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In The Know – Martinsville

NASCAR Cup Series 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

SHR FAST FACTS:

Kevin Harvick:

In his 23-year career as a NASCAR Cup Series driver, Harvick has proven to be incredibly consistent at Martinsville. The driver of the No. 4 Realtree/Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) has made 43 Cup Series starts at the .526-mile oval and recorded 20 top-10s, the third-highest tally among active Cup Series drivers. Only Denny Hamlin (23 top-10s) and Kyle Busch (21 top-10s) have more.

Aric Almirola:

In 28 starts, Aric Almirola has earned seven top-10 finishes, one top-five and has led 75 laps on the .526-mile, paperclip-shaped Martinsville (Va.) Speedway oval. He qualified second at Martinsville at last year’s April race.

Chase Briscoe:

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.

Ryan Preece:

Preece has tasted success at Martinsville in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and hopes that translates to his No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang this weekend. In his six Modified Tour starts at Martinsville, the 2013 series champion has one win in 2008 to go with two top-fives and 423 laps led, with an average start of 7.8 and an average finish of 13.5. He started on the pole and led a race-high 110 of 200 laps en route to a 12th-place finish in the April 2021 race.

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS:

 

WHAT OUR DRIVERS ARE SAYING:

Kevin Harvick Driver of the No. 4 Realtree/Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang:

Even with a new rules package and the subsequent uncertainty of how the racing will be when you return to Martinsville this weekend, the track has always made drivers feel a bit apprehensive because of its tight confines and close racing. How do you handle racing at Martinsville?

“It’s just a challenging racetrack. Martinsville can eat you up pretty quickly with somebody else’s mistake, or you can get behind pretty quickly. You just have to be able to be aggressive without getting your stuff torn up. If something’s not right, it’ll put you behind in a hurry.”

Aric Almirola Driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang:

How do you expect the aero package to affect the racing at Martinsville?

“I don’t know. Martinsville will be hard because the speeds are down. When speeds go down, the downforce is less of a factor, anyway. The 150 mile-per-hour entry speeds at Phoenix versus Martinsville at 120 miles per hour is a big difference in the way the cars drive in traffic. I don’t know that Martinsville will be a huge difference from the old package, but we’ll see.” 

Chase Briscoe Driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.Com Ford Mustang:

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.”

Ryan Preece Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.Com Ford Mustang:

We’re heading back to another short track, what is the strategy going to be for you and your team?

“We’re putting a huge emphasis on qualifying this weekend. We are going to be focused on practice and seeing where our car stacks up. Hopefully, we’re fast right out the gate and, from there, we’ve got to be strong in qualifying so we can start up front. At a track like Martinsville, we’ve seen it at the other similar tracks this season, you don’t want to start in the back. It’s so hard to pass and move up front when you start in the back at Martinsville. So, we just want to qualify up front and stay there for the race. It’s a long race, so maintaining that track position and staying out of trouble will be really important. I like Martinsville and I have experience there; it goes back to my short-track background and I’m excited to get out there and be in the mix fighting for a grandfather clock.”