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

Off the Clock

So… That was boring, huh?

You don’t need me to tell you that. All it took was a look at the small amount of discussion going around on social media during Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway, the majority of which – in my experience, anyway – were sarcastic gifs of people falling asleep.

In what was hoped to be a showcase event at one of NASCAR’s greatest tracks, the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 instead became a track position-focused slog. There were just two cautions outside of the stage breaks, and they were both minor incidents. No spins. No drama. The only donuts found in the area were down the road at Sheetz. Even the overtime period forced by the last caution ended with little fanfare after William Byron scooted away on the final lap.

Given the brutal cold in Virginia on Saturday night, there was some cause for relief from those in attendance at the quickness of the race. But the overwhelming sensation afterward was disappointment after easily the worst race of NASCAR’s promising Next Gen era.

Don’t just take my word for it. The drivers admitted as much, too.

“I know, certainly, we want to put on a better product than that,” Richmond Raceway winner Denny Hamlin said afterward. He endured a difficult night at one of his best tracks statistically, coming home 28th after losing a lap in the opening stage.

So what went wrong?

It depends on who you ask, but there seems to have been a mixture of circumstances.

The most obvious factors were the cold and nonexistent tire wear that resulted from it.

“Any time it’s below 40 degrees, I’d say, the tires don’t even lay rubber,” race winner William Byron said. “That was definitely a factor all night.”

“When the track is this cold and it doesn’t lay down rubber, the tires just don’t give up,” Jeff Gordon added. “I’d almost say Goodyear has too good of a tire here right now because I think the racers want to see the falloff and be able to see line changes, setup matter over a long run. They’re running qualifying laps almost every lap. It just did not fall off near as much as anybody thought it would. That’s night racing, and especially a cold night race.”

Ryan Blaney shared similar sentiment, saying “the left sides just don’t wear on this car” while urging Goodyear to “go way softer, especially on the lefts, and see where it gets you.”

Dirty air was also an issue.

“This car, if you’re directly behind them, it’s no secret this car is worse in dirty air,” runner-up finisher Joey Logano said, admitting it was harder to pass on Saturday. “If you’re not directly behind them, you’re able to recover better, but it seems like the way cars were into the corner and the way the track wasn’t taking rubber, it just made the bottom be the dominant lane.

“You couldn’t move up the racetrack and stern across or do anything to try to pass them. You really just got stuck.”

Hamlin noted that he “just aero-blocked” the leaders for a lengthy bit of Saturday’s race to keep from losing a lap. Blaney felt that you had “to be a half-second faster than somebody to pass somebody,” saying “you’d run someone down by four seconds and then get stuck behind them, so that was pretty disappointing.”

The Fox Sports broadcast discussed the issue of ride height rules (or a lack thereof). Some questioned the amount of horsepower. There was also the matter of the myriad shifts being performed with the Next Gen car.

The new machine’s preferred way around the small oval made for a challenging, hands-on experience for drivers. With competitors so busy racing the car and the track, it was difficult for them to race others.

“We don’t need to be shifting that many times,” Ross Chastain said after a top-five run. “That’s silly. I understand what they’re trying to do. They’re trying to keep us in a box. I had a blast. I don’t think there were a lot of wrecks because they were just hard to drive. It’s hard to drive these cars, and we’re just hanging on, and I had a top-five car.”

Short track racing is the heart of NASCAR. It’s the sort of racing that lifelong fans of the sport typically clamor for because it can yield the contact, close finishes and flared tempers that make for timeless moments as a NASCAR fan. Just one day before the Cup race, young Xfinity Series prospects Ty Gibbs and Sam Mayer were brought to blows after a dramatic run to the checkered flag at the same track.

But Saturday’s race wasn’t good. There were no real wrecks, which is fine in a bubble. Short track races don’t need heavy attrition to be entertaining. But there also wasn’t anything else about the on-track product that provided cause for celebration. The series and its fan base were collectively lucky that 100 laps were chopped off the race this year to spare the tedium from rolling past midnight in an event delayed by rain and sleet.

A bad race was bound to happen eventually for the Next Gen car. In a season with the sheer variety that NASCAR’s schedule provides, it’s impossible for every event to be a barnburner. But the disappointment from Saturday’s show will linger over the sport for a while based on what it could mean for the “More Short Tracks” movement and the Cup Series given that this fall’s Round of 8 finale could have similar conditions for a high-stakes race.

