NASCAR Cup teams head to Martinsville Speedway this weekend, marking the third race at a short track in the last four weeks.
Ryan Blaney won the most recent Cup race there last fall for Team Penske. He used that playoff victory to put him in the Championship 4 and won his first series title the following week.
Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing have won eight of the last nine Martinsville races.
Here’s a look at where things stand for each Cup organization heading into the eighth race of the season:
23XI Racing — Good news: All four of Tyler Reddick’s top 10s have come in the last five races. His 10th-place finish last weekend at Richmond snapped a streak of 15 consecutive races at short tracks without a top 10. Bubba Wallace, a two-time Truck winner at Martinsville, has two top 10s in his last three starts at the historic half-mile track. Bad news: The organization has never won a Cup short track race.
Front Row Motorsports — Good news: Todd Gilliland finished 10th at Martinsville in last year’s playoff race. Bad news: Michael McDowell has never finished better than 14th in 26 career Martinsville starts.
Hendrick Motorsports — Good news: No team has won more races at any Cup track than Hendrick Motorsports with its 28 victories at Martinsville. The organization has won four of the last seven Martinsville races, getting a victory each from Kyle Larson, William Byron, Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott. Larson has finished sixth, first and second in the last three Martinsville races. Bad news: No bad news for this team with Martinsville next on the schedule — site of the team’s first Cup victory — and the celebration of the team’s 40th anniversary season, featuring car owner Rick Hendrick as the pace car driver.
Joe Gibbs Racing — Good news: After wins at Bristol and Richmond, Denny Hamlin seeks to become the first driver since Rusty Wallace in 1993 to win three consecutive races on short tracks. Hamlin has five Martinsville wins, most among active drivers. He also has scored three consecutive top-five finishes at Martinsville. Points leader Martin Truex Jr. has a series-best 8.1 average finishing position this season. Bad news: Truex has been passed for the final lead change of the race in each of the last four races. Christopher Bell has been called for three speeding penalties on pit road this season. He has half the organization’s total through seven races.
JTG Daugherty Racing — Good news: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has three top 10s at Martinsville, including a best finish of eighth in this race last year. Bad news: Stenhouse has placed outside the top 20 in the last four races this season.
Kaulig Racing — Good news: Josh Williams makes his second start of the season in the No. 16 this weekend. Bad news: He was eliminated by an accident after two laps at Atlanta in his only other start in the car.
Legacy Motor Club — Good news: John Hunter Nemechek won the Martinsville Xfinity race a year ago. He won a Truck race there in March 2018. Bad news: Erik Jones has yet to finish better than 13th on a short track in the Next Gen car (since 2022).
Richard Childress Racing — Good news: Richmond is over. Bad news: Austin Dillon has one top-10 finish in his last 13 starts at Martinsville. Dillon’s best finish this year is 16th. Kyle Busch has failed to score any stage points in the last four races.
Rick Ware Racing — Good news: Kaz Grala is making his first Cup start at Martinsville this weekend. Justin Haley’s best finish in a Cup short track race is 12th at Bristol in September 2022. Bad news: The organization has not finished better than 28th in any of the four Next Gen races at Martinsville Speedway.
RFK Racing — Good news: Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher have scored top 10s in both short track races this season. Keselowski was third at Bristol and eighth at Richmond. Buescher was seventh at Bristol and ninth at Richmond. Bad news: Buescher and Keselowski have combined for one top-10 finish at Martinsville in the last four races there (Buescher was eighth in last year’s playoff race).
Spire Motorsports — Good news: The team has had at least one car qualify in the top 15 in four of the first seven races. Bad news: All three cars finished 27th or worse at Richmond. Carson Hocevar was 27th, Zane Smith was 35th and Corey LaJoie was 36th.
Stewart-Haas Racing — Good news: Chase Briscoe has four consecutive top-10 finishes at Martinsville, tied with Ryan Blaney for the second-longest active streak in the series. Josh Berry is coming off a season-best 11th-place finish at Richmond. Ryan Preece won the pole at Martinsville for this event last spring. Bad news: It has been 55 races since the organization last won a Cup race, August 2022 at Richmond by Kevin Harvick.
Team Penske — Good news: Ryan Blaney has the best average finish at Martinsville among active drivers at 9.0, scoring 10 top 10s in 16 starts. He won at Martinsville last fall. Joey Logano has had nine consecutive top 10s at Martinsville, the longest active streak in the series. Blaney has had four top 10s in a row at the track. Bad news: Austin Cindric has finished 18th or worse in six of the seven races this season.
Trackhouse Racing — Good news: Ross Chastain has finished in the top 10 in four of the last six races. Bad news: Daniel Suarez has only two top-10 finishes in 14 Martinsville starts. His most recent top 10 at the track was in 2019.
Wood Brothers Racing — Good news: Harrison Burton finished 15th at Martinsville in last fall’s playoff race. Bad news: He’s had only one finish better than that Martinsville result in his last 22 Cup starts.
