Short Tracking Martinsville In The Spring             

From a NASCAR Fan’s View

It’s time for the Cup teams to take to the short track at Martinsville, and once again, it looks like the Toyotas have shown up ready to race. Fortunately, it may not be a dominating day like last weekend.

Personally, I am glad there is a good mix of cars at the front, and in usual fashion lately, there is one Toyota that appears to have a real advantage over the rest of the field. There is no doubt that Denny Hamlin appeared to be the one that most will be chasing, at least at the start of the race. He did take the pole, and he appears to have his Toyota dialed in for the Cook Out 400. That’s four hundred laps on the challenging paper clip-shaped oval. And let’s not forget, it is short-track racing with all that goes along with the short-track racing attitude.

From this fan’s view, I suppose it is possible that Denny has the speed to take control of the race early on. Also, from my view, that advantage may be short-lived, and that is something that will remain to be seen.

As I said earlier, it is interesting the mix of makes at the front of the field. Thankfully, that could mean the other drivers at the front could chase down Denny and make the race very interesting. William Byron qualified on the outside pole and seemed confident in his crew chief and team’s ability to make his car more competitive as the race progresses. The same goes for Josh Berry. In fact, the qualifying of Byron and Berry had only like three thousandths of a second separating them.

That’s not a lot when you consider where they’re racing. Need I remind us all, this is short track racing? That usually means bumping, rubbing, and racing, leaning on each other through the turns. If someone appears to be holding someone up, you can bet they’re going to receive a nudge from behind and either move out of the way or be moved out of the way. With the aggressive way things have been going lately, I expect we will see a lot of that. Generally, that often leads to paybacks somewhere along the way, and sometimes it can just get plain rough. But then, that’s part of the reason so many like short-track racing. It also means emotions might be quite evident when the race is being run, and especially when it is over.

Other than Denny’s obvious speed advantage – which is much like Tyler Reddick’s performance last weekend – there are more than a couple of drivers that could take control of this one. Just to name a few would be those qualified in the top twenty. You know, the list is long, but I’d like to name a few of them anyway. Looking for his first points win in Cup is Ty Gibbs. Many think he is due, and this fan thinks he has shown a lot of improvement and consistency so far this season. I don’t think it is that far-fetched to possibly see him in Victory Lane at the end of the day.

SVG qualified one one-thousandth of a second behind Gibbs. Taking into account his improvement on oval tracks this season, I don’t think he should be ignored as a possible contender for the final checkered flag and a trip to Victory Lane. Frankly, it wouldn’t surprise this fan at all if he isn’t pressing the leader in the final laps for the win.

Next in line are three hard chargers. One in a Ford, one in a Toyota, and one in a Chevy. Of course, that would be Austin Cindric, Tyler Reddick, and Carson Hocevar. Any one of these three are quite capable of winning depending on how the race goes. I expect to see Hocevar pressing the envelope most of the time. Well, at least unless someone gets fed up with his aggression or he makes a mistake of his own.

The next five drivers are all hungry for a win, and four of them in particular. I’ll just mention the fact that Ryan Blaney already has a win this season. The other four are Logano, Elliott, Bell, and Larson. The first three mentioned are at different stages in their own struggles with performance and consistency. All three are capable of winning and running strong; they just haven’t shown up in the lead at the end of the races. I’m not counting any of them out, but they do have a lot of work to do.

Kyle Larson is the biggest surprise to me so far this season. If it can go wrong for him, it has, and he just hasn’t shown his usual consistency or his usual ability to run at or close to the front. Martinsville could be the moment his season begins to turn around. After all, he is a proven winner, but he just hasn’t shown any consistency so far this season.

Of course, for any of the above-mentioned things to take place depends on how Denny Hamlin’s race goes. Considering his speed and his record at the half-mile paper clip, and his starting position and pit stall, the rest of the drivers have their work cut out for themselves…