Don’t be surprised if potential solutions are looked at before the sport returns to Martinsville, whether they be changes within the cars or even just consideration for moving the night race to a time of year when cold temperatures are less likely.

 

Byron’s Emotional Day

Fans in attendance didn’t get to see the usual heated tempers that a race at Martinsville Speedway can provide. But after the checkered flag, there was plenty of emotion for race-winning driver William Byron.

The spring trip to Martinsville is a weekend that Byron will never forget – not just because he won, but because of who was cheering him on along the way.

Last year during the sprint Martinsville race weekend, Byron’s mother, Dana, suffered a stroke-like event just prior to the race. She was later diagnosed with a brain tumor and spent the ensuing months battling through surgery and radiation treatments.

That time was hard on William. He wasn’t told what had happened until after the race. But upon its completion, his life was turned on its head.

“My heart just stopped,” Byron said, describing when he learned his mother’s diagnosis. “I was just like, ‘Man, I couldn’t deal with the emotion of that.’ It was hard to process.

“I’d say the next few days after that, I didn’t think about racing at all. It was all about what was going on.”

Byron kept competing in the weeks that followed, putting together a strong regular season campaign that saw him enter the playoffs as a dark horse for the title. Along the way he checked in on his mother, who continued to fight and improve.

One year later, at the same track where the whole ordeal started, Byron put together his most dominant performance to date. The 24-year-old led 212 of 403 laps and earned his second win in a single season for the first time.

He did it all with Dana atop the No. 24 team’s pit box.

“This one is for my mom,” he said.

 

Coulda’, Woulda’, Shoulda’

Austin Dillon thought he’d placed himself in prime position.

Starting back in 23rd, Dillon had been one of the few drivers able to march their way forward on a tricky night for passing at Martinsville. The 2018 Daytona 500 winner rose to second in the final stage and then seemed poised to steal his first win of the 2022 season and lock in a playoff berth when a caution forced overtime to decide a winner.

Knowing it could take contact and a good run on the inside lane, Dillon elected to slot in behind Byron on the inside line in third for the final restart. But when the green flag flew, Dillon spun his tires and faded too far back to make a move.

“I was supposed to stay with Byron through the gears (and) I didn’t,” Dillon said afterward. “I had to worry about the No. 45 Kurt Busch. I was spinning the tires too much so I was kind of defensive through there.”

That opened the door for Joey Logano. The Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum winner was third before the final caution. He’d taken the outside lane on the front row when Dillon elected to take the inside of the second row.

Dillon’s slow start allowed Logano to slot in second off of Turn 2 on the penultimate lap. He followed Byron off of Turn 4 and, sensing his opportunity, gave the Hendrick Motorsports ace a bump heading into Turn 1 of the white flag lap. But the hit wasn’t enough. Byron held onto the car, turned back down and gave Logano a small brake-check before gassing up to power down the backstretch – a move Logano acknowledged as the right decision.

The race was done from there. Byron cruised to the finish, too far out for Logano to hit with a final lunge in the last turns. Logano settled for second, with Dillon taking the checkered flag in third.

“You’ve got to punt them a little bit harder with this car, it seems like, but it was all I could do to get to him,” Logano said afterward. “That was kind of the tough part — his car was superior to mine into the corner for sure.

“That’s where the Hendrick cars have been strong all year; they get into the corner harder than anybody. So, it was all I could do to get to him. Getting to him and bumping him, and me trying to make the turn, it’s just all too much and I couldn’t quite get it done.”

Dillon was left to wonder what could have been after his last restart went awry.

“It sucks (to be) so close to having a shot at winning,” Dillon said. “I had it played out in my mind to get through the gears, get to Turn 1, and shove (Byron) up the track, and I minimized mistakes all night but I didn’t do a very good job on that last restart.”

