Alex’s Motorsports Recap: NASCAR at Martinsville Speedway

This past week had some of the highest highs and lowest lows of any race weekend this year. Denny Hamlin won the Cup Series race at Martinsville for the first time in over 10 years, there was an out-of-control finish during the Xfinity Series race and Daniel Hemric won his first ever Truck Series race. 

Let’s start out with the Friday Truck Series race, where Corey Heim started out on pole position followed by Ty Majeski, Kaden Honeycutt, Chandler Smith, Daniel Hemric, Tanner Gray, Layne Riggs, Jake Garcia, Lawless Alan and Rajah Caruth rounding out the top 10. 

There were seven cautions on the race-day which accounted for 69 out of the 200 laps of the Martinsville race. The most notable would be when the race leader Heim spun Ryan Roulette on lap 13 as he was going to lap him. On lap 168, Majeski, Heim and Honeycutt got into a wreck causing Heim to endure a flat rear left tire and the final caution when Majeski and Honeycutt got into a wreck battling for the lead and gave Hemric. 

Stage one was won by Corey Heim followed by Honeycutt, Majeski, Mosack, Gray, Smith, Hemric, Alan, Byron and Stewart Freisen while Stage Two was also won by Heim with Honeycutt, Majeski, Mosack, Hemric, Smith, Gray, Byron, Alan, and Tyler Ankrum following behind. As the races ended, Hemric took home the race win with Ankrum in second, Jake Garcia in third and Smith, Ben Rhodes, Heim, Andres Perez de Lara, Caruth, Friesen and Alan rounding out the top 10. 

The next Truck Series race is on Friday, April 11 at Bristol Motor Speedway. 

Then, there was the Xfinity Series race on Saturday where Connor Zilisch started on pole position. Zilisch was followed by Carson Kvapil, Austin Hill, Jesse Love, Harrison Burton, Justin Allgaier, Brandon Jones, Corey Day, Daniel Dye and Sammy Smith to create the top 10. 

During the race, there were 14 cautions that took up 104 out of 256 total laps on the day. The most notable caution was on lap 248 with Matt DiBenedetto spinning out to bring out overtime. During overtime, Gray took the lead going into the final lap by bumping Smith out of the way. On the last corner Smith retaliated and dumped Gray causing both to spin out and Allgaier to hit Smith as well, giving fourth place Hill the win. Hill was followed by Sheldon Creed, Allgaier, Brennan Poole, Sam Mayer, Dean Thompson, Dye, Ryan Sieg, Kyle Wright and Smith. 

Stage one was won by Connor Zilisch under caution, and he was followed by Kvapil, Jones, Allgaier, Aric Almirola, Gray, Hill, Smith, Christian Eckes and Thompson. Stage Two was won by Zilisch with Kvapil, William Sawalich, Dye, Nick Sanchez, Almirola, Josh Williams, Allgaier, Blaine Perkins and Gray. 

The next Xfinity Series race will take place on Saturday, April 5 at Darlington Raceway. 

Finally, there was the cup race on Sunday with Chrisopher Bell on pole position followed by Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Chris Buescher, Joey Logano, Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick and William Byron. 

There were 10 cautions taking up 86 out of the 400 total laps of the race with no notable cautions affecting the top ten. 

Stage one was won by Logano followed by Bowman, AJ Allmendinger, Brad Keselowski, Erik Jones, John Hunter Nemechek, Ryan Preece, Elliott, Hamlin and Cole Custer. Stage two was won by Hamlin with Elliott, Wallace, Ty Gibbs, Chase Briscoe, Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain, Bell, Larson and Reddick. 

Hamlin ended up leading 274 out of the 400 laps of the race including the final 74 laps in a dominate race from him. Using lapped traffic, Hamlin extended his lead to second to over four seconds. Hamlin was followed by teammate Bell, Wallace, Elliott, Larson, Chastain, Preece, Logano, Briscoe and Todd Gilliland. 

The next Cup Series race will take place on April 6 at Darlington Raceway. 

It was a great weekend of racing, even when it was last lap chaos in Xfinity to Denny Hamlin dominance in the Cup and it will only get better next week at Darlington.