Cup Series Short Track Package Hits Martinsville

     Even though I have never been to this historic half mile race track, I can smell the hot dogs cooking now. It’s Martinsville weekend and it’s a jammed packed weekend as well. We have all three of the top NASCAR Touring series here with the NASCAR Cup, Xfinity, and Craftsman truck series, yet we have one glaring concern that continues to fluctuate over time with this being a short track.

    This track is known and  for its beating and banging. Late race contact and battles for the win, sometimes even side by side. Events in the past fans went to the track anticipating an absolute show, but lately the focus has shifted to can the race be a good short track race with the Cup car. The gen 7 car since its debut season hasn’t produced the best racing at short tracks and probably the biggest sign of that has been the races at martinsville speedway. While in 2022 the track was the host of the Hail Mellon move by Ross Chastain on the verge of elimination, that was the only racing memory from that season at the track. 2023 the package improved but work still needs to be done. This will also be the next test of the NASCAR short track package that debuted this year at Phoenix.

       Fans know they can expect a lot of what martinsville is known for with its beating and banging with the Xfinity and Truck series but lately the Cup race while better hasn’t produced the beating and banging aspect that many want. The main reason I believe for this is because the cars are still built like tanks as this past fall I saw more beating and banging but it seemed unless you absolutely sent a guy who would then spin the guy in front of him, that method wasn’t the best. 

   The topic has also been how can NASCAR eliminate shifting at short tracks and I think without a doubt this weekend will be the greatest test as to if this package is working or not. Phoenix I think is too fast and big, Bristol had the tire issue, and Richmond I honestly believe would’ve ran better if it were a day race. So now we have Martinsville and 400 laps ahead of us to see how the package goes.

    Now I ask of you, tell me what you think will transpire on Sunday as far as the racing package. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Daytona 500 Review

Another Daytona 500 is in the books and this one had a bit of everything. NASCAR’s Super Bowl was scheduled to start an hour early due to rain but due to some pre race festivities, the race got off to a later than desired start. A few rain delays later, we were able to see what we all tuned in Sunday for. 500 miles of high octane racing, and from start to finish you didn’t know what to expect. However what started as a day of highs ended in a day of frustration for many. Let’s look into it. The race was moved up an hour due to rain, and was scheduled to start however due to a guest appearance by the President of the United States Donald Trump, the race start was delayed. After his pre race festivities ended Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric led the field to green. The urgency level immediately looked high with rain in the area, but it wasn’t for long as the 1st caution of the race fell on lap 11 due to rain. The cars were brought down pit road where they sat and waited out the hours of ...
Read more

Cookout Clash Review

Well, the weekend has came and went for the first “unofficial” week of the 2025 NASCAR season and if anything it gave us a pleasant preview of what’s to come this season, which is intense racing. Coming into the weekend I didn’t know what to expect out of Bowman Gray stadium but the place put on a show Sunday evening. There was passing, bump and runs, tempers flaring, drivers even making the outside line work, and a fan favorite in victory lane to cap off the event. Let’s get into what all happened during the Cookout Clash. The night started off with an eventful LCQ that saw Ty Dillion and Zane smith lead the field to the green of the 75 lap race. The two were side by side until Ty gave a bump to Zane smith to move on by. Shortly after Ty Gibbs was able to get to the inside and pass Ty Dillion for the win, immediately followed by contact between Austin Dillion and Ty Dillion. So much for being brothers. In the mist of the chaos Kyle Larson was able to pass multiple cars to move u...
Read more

Another Crossroads

Yesterdays race at Kansas Speedway was suppose to be a breath of fresh air as the race track has been looked at as one of the better tracks or maybe even the best track in the Next Gen era. The car races well, there’s multiple grooves, the tires wear decently and there’s strategy at times. The restarts can be chaotic which leads to cautions breed cautions moments as well so there’s something honestly for every fan to enjoy. However at least on social media, the discourse wasn’t too thrilled about the race. The discourse really didn’t like the fact that it didn’t seem like much passing towards the front of the field as they would have liked which is understandable, but also a lot of concern about the grandstands which also had people wondering if Kansas should go to one race instead of 2. This is also the 4th race in a row where the discourse hasn’t been pleased about the Cup series product as of late. Let’s take a closer look. Ever since the Next Gen car debuted in 2022 the racing on t...
Read more