 

Notes

  • William Byron keeps upping his personal bar for laps led in a race. He’s set new personal bests three times in the past four races, leading 111 laps at Atlanta, 122 at Richmond and 212 on Saturday in Martinsville.
  • Denny Hamlin has enjoyed great success over his career at Martinsville Speedway, but none of it’s come lately. Hamlin is winless at the track since 2015 and has finished 24th or worse in three of his past five trips to the track.
  • Chase Elliott remains winless in 2022, but he did score two stage wins and take back the points lead from Ryan Blaney by three points after his 10th-place run.
  • Ross Chastain has five top-fives in the opening eight races of the 2022 campaign, two more than he had in his career before this season. Saturday marked Chastain’s first top-five on a short track.
  • Aric Almirola just keeps being consistent. He tallied his fourth top-10 in eight races on Saturday, pulling the Floridian within one of the five he totaled in a disappointing 2021 campaign. If he can hold the 12.4 average finish he’s enjoyed to date, Almirola will end his full-time Cup career with his best season statistically.
  • Phoenix Raceway winner Chase Briscoe scored his third top-10 with a ninth-place run at Martinsville, matching the total from his rookie year in 2021. Briscoe’s 15.0 average finish is nearly five positions better than the 19.6 he ended 2021 with.

Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 Results

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

Stage 1

  1. Chase Elliott
  2. William Byron
  3. Cole Custer
  4. Christopher Bell
  5. Aric Almirola
  6. Kevin Harvick
  7. Ryan Blaney
  8. Joey Logano
  9. Austin Cindric
  10. Kurt Busch

Stage 2

  1. Chase Elliott
  2. William Byron
  3. Joey Logano
  4. Ryan Blaney
  5. Cole Custer
  6. Austin Dillon
  7. Aric Almirola
  8. Austin Cindric
  9. Christopher Bell
  10. Kevin Harvick

Next Up: NASCAR’s lone dirt race weekend for the Cup Series at Bristol Motor Speedway.

NASCAR Xfinity Series 

Just about every car in this photo was caught up in a crash during the first NASCAR overtime. (Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

Race: Call 811 Before You Dig 250

Track: Martinsville Speedway

Who Won? 

Brandon Jones. He snuck by the dominant Ty Gibbs on the final lap to score an unexpected Martinsville win.

Recap

Top Stories

Teenage Tussle

Fans erupted in cheers as Brandon Jones hopped out of his No. 19 Toyota and celebrated with his Joe Gibbs Racing team after his victory in Friday’s Call 811 Before You Dig 250. 

But many of them weren’t watching him. They had their eyes on the scene enveloping behind him on pit lane. 

In the final lap of the race, dominant leader Ty Gibbs found himself shuffled out of the top-five in a battle with Sam Mayer. The pair continued the fight on pit road, trading barbs and shoves before brawling in the midst of various officials and crew members. 

Feet away from them stood AJ Allmendinger, preparing to celebrate a $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus. 

He earned it at the pair’s expense. 

Gibbs won the opening stages and proved unstoppable until the second overtime period on Friday. But the young star lost the bottom on the white flag lap and surrendered the lead to Jones. 

That placed him in second, with Mayer right with him in third. The pair were each eligible for the Dash 4 Cash based on their runs in Richmond, which meant they were competing for something more significant than a second-place result. 

They ended up in a three-wide battle with Landon Cassill in the final corners. Competing for limited real estate, the trio all collided at the exit of Turn 4. 

Cassill emerged in second. Mayer drifted up the track, but held on to fifth. Gibbs got the worst of the ordeal, slamming the wall and dropping to eighth. 

Gibbs tailed Mayer over the cool down lap and onto pit road. He quickly climbed out of his No. 18 Toyota and walked toward Mayer’s No. 1 Chevrolet. 

The pair first engaged in a tense conversation as Mayer took off his helmet. Gibbs then shoved the Wisconsinite and started to walk away. But Mayer followed him. 

They kept talking. Both drivers exchanged shoves. Moments later came a right hand from Gibbs, and the fight was on. 

It was a brief kerfuffle, the duo each surrounded by a group of people that quickly broke up the fight. One of them, a NASCAR official, was injured in the melee and loaded into an ambulance via a stretcher. NASCAR confirmed that he was released from the care center, saying he would be evaluated by doctors in the days ahead. 

Mayer was taken to the infield care center afterward with a cut on hie forehead, while Gibbs gave a quick interview to a cascade of boos from the Martinsville crowd. 

Both drivers were then called to the NASCAR hauler, where they met with series officials for about 10 minutes. Mayer walked out of it first, with Gibbs emerging a few seconds later. 

