By Aaron Bearden

After each NASCAR race weekend, Motorsports Beat will share a piece breaking down the stories and takeaways from the weekend. This is a report on NASCAR’s March trip to Martinsville Speedway.

NASCAR Cup Series 

Race: Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400

Track: Martinsville Speedway

Who Won? 

William Byron, winning multiple Cup races in one season for the first time in his career.

Recap

Top Stories

Busch Steals Win No. 60

The humor of the moment wasn’t lost on Kyle Busch.

Six weeks after accusing Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman of backing into race wins at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Busch himself picked up his first victory of 2022 with a late twist of fate in Tennessee. He took no shame in acknowledging it.

Busch was the benefactor of chaos on the last lap of Sunday’s Food City Dirt Race, emerging in the lead at the checkered flag after frontrunners Tyler Reddick and Chase Briscoe collided in the final corners and spun.

Reddick had been the leader. Briscoe drove the fastest car – something even Busch himself admitted both during and after the race. That rapid No. 14 Ford allowed Briscoe to close up to Reddick in the final moments of Sunday’s race and make the equivalent of a hail mary pass in football with a final slidejob attempt in the last corners.

As one might expect, the move didn’t pay off. Instead of clearing Reddick for the lead, Briscoe caught his No. 8 Chevrolet with his right-rear tire and sent both drivers around.

Busch was a distant third, some four seconds back. But like Richard Petty in the 1979 Daytona 500, the Nevadan was able to drive by the crashed cars to score a landmark victory.

“The final corner was total chaos, I guess,” Busch said afterward. “We were able to make it through and steal a win, back into one, whatever you want to call it.

“It feels good to get one here in this Next Gen car. It feels good to win on dirt. A lot of caveats.”

The ending was a good break for a team that sorely needed it.

After years of dominance and title contention, Busch and the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing squad have been more human in recent years. Sunday’s win was Busch’s 60th in the Cup series and helped him match Richard Petty’s record streak of 18 years with at least one victory. But they’ve proven harder to come by in the past few seasons.

After winning 27 times from 2015 through 2019, Busch took until the 34th race of 2020 to snag a victory at Texas Motor Speedway. He earned two wins in 2021, but led the fewest laps (334) of any full-time season in his career.

The Next Gen era offered promise for a fresh start. But all of Joe Gibbs Racing has struggled early in 2022. Martin Truex Jr. is seventh in points, but inconsistent by his lofty standards. Christopher Bell has three top-seven runs in four weeks, but had an average finish of 25.8 beforehand. Denny Hamlin has two times as many DNFs (4) as he endured in three full seasons before this year, though the No. 11 team likely bailed themselves out of playoff issues with a strategy win at Richmond Raceway.

Busch was poised to win in Las Vegas before a late caution (hence his angry tirade after Bowman won), but he had just one top-five and felt the team had only been in contention during two of the six non-superspeedway races before Bristol.

So it doesn’t matter what circumstances surrounded Sunday’s result. Busch was just happy to get a win.

“With what a struggle our year has been, did we deserve this one? Yeah,” Busch said. “We ran up front all night, we were in contention and that was great. I’ll take that.”

Busch’s No. 18 team still has ground to make up. All of JGR does. ‘Rowdy’ said as much after Sunday’s win, admitting that both he and Hamlin had gotten “lucky” with wins that he wouldn’t say “are indicative of how good we are.”

Crew chief Ben Beshore agreed, saying it “feels like a miracle” that the No. 18 team took home the checkered flag in Bristol.

Sunday’s win could be important for Busch’s future, as could JGR’s needed improvement. At 36 years old, Busch still has hope for as much as a decade or more of additional Cup races. With longtime sponsor Mars Corp. leaving at year’s end, it’s important that Busch and the No. 18 team find ways to stand out in order to show value to any potential sponsors that could fill the void left by the candy company’s exit.

Reaching a noteworthy win total and a record for winning consistently helps that effort as much as they add to Busch’s overall legacy. But his main concern is title contention..

“Yes, the 18 (years with a win) is important, but I feel like I’m in the prime of my career and I would love to be running up front and dominating and winning races and contending for championships,” Busch said. “That’s our ultimate goal.”

