As competitive as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs have already been, it’s safe to say the intensity will step up a notch or two on Sunday in the opening race of the Round of 8 – the final round to set the Championship 4.
Regular season champion and defending race winner, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch holds a slim one-point edge over Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick entering Sunday’s First Data 500 (at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The top four in the standings – Busch to fourth place Chase Elliott – are separated by a larger 37-point margin. And Elliott holds only a three-point edge over Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano and Kurt Busch. Aric Almirola is 12 points below the fourth place cutoff line.
Last week’s Kansas winner Elliott has certainly raised his game for the Playoffs and is the only multi-time Playoff race winner still championship eligible. However, three other members of the Elite Eight have won at Martinsville recently. Kurt Busch won in 2014, Kyle Busch has wins in 2016 and last year’s Playoff race and Bowyer won at the track just this Spring.
It creates an exciting proposition to see who will be able to step-up this weekend and guarantee their position in the Championship 4 for the Nov. 18 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
A win by a Playoff driver may be crucial this week as it’s actually a couple of recently eliminated Playoff contenders – Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin – who have been masters of Martinsville in recent years. Johnson’s nine wins are most among active drivers and Hamlin’s five is second-most. They also boast the two best driver ratings at the track. Kyle Busch and Harvick are third and fifth best, respectively – tops among the current Playoff drivers.
“I think the best position to be in at any racetrack is in the lead,” said Harvick, who has finished fifth in the last two races at the track and scored his only win while still at Richard Childress Racing in 2011.
“You want to be in control of the race and try to get yourself in a position to where you can have a good, clean restart and have as much clear track, especially at Martinsville, just for the fact that there is so much pushing and shoving on the restarts to get to the bottom lane that you want to try to be as far forward as possible.”
Busch has had more recent success, not only capturing last year’s Playoff win but leading an impressive 352 of the 500 laps to win his first race at the track in 2016. He has two victories and two runner-up finishes (including second place to Bowyer this spring) in his last six starts. In fact, his 1,324 total laps out front at Martinsville is second only to nine-time winner Johnson’s 2,862.
“I think it’s going to be good,” Busch said. “I really look forward to this round. I feel like it’s our best round. We run well at all three of those places and we won at Texas in the spring, we won Martinsville last fall and Phoenix has been getting better for us, too.
“We just need to continue to execute and do a good job and make sure that we mind our Ps and Qs. There are certainly some areas that we need to clean up right now and continue to get better because, when you get to Homestead-Miami – you’ve got to get there first, but when you get there – you better be picture perfect, so hopefully we can get it all sorted out.”
Round of 6 commences
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series begins its playoff push with the Round of 6 kicking off a three-race stretch in Saturday’s Texas Roadhouse 200 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway (at 1 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Two-time and defending series champion Johnny Sauter takes a sizable 28-point lead over the championship field into the race – an event he’s won a record three times previously. Brett Moffitt, Noah Gragson and Grant Enfinger round out the current top-four positions. Justin Haley and former two-time series champ Matt Crafton are on the outside of the top-four. Haley sits only six points behind fourth place Enfinger and Crafton is 15-points behind that cutoff line.
Since 2013, Sauter has scored two wins at Martinsville. Crafton (2015) and defending race winner Gragson are the only other Playoff drivers to visit Victory Lane at the historic half-miler.
Enfinger is the only member of the current Playoff six to have won during the Playoffs this year – scoring a dramatic victory at Las Vegas in September.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Next Race: First Data 500
The Place: Martinsville Speedway (Martinsville, Va.)
The Date: Sunday, Oct. 28
The Time: 2:30 p.m. ET
TV: NBCSN
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 263 miles (500 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on lap 130),
Stage 2 (Ends on lap 260), and Final Stage (Ends on lap 500)
What to Watch For: Kyle Busch is the defending race winner and has the highest driver rating (103.5) at Martinsville among the eight Playoff drivers. … Nine-time Martinsville winner Jimmie Johnson boasts the best driver rating in the series at 114.6, followed by Denny Hamlin at 106.3. … Kevin Harvick holds the record for lowest finish (33rd) at Martinsville during the Playoffs by the eventual season champion. He did that in 2014. … Chevrolet (11 wins) and Toyota (3) are the only manufacturers to win a Playoff race at Martinsville. ….Five times during NASCAR’s Playoff era, the winner of this race has gone on to win the championship. Johnson did it four times (2006-08, 2016). …Richard Petty is the all-time wins leader at Martinsville with 15. Johnson leads all active drives with nine wins. … Should Johnson win on Sunday he would join only Petty (five times) and Darrell Waltrip (three times) to win at least 10 races on multiple tracks. Johnson has also won 11 times at Dover, Del. …Johnson is the most recent driver to win consecutive races at Martinsville, doing it in 2012/Fall and 2013/Spring. … He also holds the record for winning in the closest margin of victory. He beat Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon by 0.065-seconds to win in April, 2007. … Hendrick Motorsports boasts the most wins (24) at Martinsville. Geoff Bodine earned the team’s first at the track in 1984. …The pole position has produced the most winners (21). The top-five starting positions have accounted for 53 percent of the race winners. …. The deepest in the field a winner has started is 36th. Kurt Busch won the Fall/2002 race from that starting spot. … Joey Logano holds the record for a qualifying lap (100.201 mph). And he is the one of only five drivers to win three consecutive pole positions at the track (2015 sweep, 2016 spring race). His four pole positions at the track are most in this week’s field.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Next Race: Texas Roadhouse 200
The Place: Martinsville Speedway (Martinsville, Va.)
The Date: Saturday, Oct. 27
The Time: 1 p.m. ET
TV: FS1
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 105.2 miles (200 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on lap 50),
Stage 2 (Ends on lap 100), and Final Stage (Ends on lap 200)
What to Watch For: Playoff driver and defending series champion Johnny Sauter is the winningest driver in the field with three victories this weekend at Martinsville. That ties him with three others for most all-time. … Fellow Playoff driver Matt Crafton’s 19 top-10s is most all-time. … Virginia native Timothy Peters – winner of the series last race at Talladega, Ala. – will return to competition this weekend. He’ll make his fourth start in the No. 23 GMS Chevrolet. Martinsville is where he scored his first truck series win in 2009. … Another big name will return to truck competition this weekend. Jeb Burton will make his fourth start of the year in the No 30. On Point Motorsports Toyota. His best finish in four truck races in 2018 is 12th (at Richmond, Va. and Dover, Del.) He won the pole position for the 2013 truck race at Martinsville. … There are 10 drivers on the entry list set to make their series debut this weekend. Among them is newly-crowned NASCAR K&N East Series champion Tyler Ankram. The 17-year old will pilot the No. 54 Toyota Tundra for the DGR-Crosley team. …. GMS Racing currently holds a 16-point edge over Hattori Racing in the owner’s championship. Kyle Busch Motorsports is 17-points back. … Toyota leads all manufacturers with 15 truck wins at Martinsville, Chevrolet is next with 14 and Ford has five. … John Hunter Nemechek won the Martinsville truck race this spring. Current Playoff driver Noah Gragson is the defending winner of this October Playoff race. … Bobby Labonte’s 2005 victory over Ricky Craven by .257-seconds is the closest margin of victory in a truck race at Martinsville. … The most laps led by a winner is 248, a record set by Kevin Harvick in his 2012 spring victory.
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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