Gibbs explained what led to him throwing punches afterward, also noting that he was in the process of unhooking his HANS device to remove his helmet when the shoving set him off. 

“I was going to go up and talk to Sam,” Gibbs said afterward. “I was just frustrated. We led the whole thing and got drove in the fence, which is understandable – everybody is racing hard at the end of the day. Congrats to the 19 team and Brandon (Jones) for the win. We had a great car. 

He admitted to being “frustrated” after their run-in. “I was like, ‘What are you doing?,’ he said. “When we got drove in the fence. We were kind of shoved a little bit and I turned away. 

“When I got grabbed and kind of pulled, that just led up to that moment. It just built up, built up, built up and I snapped and that’s just part of it. Hopefully, I learn from it.”

NASCAR.com caught up with Mayer, who said his sole goal in the final lap was the $100,000 bonus. 

“That restart, (Jones) pushed us both up the race track. So at that point, the race win was out of my hands,” Mayer said. “So I had the $100,000 in my sights, and I was gonna do what I had to do to try to get back. Yeah, I put the bumper to him. 

“That was like, in my opinion we talked in the (NASCAR) trailer and it was just a clean bump-and-run, and (Cassill) kind of stuck it in there, kind of got us both crossed up, and that’s … where it kind of went to crap. 

“But like I just talked to (Gibbs), he came back over, he was upset and just decided to throw a couple punches, but it’s fine by me. We talked about it. We’ll be good going forward, especially at Talladega (next series race on April 23). That’s a place where you don’t want to be enemies, so we’re gonna move on and be A-OK, keep our head down and go out try to get a win next week or next time.”

 

A Big Win for Brandon

Brandon Jones knew what he might have to do. 

One week after seeing teammates Gibbs and John Hunter Nemechek trade paint for the win in a bump-and-run finish at Richmond Raceway, Jones found himself in position to challenge Gibbs in a similar short-track situation at Martinsville. 

With the precedent set, everyone knew that contact might be coming. Crew chief Jeff Meendering even joked to the FOX Sports broadcast team that he should “just wreck him.” 

Jones wasn’t sure what he would do, but he ultimately didn’t need major contact to win. The Georgian slid under Gibbs on the final lap after the young star gave up the bottom and snuck right past him for his first victory since 2020. 

He’d given Gibbs a shot on the restart, but the pass itself was actually clean – particularly compared to the madhouse behind Jones as he powered on to the win. 

While drivers on pit road traded their frustrations, Jones hugged his crew and contemplated where to put the grandfather clock he’d just won. He has a spot in mind, having “acquired a pretty awesome barn” in the past couple months. Dale Earnhardt Jr. later swung by victory lane and gave him some tips about maintenance for Martinsville’s iconic trophy. 

“We were talking about (Dale Earnhardt Sr.)’s trophies and how many clocks he has, what it takes to maintain them,” Jones said afterward, “I didn’t realize how much time you have to rewind them and keep up with them.” 

Friday’s win was a big one for Jones, erasing a winless streak that dated back to 2020 and locking him into the Xfinity Series playoffs. He’d entered 

“We came into this weekend just wanting points, so it didn’t really tee us up to win the race,” Jones said. “It ended up working out in our favor with the cautions and the way everything worked out. But the (No.) 54 probably was truthfully set up a little better to win the race with the way the pit cycles worked and everything. 

“Now I think we can do a little bit more of that kind of stuff. If we have to short-pit some stages to make up for it at the very end, that’s going to be helpful and key in our season.”

Jones might not be more aggressive in chasing wins everywhere. He was quick to point out that the Dash 4 Cash bonus will be a major concern at Talladega Superspeedway. But with a win under his belt, Jones hopes to start chasing more trophies ahead of the playoffs. 

“I think that this is only the first of many,” Jones said of the win. “It’s still really early.” 

 

Dale Returns

While one of his JR Motorsports driver (Mayer) traded fists ahead of him on pit road, Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared cold ones with a few of his fellow competitors. 

The two-time Daytona 500 winner and NBC Sports analyst made his one Xfinity Series start of the year in Friday’s race, continuing a tradition that’s gone on since his retirement from full-time Cup Series competition at the end of the 2017 season. 

He’d promised online beforehand that he’d share a drink with any driver that wished to do so if he made it to the checkered flag. 

