturing the 2016 and 2020 NASCAR Truck Series championships, the 2015 ARCA Racing Series championship, as well as the 2019 & 2020 ARCA East championships, accumulating over 65 wins across six national racing circuits.

Our mission at LEGACY MOTOR CLUB is to create an inclusive environment for auto-racing enthusiasts, celebrate the past and future legacies of our partners and team members, and to compete for race wins and championships at NASCAR’s elite level. To keep up-to-date with the latest news, information and exclusive content, follow LEGACY MOTOR CLUB on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and at www.LEGACYMOTORCLUB.com.

This Week in Motorsports: April 10-16, 2023

· NCS/NXS/NCTS: Martinsville Speedway – April 14-16
· NHRA: The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – April 16

PLANO, Texas (April 12, 2023) – After racing on a short track on the dirt, NASCAR returns to a pavement short track at Martinsville Speedway, while NHRA competes in their first four-wide event of the season at Las Vegas.

NASCAR National Series – NCS | NXS | NCTS

Bell plans to add to victory total… Christopher Bell led the final 100 laps in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday evening to score his first win of the season, and fifth of his Cup Series career. With the win, Bell took over the points lead on the strength of a series-leading five top-five and six top-10 finishes in the first eight events. Martinsville Speedway also brings back great memories for Bell as the Oklahoma-native scored the walk-off victory in October to earn his first Championship 4 spot.

Gibbs adds another top-10… Ty Gibbs scored another top-10 finish at Bristol Motor Speedway as the reigning Xfinity Series champion continues to impress in the Cup Series. The 20-year-old moved up two more spots in the NCS standings and sits less than 10 points out of a Playoff berth. He made his Martinsville Cup Series debut last fall and earned a top-20 finish, while owning multiple top-five finishes in the Xfinity Series at the track.

Hamlin, Truex multi-time Martinsville winners… Martinsville has been a great track for Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. over the years. Hamlin scored Toyota’s first Cup Series victory at the track in 2008 and has since added four additional wins, including a season sweep in 2010. Truex has won three of the last seven races at the track, including victories in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Nemechek battling for two wins this weekend… After a runner-up finish at Richmond Raceway, John Hunter Nemechek gets to battle for two wins this weekend. The finish qualified Nemechek as one of four drivers to run for the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus against Justin Allgaier, Chandler Smith and Josh Berry. Nemechek will also look to pick up his second grandfather clock for winning at Martinsville Speedway. He earned his first track win in the Truck Series in 2018.

Grala looks to keep up momentum… Kaz Grala delivered at Richmond Raceway as he earned his first top-five finish of the season and moved back inside the top-20 in the standings. Grala is making his Xfinity Series debut at Martinsville Speedway, but the Massachusetts-native made his NASCAR debut at the track in the Truck Series in 2016 and earned a top-10 finish there a year later.

Two for TRICON in Playoff field… Tanner Gray moved back inside the top-10 in the Truck Series points after his third top-10 finish of the season at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, joining his teammate, Corey Heim. Gray made his Truck Series debut at Martinsville Speedway in 2019 and earned a track-best result of third in 2021. Heim, who has four top-10 finishes this season, has one Truck start at Martinsville – an 11th-place finish in 2021.

Sawalich debut… Toyota development driver William Sawalich makes his Truck Series debut this weekend in the fifth entry for TRICON Garage, the No. 1 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. The 16-year-old has been impressive already this season, winning in his ARCA East debut last month after earning the pole and leading all 150 laps of the race. Martinsville is the first of six scheduled starts for the Minnesota native.

NHRA – Top Fuel | Funny Car

Capps continues to tally final round appearances…Reigning Funny Car champion Ron Capps continues to impress on-track. Capps has advanced to the final round in six of the last eight events on the NHRA schedule, including two of the first three events this season. The California-native is also the defending champion of the Las Vegas four-wide event.

Ashley on a roll… Justin Ashley has taken over the top spot in the Top Fuel standings after a stellar last two events. The New York-native has won back-to-back events, along with a #2Fast2Tasty victory and a No. 1 qualifying spot in Pomona. Ashley is looking to continue that momentum into Las Vegas and rebound from two opening round losses in the track’s events last season.

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