Maybe backing into a Bristol win can be the catalyst for Busch to make that goal a reality.

 

Sportsmanship in defeat

Fans expecting a fight after the last-lap crash between Reddick and Briscoe missed the mark on Sunday evening.

There were no fists. No curse words. Not even a scowl.

Just an accepted apology and a friendly discussion between two drivers who understood each other and the moves they made with a win on the line, wrapped up with a handshake.

“I let (Briscoe) get a little too close,” Reddick said afterward, echoing what he’d told Briscoe as they chatted.

Reddick could have been forgiven if he’d been upset, even if he wanted to keep things polite on Easter Sunday. He’d just seen his maiden Cup win slip away in heartbreaking fashion.

The Richard Childress Racing star had led the entirety of the final stage, taking over the top spot on a restart after the race resumed from a red flag for rain during the stage break. Reddick had the position with the laps winding down, but Briscoe’s No. 14 Ford was the quickest car on track.

The Hoosier had closed in on Reddick over the final laps, riding the razor’s edge that was the top lane to lap times that allowed him to chip away at the Californian’s advantage.

“With seven to go, I had been catching him little by little and lost a little bit of ground on the bottom, so I started running it as hard as I could on the top,” Briscoe said. “I was actually downshifting in every corner just to keep the wheelspin up.”

The shift was risky, but it paid off. Briscoe took the white flag in Reddick’s tire tracks and was close enough for his desperation slide job attempt in the final corners.

Unfortunately for both drivers, the move wasn’t meant to be. Briscoe quickly realized he wasn’t going to clear Reddick. “I started spinning out because I knew I was going to drive through him,” he said. “I don’t want to win that way.”

But it was too late. The pair made contact, both spun and collectively allowed Busch to sneak by for an unexpected victory. Reddick quickly recovered to finish second. Briscoe fell back to 22nd.

Reddick wasn’t surprised by the move.

“I kind of knew what was coming because I had to make pretty similarly crazy moves at times in the race to pass some cars,” he said.

“I thought I defended it as good as I could,” Reddick later continued.

Briscoe was disappointed with the end result of his late heave. But he “wouldn’t have been able to go to sleep at night” if he hadn’t given himself one chance at a slidejob.

“I hate that I got into him,” Briscoe said. “It’s not how I want to race, but I felt like it was hard racing. I think Tyler knows there was no real intent behind it. Like he was telling me, he would have done the exact same thing.”

While he was prepared for the worst, Briscoe also wasn’t caught off guard by Reddick’s tame reaction to his apology. “Some guys would be mad, but I think Tyler knows how I race.” he said. “He knows I was not going to wreck him intentionally for the win.”

Reddick echoed the sentiment, acknowledging that the pair have raced against each other dating back to their formative days on dirt. His sole disappointment lied with letting Briscoe reel him in.

“The only thing that would have made a difference was just running better laps the last two or three to keep a better gap between us,” Reddick said. “Credit to him. He did a really good job of just driving the wheels off that car in the last couple of laps.”

In a time where many drivers would have expressed anger and frustration, two of NASCAR’s brightest young stars put on a sterling display of sportsmanship. They’d each lost what could have been a career highlight victory, but they understood that the ending likely would have been similar had their roles been reversed.

 

Third time’s the charm?

The reason I waited until Wednesday to publish this piece was to see how Bristol Dirt Race weekend performed ratings-wise and how the track responded.

Three days after the event’s conclusion, the results are clear. Fans showed support for the race and it’s coming back.

Sunday’s race brought in 4.007 million viewers, topping all races at Bristol since the spring of 2016. You could possibly right that off as a fluke given the Easter evening date, but Saturday’s Camping World Truck Series race also brought in 1.167 million viewers – one of the tour’s best ratings results in recent memory.

Track president Jerry Caldwell wasted little time confirming dirt’s return for 2023 after the news spread.

“I’m so thankful for our owners, Bruton and Marcus Smith, allowing our Bristol Motor Speedway team to put on an amazing Easter celebration and NASCAR race weekend that exceeded our expectations with strong ticket sales and primetime viewership on FOX,” he said in a Tuesday statement.

“Bristol Motor Speedway will prepare for a spring night race on dirt in 2023, giving the fans two great NASCAR shows on different surfaces. The dates for our NASCAR events will not be available until later this year.”