His race weekend wasn’t an easy one, but in the end Earnhardt did just that.

Earnhardt started deep in the field, narrowly missing out on a DNQ with a 30th-place qualifying effort. He quietly marched forward in the opening stage, then rose into the top-five with a strategy play after pitting during a caution prior to the end of Stage 1 and then staying out as others pitted during the stage break. 

From that point on Earnhardt was a fixture of the top-10. He spent the rest of the day battling everyone from Gibbs to teammates including Noah Gragson and Justin Allgaier. 

It wasn’t all smooth sailing, though. Earnhardt made contact with his own driver in Josh Berry during Stage 3, resulting in a cut tire for Berry that trapped him deep in the field. 

Berry later paid him back, albeit unintentionally. After the field stacked up up on a late restart, a deep lunge from Berry and Jeremy Clements led them to clatter into Earnhardt’s No. 88 Chevrolet, sending him for a brief spin that elicited another caution. 

Earnhardt was mired deep in the field by the spin, but was able to skirt past the track-blocking melee on the ensuing restart to rise back up to 13th. He gained two more spots on the final two-lap run to come home in 11th. 

From there the celebration was on. Earnhardt lived up to his promise, trading beer, debriefs, memories and even an autography with many Xfinity Series regulars. 

They were happy to oblige him. It’s not every day that you can race and hang out with a NASCAR Hall of Famer. 

 

 

 

 

 

Track-Filling Pileup

The wreck that allowed Earnhardt to sneak back into the top-15 looked more akin to the track’s last-chance race for the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 than a NASCAR Xfinity Series event. 

Friday’s race had already been one filled with cautions and calamity. It was red-flagged just as engines had fired for a brief rain shoer. There were 16 cautions, the third most in series history at the Virginia short track. 

So perhaps it should have been expected that calamity would arrived in the first overtime attempt. But few would have foreseen just how much mayhem would ensure. 

On an overtime restart taking place on Lap 251, Mayer was on the outside lane in second when he spun his tires. That stacked the outside lane up, leading fourth-place AJ Allmendinger to make contact with Mayer’s rear-bumper. 

It sent the rookie sliding down into third-place Noah Gragson, who was hoping to clear Mayer for second. Gragson then spun up the track, kicking off a massive pileup that featured at least 15 cars among the wreckage. 

Jeb Burton, Brandon Brown and Masson Massey were knocked out in the crash. Others like Justin Allgaier continued on, but did so with heavy damage that hampered their finishes. 

The accident set the field up for the contact-heavy finish that followed. 

Notes

  • AJ Allmendinger just keeps packing on the top-10s. He’s up to eight in a row to kick of 2022, easily leading the field in the stat.
  • Has Sam Mayer found his form? JR Motorsports’ youngest star used a methodical drive to rise into contention. Hidden by his pit road kerfuffle was Mayer’s third-straight top-five result.
  • While he didn’t bring home the win in the end, Ty Gibbs did set a new personal best for laps led in a race by pacing 194 laps at Martinsville.
  • Jesse Iwuji Motorsports earned its best finish to date with Kyle Weatherman on Friday, coming home a solid 16th.
  • Jeremy Clements finally avoided the cartoon anvil on Friday, dodging most of the chaos for his first top-10 of 2022.
  • What do you make of Austin Hill’s first Xfinity Series campaign so far? He’s a race winner at Daytona International Speedway and has four top-fives, but also has a quartet of finishes outside of the top-15.
  • We all have to start somewhere: Stefan Parsons led his first (five) laps on Friday night.

Alsco Uniforms 300 Results

  1. Brandon Jones
  2. Landon Cassill
  3. AJ Allmendinger
  4. Austin Hill
  5. Sam Mayer
  6. Riley Herbst
  7. Ryan Truex
  8. Ty Gibbs
  9. Ryan Sieg
  10. Jeremy Clements
  11. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
  12. Parker Retzlaff
  13. Daniel Hemric
  14. Anthony Alfredo
  15. Alex Labbe
  16. Kyle Weatherman
  17. Bayley Currey
  18. Matt Mills
  19. Josh Berry
  20. Noah Gragsob
  21. Derek Griffith
  22. Jade Buford
  23. David Starr
  24. Myatt Snider
  25. Ryan Vargas
  26. Joe Graf Jr.
  27. Shane Lee
  28. Stefan Parsons
  29. Justin Allgaier
  30. Sheldon Creed
  31. JJ Yeley
  32. Jeb Burton
  33. Mason Massey
  34. Brandon Brown
  35. Natalie Decker
  36. Howie DiSavino III
  37. Brett Moffitt
  38. Brennan Poole

Stage 1

  1. Ty Gibbs
  2. Justin Allgaier
  3. Ryan Truex
  4. Landon Cassill
  5. Daniel Hemric
  6. AJ Allmendinger
  7. Brandon Jones
  8. Josh Berry
  9. Sam Mayer
  10. Sheldon Creed

Stage 2

  1. Brandon Jones
  2. Landon Cassill
  3. Ryan Sieg
  4. Brandon Brown
  5. David Starr
  6. Anthony Alfredo
  7. Stefan Parsons
  8. Jeremy Clements
  9. Riley Herbst
  10. Shane Lee

Next Up:  A rare off weekend ahead of a trip to Talladega Superspeedway.

NASCAR Truck Series 

Before his Cup win on Saturday, William Byron stole the show in Thursday’s Camping World Truck Series race. (Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography) 

Race: Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 200

Track: Martinsville Speedway

Who Won? 

William Byron, for the first time in the series since his seven-win 2016 campaign.

Recap

Top Stories

Byron Runs it Back

It felt like 2016 all over again. 

Making just his second Camping World Truck Series start since the seven-win 2016 season that kicked off his eventual rise to the Cup Series, Byron rose from deep in the field to dominate the final stage and win Thursday’s Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 200. 

It was his first win at Martinsville, leaving Byron in search of a spot to place the grandfather clock. The result also marked Spire Motorsports’ first victory in the Truck Series. 

“Thanks to Spire, all the guys back at their shop,” Byron said afterward. “They don’t have a lot of guys, but they do it right, obviously. It was fun to work with (crew chief Bono Manion), have a little help from (Cup crew chief Rudy Fugle). Obviously, he knows the Trucks really well.” 

Byron’s route to victory wasn’t a simple one. With qualifying rained out, he started back in 32nd. That made the opening stage a lesson in patience as Byron and his No. 7 team waited for their opportunity to move forward. 

A spat of early cautions left him concerned that he’d never get an opportunity to move forward. 

“I was fine for the first 10 laps,” Byron said. “Then we had that long caution and I started to panic. I was like ‘man, I’m way far back. If we’re going to run this many cautions, how am I going to get to the front?’

But in the end the cautions actually worked to his advantage. Manion elected to bring Byron to pit road when a caution flew late in Stage 1. He then stayed out on the stage break and overtook everyone that stayed out to prioritize stage points. 

That lifted Byron into the top-10. A similar strategy play in Stage 2 while Byron continued to move forward ultimately placed him in the lead. 

He never looked back from there, marching on to victory. 

Thursday’s start was the continuation of a trend of competing in non-Cup races for Byron this year. His first Cup win of 2022 at Atlanta Motor Speedway came just a day after a late model win at Hickory Motor Speedway. 

Byron is running a pair of races at Berlin Raceway and was announced for his dirt late model debut in Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson’s Late Model Challenge at Volunteer Speedway on April 14. 

“I’m just having fun,” Byron said of the starts. “I don’t think I realized how little I was racing. I was obviously racing on Sundays, but Sundays is a lot of pressure. It’s nice to kind of go back. 

“It’s all about the people, though. If I wasn’t around great people, I don’t know if I’d have as much fun. I think (it helps) being around Bono, (Mike) Greci, then on the late model side with Bond (Suss). People that I’ve known in the past and I respect what they do and the way the they work. I think it makes it fun to work with those people. 

“On the dirt late model side of things, I know some people over there. It’s going to be fun to work with Mike (Nuchols) and those guys over at Warrior Chassis. I don’t know what I’m doing over there, but the test I did seemed pretty good. So I’ve just gotta see what happens.” 

 

Heeeeere’s Johnny

Johnny Sauter scored his first top-two run since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in Thursday’s Blu Emu Maximum Pain Relief 200. 

He couldn’t help but wonder what he could have done different to come home one spot higher. 

“To come here, get no practice and start shotgun on the field and end up second, That’s a solid day,” Sauter said. “But I know (sic), the group of guys that are working on this truck, I know what they’re capable of. And second is just not good enough.”