Dirt’s return for a third season was quickly met with mixed opinions, some lamenting the news while others celebrated. That’s likely true for the drivers as well given the differing experiences they each had in Sunday’s race.

The Next Gen car seemingly performed better on the different surface than the Gen 6 managed in 2021. Running at night and getting some natural moisture from rain helped. Drivers were able to run multiple lanes and gain ground on something resembling a cushion in the high lane until the closing laps.

Dirt ace Kyle Larson wasn’t a fan of racing without removing the windshield prior to the race, but he admitted to having fun after its conclusion.

“It felt like a dirt race,” Larson said. “Obviously, there are some small tweaking that could be done to make it better, but it was overall a good race, I thought.”

That’s not to say the event went off without a hitch. The heavy moisture present at the start caused overheating issues and concerns for many in the field, forcing NASCAR to throw an early competition caution for grilles and windshields to be cleaned.

One driver caught out during this was Kevin Harvick, who wound up trapped a lap down and caught up in an early wreck. He aired his grievances with the assembled media after being cleared from the infield care center.

“The first thing I can tell you is we did a terrible job prepping the track and full of mud and there was nobody here to pack the track, so we all look like a bunch of bozos coming in to pit because we don’t know how to prep the track,” Harvick said afterward. “And then we don’t get the lucky dog for whatever reason with two cars on pit road, and then we got run over. I don’t know who ran us over at the end.”

Race winner Kyle Busch had been heavily critical of the race in the past. He didn’t shy away from that after his win, though the Nevadan was careful in the wording of his criticism.

“The biggest thing that hinders me from enjoying this is just the application,” Busch said. “We’re trying to do something that isn’t applicable, in my opinion. I mean, the first 10 laps of the race, everybody is shooting mud off, we’re covering everybody’s grilles. Our windshields are covered with the dirt going off the windshield, stuff like that.”

Asked if the dirt event can be salvaged, Harvick simply asked “what’s the point?”

It was a rhetorical question. He knew the answer. “I guess the TV ratings will tell us everything,” Harvick later added. “If the TV ratings are high, it’ll be great.”

That’s why dirt is coming back, to the chagrin of some of the sport’s longtime participants. So what can be done to help make the race a more consistent success?

Christopher Bell, a three-time Chili Bowl Nationals winner, suggests making the Next Gen car more closely resemble a dirt car for this race.

“With the car we brought here, we’ve put ourselves in such a tight box in terms of track prep,” Bell said. “You need water to eliminate dust, but if you put too much water down, you get mud and you can’t have mud either.

“You have to put an emphasis into making this more of a dirt car, which is absolutely possible.”

Whatever the answer may be, don’t be surprised if the question lingers on into 2023. Many parties clearly have interest in dirt racing working for NASCAR, but there’s still room to grow in order to make that happen.

Notes

  • For a brief moment on Sunday night, it appeared that Daniel Suarez and Trackhouse Racing might cheekily steal the victory. Suarez stayed out after Stage 1 and led as light rain fell just past the halfway point of Sunday’s race, when there was a real sensation that the event could be stopped and called. He wound up fading to third in the stage and finishing 12th overall.
  • Tucked away in the pack was the Cup Series debut of journeyman driver Josh Williams, who notched a solid 25th-place result for Live Fast Motorsports.
  • Ty Dillon was impressive early on, winning a heat and finishing behind Kyle Larson in second during Stage 1. Dillon never quite got back to the front after that, but did score his first top-10 for Petty GMS Racing with a 10th-place reuslt.
  • Michael McDowell was one of the quiet surprises on Sunday, notching a sneaky top-10 in ninth. It was his second top-10 of the season.
  • Ryan Blaney picked up his fourth top-five and sixth top-10 of the year with a strong run on the dirt – a surface his family knows all too well. Blaney’s 11.2 average finish to date would be the best of his career if it holds.

Food City Dirt Race Results

  1. Kyle Busch
  2. Tyler Reddick
  3. Joey Logano
  4. Kyle Larson
  5. Ryan Blaney
  6. Alex Bowman
  7. Christopher Bell
  8. Chase Elliott
  9. Michael McDowell
  10. Ty Dillon
  11. Brad Keselowski
  12. Daniel Suarez
  13. Cole Custer
  14. Justin Haley
  15. Chris Buescher
  16. Austin Cindric
  17. Todd Gilliland
  18. William Byron
  19. Corey LaJoie
  20. Harrison Burton
  21. Martin Truex Jr.
  22. Chase Briscoe
  23. Aric Almirola
  24. Erik Jones
  25. Josh Williams
  26. Cody Ware
  27. Noah Gragson
  28. Bubba Wallace
  29. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  30. JJ Yeley
  31. Austin Dillon
  32. Kurt Busch
  33. Ross Chastain
  34. Kevin Harvick
  35. Denny Hamlin
  36. Justin Allgaier

Stage 1

  1. Kyle Larson
  2. Ty Dillon
  3. Christopher Bell
  4. Austin Dillon
  5. Kyle Busch
  6. Alex Bowman
  7. Joey Logano
  8. Tyler Reddick
  9. Ryan Blaney
  10. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Stage 2

  1. Chase Briscoe
  2. Christopher Bell
  3. Daniel Suarez
  4. Chase Elliott
  5. Kyle Busch
  6. Kyle Larson
  7. Joey Logano
  8. Michael McDowell
  9. Ryan Blaney
  10. Tyler Reddick

Next Up: A transition from one of the sport’s smallest venues to one of its largest. The third superspeedway-style race of 2022 is on tap at Talladega Superspeedway.

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series 

A race that some worried could be dominated by Cup stars like pole sitter Joey Logano was instead paced by Truck champ Ben Rhodes. (Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography) 

Race: Pinty’s Truck Race on Dirt

Track: Bristol Motor Speedway (Dirt)

Who Won? 

Ben Rhodes, after a rally through the field in Stage 3.

Recap

Top Stories

The Champ Rises

Ben Rhodes wouldn’t be denied. 

On a night where a miscommunication threw off his strategy and nearly threw away the perfect race, Rhodes rallied from mid-pack to take a statement victory in the Pinty’s Truck Race on Dirt. 

Rhodes dominated the opening stage of Saturday’s race, shooting past pole-sitter Joey Logano on the opening lap and leading all 40 laps for the stage win. But he then failed to come to pit road on the stage break, forcing him to pit after the end of another dominant stage performance on Lap 90.

The defending Truck Series champion was trapped back in 13th by the move, necessitating a fierce drive forward over the final 60 laps. He threw deep slide jobs and took advantage of a quartet of cautions to sit inside of the top-three coming to a final restart with five to go. 

Rhodes quickly took second on the run. One lap in, he dove deep under leader Carson Hocevar and cleared him into Turn 1. 

That was the decisive move. Hocevar couldn’t get close enough to mount a late charge, allowing Rhodes to march off to a stage-sweeping victory. 

Despite his comeback reaching the front of the field, Rhodes admitted that the charge wasn’t easy. 

“I really wanted to get to the front, but it was so hard to pass,” Rhodes said. “I just didn’t want to give it away. I told Michael Waltrip that nah, everything was cool. We meant to stay out, but truthfully mistake by me.”

He credited his ThorSport Racing team for providing him with such a strong truck. 

“My crew gave me such an awesome Tundra this weekend that I wasn’t going to let them down,” Rhodes said. “I had to go back up there and earn the spot back. I’m really proud of all their effort.”

The win was the first of Rhodes’ championship defense, all-but locking him into the Truck Series playoffs. Now he can focus on adding more over the next five months. 

 

Hocevar Comes up Short

Rhodes’ joy came at the expense of Hocevar and Niece Motorsports.

On a day where only those two driver led, Hocevar and his No. 42 team seemed to have played the correct strategy to notch their first win together. But the cautions gave Rhodes restarts and time to claw his way through the field, setting him up for the late pass that shot him by Hocevar for a lead he wouldn’t relinquish.

“He slide-jobbed me, and I should have prepared for it, crossed him over and raced him really hard,” Hocevar said. “Second just sucks. It’s terrible, especially being that close.”

With the benefit of hindsight, Hocevar only saw a few ways he could have saved his first win.

“Either ripped the top or crashed him,” Hocevar said. “I hate saying that, but it’s part of this racing, right?