The 2016 Camping World Truck Series champion made just his second start of the year at Martinsville Speedway, starting 36th in a part-time return for ThorSport Racing nearly two months removed from a disappointing run in the season opener with G2G Racing. 

Sauter is among the Truck Series’ longest tenured drivers, with 313 starts dating back to the 2003 season. Along the way he’s earned 24 wins, 115 top-fives and 185 top-10s. 

Success like that can make for a fun career. But over the past two years Sauter had struggled. He finished 13th and 12th in the standings, led only 115 combined laps and rarely contended. 

That made his Truck Series efforts feel more like a slog and it showed. Sauter’s few moments in the spotlight typically came after spicy radio messages and contact. Both parties stepped back heading into 2022, deciding to run “six to eight” races together, pairing Sauter with longtime Matt Crafton crew chief Junior Joiner and “kind of just cherry picked the racetracks that I like, and maybe one or two that (spotter Bud Haefele) and Joiner like.” 

The pairing’s first race together wasn’t easy. Qualifying was rained out, forcing Sauter to start at the tail of the field. He had to patiently march forward while trying to avoid the myriad accidents that occurred in the pack. 

Sauter wasn’t entirely successful. He noted a couple times in the race where he “thought I was getting wrecked,” and also made some mistakes in traffic. The most notable was a run-in with Hailie Deegan, when Sauter slid up into her truck on corner exit and shoved Deegan into the outside wall. 

“I just got a little bit loose coming off the corner and then ran into her,” he admitted. “So that was bad on me. I just came up, we got a little bit of tank slap and got into her. That was not cool.” 

But through strategy and a spirited drive forward, Sauter rose into contention. He reached second in the final stage and ultimately split Cup Series stars William Byron and Kyle Busch at the front of the field. 

With the pairing’s first race done, Sauter will continue to work on his various plans for the year. That includes some short track starts. 

“I’ll do my own super late model stuff up in Wisconsin,” Sauter told Motorsports Beat. “Hopefully sooner rather than later. I’m having a hard time getting parts right now and I’m building a brand new car, but hope to have it out here shortly. 

“That’s always just been fun for me. And I got a group of buddies that I grew up with that. You know, we go race and have fun, My son’s racing now too, Bandolero stuff, so I just want to have fun with it.” 

The one-time champ will also keep an eye out for future Truck Series starts with ThorSport. The group hasn’t put an exact number to their plans, but Sauter hopes it’s “more than less. 

“It’s just fun to be with guys that really want to get it done.” 

 

Big Picture Racing for Ben Rhodes

Defending Truck Series champion Ben Rhodes had his eye on the big picture during Thursday’s race at Martinsville Speedway. He fears to may have cost him a trip to victory lane. 

“I had a feeling if we weren’t racing for points tonight, we probably could be doing burnouts right now,” Rhodes said afterward. “Our truck was certainly fast enough to do that.” 

Rhodes is off to a strong start in his championship defense, holding the points lead with four top-five finishes in the opening five races of the season. That’s half the amount he managed in the entirety of his 2021 title campaign. 

The only thing that’s eluded Rhodes thus far in 2022 is a trip to victory lane. He hoped to make it happen on Thursday, but focusing on stage points trapped the Kentuckian in the pack and forced him to march through the field in the final stage. 

He marched back inside of the top-five, but Rhodes felt he didn’t have enough tires to make the final step into winning contention. 

“I felt like I kind of burned my stuff up,” Rhodes admitted. “I didn’t have a truck to make the runs, but I had a truck to try to create the runs, I just couldn’t follow through with them like I wanted to and because of that I was using up my tires using up my brakes.

“By the time I got to fifth, I just didn’t have enough to make the extra step any further through the field.” 

Thursday’s run also came with added remorse. Rhodes had two separate run-ins with teammates, pool-shotting Christian Eckes into Stewart Friesen at one stage and then unintentionally roughing up Matt Crafton on a restart. 

Both (Eckes) and the 52 (Friesen) got checked up coming off of (Turn) 2,” Rhodes said of the first accident. “(I had) a run and I wasn’t sure at that time how much of a gap I had behind me. But the lesson that I’ve learned in Martinsville is you either eat or be eaten – you either take the runs or somebody’s going to take it on you. 

“So I took the run, and I just wasn’t a big fan of the block all the way to the inside. … I didn’t think it was wise, it leads to bad situations and obviously the 52 getting spun out by that is like the worst situation so I feel really bad about it. 

The second incident with Crafton was one Rhodes blamed himself entirely for. 

“I had a huge run on one of the restarts and I go to pull out because I’m like ‘oh we’re past the start finish line. I’m gonna make a move,’ because I had a huge run,” Rhodes said. “(But) I wasn’t to the start-finish line, so I let out of the gas. I pulled back in trying not to get a penalty and I just I just plum ran out of talent, ran right to the back of him (Crafton).

“I know the body shop’s probably really mad at me so I need to go to the shop and kind of smooth that one over.” 

 

Notes

  • John Hunter Nemechek has ambitions to win multiple races. But after a difficult start to 2022, a pair of top-fives isn’t a terrible result. “We’re here to win races,” he said. “But our goal right now is to continue to try and run up, run and be a contender. Just be there just in case something were to happen between the leaders and have a shot to win it.” 
  • Kyle Busch had a rare quiet night in his third Truck Series start of 2022. He finished third, but led just one lap and couldn’t find a way into contention late. He’s winless in his past four series starts. Believe it or not, that’s his longest Truck winless streak since 2013. 
  • Zane Smith led 55 laps and showed strong pace from pole in Martinsville, but found himself mired deep in the field by a speeding penalty after Stage 2. Seeing little opportunity to march forward late, Smith’s team gambled on a late stop for tire and salvaged a ninth-place run. 
  • Dean Thompson’s rookie campaign is off to an inauspicious start. The Niece Motorsports newcomer’s had three DNFs including one for brakes and electrical woes on Thursday. He’s completed just 291 of 621 possible laps (46.9%) and sits 30th in points after five races. The one race without any issues ended a solid 11th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but Thompson’s had little opportunity to excel otherwise thus far. 
  • Jack Wood’s right there with Thompson in the poor results department. The GMS Racing rookie has four DNFs in five starts thus far, with his lone finish a 13th-place effort at Atlanta Motor Speedway. 
  • There were a fleet of newcomers in Thursday’s race. Chase Janes (25th), Blake Lothian (28th), Dillon Steuer (32nd) and Kaden Honeycutt (34th) all made their series debuts in the event.
  • Lawless Alan overcame a spin to score a 20th-place finish at Martinsville. But it doesn’t look like he made a friend out of Hailie Deegan along the way. 

Production Alliance 300 Results

  1. William Byron
  2. Johnny Sauter
  3. Kyle Busch
  4. John H. Nemechek
  5. Ben Rhodes
  6. Chandler Smith
  7. Matt Crafton
  8. Grant Enfinger
  9. Zane Smith
  10. Tyler Ankrum
  11. Ty Majeski
  12. Christian Eckes
  13. Stewart Friesen
  14. Derek Kraus
  15. Matt DiBenedetto
  16. Parker Kligerman
  17. Carson Hocevar
  18. Colby Howard
  19. Hailie Deegan
  20. Lawless Alan
  21. Tanner Gray
  22. Tate Fogleman
  23. Timmy Hill
  24. Bret Holmes
  25. Chase Janes
  26. Taylor Gray
  27. Jesse Little
  28. Blake Lothian
  29. Chase Purdy
  30. Kris Wright
  31. Austin Wayne Self
  32. Dillon Steuer
  33. Spencer Boyd
  34. Kaden Honeycutt
  35. Jack Wood
  36. Dean Thompson

Stage 1

  1. Zane Smith
  2. Stewart Friesen
  3. Ben Rhodes
  4. John Hunter Nemechek
  5. Grant Enfinger
  6. Christian Eckes
  7. Derek Kraus
  8. Tanner Gray
  9. Chase Purdy
  10. Tyler Ankrum

Stage 2

  1. Ben Rhodes
  2. Christian Eckes
  3. Carson Hocevar
  4. Zane Smith
  5. John Hunter Nemechek
  6. Ty Majeski
  7. Matt DiBenedetto
  8. Parker Kligerman
  9. Grant Enfinger
  10. Taylor Gray

Next Up:  The first of two dirt races for the 2022 season at Bristol Motor Speedway.

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