“I just couldn’t compete with him. He just had better (fresher) tires, and he was the fastest truck all day. I was just trying to hold on.”

Saturday’s race was a special one for Hocevar. He was sporting the “BC” logo associated with longtime dirt star Bryan Clauson, who was tragically lost in a 2016 crash at the Belleville Nationals.

“We have Bryan Clauson’s logo on the truck. I’m wearing the shirt still and was hoping to be able to give him tribute. He was definitely with me tonight,” Hocevar said. “Hopefully, Tim (Clauson) and everybody that he really touched was really happy seeing that BCL in front again. Just close, but he was definitely with me tonight running as hard as we were.”

Six races into the 2022 season, Hocevar sits inside of the current playoff grid in ninth. He has a 16-point edge on the cutline.

But the playoffs aren’t his concern just yet. Hocevar just wants to win.

“I think it’s more important (that) Niece Motorsports wins,” Hocevar said. “I mean, it’s been awhile – a long while. More importantly, I’m more focused on me winning.

“I’ll crash every week if I can just win one week. I’m going to do everything I can and work it out. That risk vs. reward… I’m just here for the reward.”

Notes

  • Defending USAC National Midget champion Michael ‘Buddy’ Kofoid stepped into a NASCAR Truck for the first time on Saturday, driving the No. 51 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports. He was in the top-five before an attempted crossover on Rhodes led to a late spin. “Just kind of a tough deal and very unfortunate, but more or less just a racing deal,” he said. “I felt like we had plenty of speed and made great adjustments. We made a gamble with the strategy at the stage and it almost worked. Just sucks to end it like that.”
  • Also notable during Saturday’s race was a bizarre moment when the trucks of Matt DiBenedetto and Austin Wayne Self became stuck together after a bump. Self discussed the moment with Motorsports Beat after the race.
  • For all of the concerns about chaos on the dirt, all 36 trucks managed to finish the race on Saturday night.
  • Parker Kligerman truly believes his Henderson Motorsports team can win this year, and for good reason. The group already has two top-fives in four 2022 starts, as many as they’ve ever managed together in a year.
  • Colby Howard quietly put together a 12th-place run to better his career-best finish.
  • There was plenty of Cup Series star power in Saturday’s race – Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon and Harrison Burton all competed. But they were largely an afterthought, each placing outside of the top-five at race’s end.

Pinty’s Truck Race on Dirt Results

  1. Ben Rhodes
  2. Carson Hocevar
  3. John Hunter Nemechek
  4. Parker Kligerman
  5. Christian Eckes
  6. Joey Logano
  7. Chase Elliott
  8. Grant Enfinger
  9. Matt Crafton
  10. Zane Smith
  11. Stewart Friesen
  12. Colby Howard
  13. Chase Purdy
  14. Austin Dillon
  15. Tanner Gray
  16. Dean Thompson
  17. Mike Marlar
  18. Hailie Deegan
  19. Chandler Smith
  20. Harrison Burton
  21. Ty Majeski
  22. Jack Wood
  23. Timmy Hill
  24. Spencer Boyd
  25. Blaine Perkins
  26. Kaz Grala
  27. Buddy Kofoid
  28. Tate Fogleman
  29. Derek Kraus
  30. Lawless Alan
  31. Tyler Ankrum
  32. Andrew Gordon
  33. Kris Wright
  34. Keith McGee
  35. Matt DiBenedetto
  36. Austin Wayne Self

Stage 1

  1. Ben Rhodes
  2. Ty Majeski
  3. Stewart Friesen
  4. Joey Logano
  5. Chandler Smith
  6. Parker Kligerman
  7. Chase Elliott
  8. Matt Crafton
  9. Carson Hocevar
  10. Matt DiBenedetto

Stage 2

  1. Ben Rhodes
  2. Ty Majeski
  3. John Hunter Nemechek
  4. Parker Kligerman
  5. Joey Logano
  6. Chase Elliott
  7. Buddy Kofoid
  8. Carson Hocevar
  9. Chandler Smith
  10. Derek Kraus

Next Up: Some time off. The Truck Series will be back in action on May 6 at Darlington Raceway.

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Beat Breakdown Bristol Dirt Cup Series NASCAR Truck Series