RIDGEWAY, Va. — Report by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman — Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images for NASCAR photo —
Coming into the race weekend, reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Kyle Busch was 0-for-30 in his national series career at Martinsville Speedway.
Following Sunday’s STP 500, however, Busch found himself leaving with two of the track’s famed Ridgeway clock trophies — marking a sweep of the weekend and his first Sprint Cup win of the 2016 season.
While the driver of the No. 18 M&Ms 75th Anniversary Toyota led 352 of the race’s 500 laps, he had to fend off a determined and hungry A.J. Allmendinger over an 11-lap dash to the checkered flag before celebrating his 35th career premier series victory on the frontstretch.
Busch circled his win in Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race as a key to his prowess and prominence throughout the day on Sunday.
“I’d say it really helps (on Sundays) when you get to run other divisions, and that’s why I do it,” Busch said of his record fifth-career Truck/Cup weekend sweep. “It doesn’t work every single weekend but it works more often than it doesn’t. Huge thanks to Kyle Busch Motorsports for giving me a good piece to learn some more things about Martinsville that I didn’t already know in 30 prior starts here.”
“To win here at Martinsville is pretty cool,” Busch added. “A lot of people say I didn’t deserve yesterday’s (clock) — and maybe I didn’t — but be got one today and that’s what counts.”
Busch added that the clincher in his closing drive was quick pit work by his crew to get him out first, allowing him to restart on the bottom lane for the race-deciding green flag and work past teammate Matt Kenseth en route to the win.
“That was the key to the race, was being able to restart on the bottom. … With 10 to go, we decided as a group that it was pretty much off-limits (and teammates didn’t matter anymore) … so when it was 12 to go (for the last restart) that was right on the brink. Sorry Matt, but it did work out alright for us in the end.”
Despite six cautions in the first 80 percent of the race, the proceedings were largely dominated by Busch, Kenseth and Stewart Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick — who combined to lead all but 31 laps on the entire day.
By the time the final hundred laps came calling, the trio was running in the top three positions — Busch, Kenseth and Harvick — with just a second and a half separating them as each fought to be the one taking home one of Martinsville’s historic Grandfather clocks.
(Matt Hazlett/Getty Images for NASCAR photo)
Busch led the way with Kenseth lurking just five car lengths back all the way, but coming to 71 laps to go, 2012 Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski’s Ford looked poised to spoil the top three’s party. He rolled comfortably around Harvick for third with 72 laps remaining and quickly closed the gap between he and second-running Kenseth to just over a second as the lap count dwindled to 50 to go.
That juncture would allow Kenseth to close right up to the back bumper of Busch in the battle for the lead, and the 2003 champion dogged his teammate until the seventh yellow flag of the day flew with 44 laps to go for Regan Smith, who crashed into the turn two wall with a tire and transmission failure aboard the No. 7 APC Chevrolet.
That sent the leaders onto pit road and set up a restart with 34 laps to go that saw sheet metal bent and tempers run short. The chaos began when Keselowski gave a shot to Kenseth in turn one that stacked up the field, sending Johnson into Keselowski from behind and A.J. Allmendinger around both of them into third as Kenseth dogged Busch for the lead up front.
Kenseth would close rapidly on Busch inside of 30 to go, getting all the way to his teammate’s back bumper and setting up the pass for the lead just as the caution flew with 17 circuits left for a stopped Jamie McMurray, who spun with a shredded left rear tire on his No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.
That allowed a final swath of pit service for all but eight drivers on the lead lap, and gave Allmendinger a chance on the bottom from third. On the final restart, the No. 47 Kroger Chevrolet bulled his way forward behind Busch and forced Kenseth high as both drivers fought for room. Allmendinger finally cleared Kenseth a half-lap later and set his sights on Busch for the win.
While the Los Gatos, Calif. driver got to within five car lengths of Busch for the win, he didn’t have enough to get to the back bumper of the Joe Gibbs Racing veteran and settled for a hard-fought and well-earned runner-up.
“I passed Jimmie Johnson five times at Martinsville. That’s pretty cool,” Allmendinger smiled. “And I even had a shot at Kyle Busch today, and that’s really all you can ask for on a day like this.”
“I’m trying my butt off. I didn’t like myself last year. I didn’t like who I was for the team. I was frustrated and I want to be better for these guys. These are guys that, when they step up, they make me better. I’m trying to be different, but I’m not doing a lot of different stuff — they’re just building me a lot better race cars. Everybody back at the shop, who are putting all those 80-hour weeks in, I hope you understand how important it is because you’re making it happen. I wish we had one more spot today, but that was pretty darn cool.”
Kyle Larson made it two top-five efforts on the weekend, following up a fourth-place finish in the Truck Series on Saturday by rounding out the Sunday podium in his No. 42 Target Chevrolet for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Austin Dillon grabbed a strong fourth after being outside the top 10 most of the day, and Brad Keselowski rebounded from a lap 95 pit road speeding penalty to complete the top five.
Carl Edwards spent nearly the whole race a lap down, but rallied to sixth ahead of Brian Vickers, Paul Menard, Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman in the top 10.
Logano ended up 11th after his pole start, while Ryan Blaney was the highest finishing rookie in 19th.
Pre-race favorite Denny Hamlin was eliminated on lap 221 in a hard crash, where he wheel-hopped over the curb entering the corner and smashed the outside wall.
The five-time Martinsville winner, who finished 39th in the 40-car field, called the incident “embarassing” after climbing from his No. 11 FedEx Toyota.
“I just drove it a little too deep into the corner,” he admitted. “I hate it because we had a fast car in the 20 laps before that happened — one that I thought could have contended for the win later on.”
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returns to action on April 9 for the Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Two-time season winner Johnson is the defending winner of the race.
RESULTS: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series; STP 500; Martinsville Speedway; April 3, 2016
- Kyle Busch
- A.J. Allmendinger
- Kyle Larson
- Austin Dillon
- Brad Keselowski
- Austin Dillon
- Brian Vickers
- Paul Menard
- Jimmie Johnson
- Ryan Newman
- Joey Logano
- Greg Biffle
- Kurt Busch
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Matt Kenseth
- Danica Patrick
- Kevin Harvick
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Ryan Blaney
- Chase Elliott
- David Ragan
- Kasey Kahne
- Jamie McMurray
- Michael McDowell
- Clint Bowyer
- Brian Scott
- Trevor Bayne
- Landon Cassill
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Cole Whitt
- Casey Mears
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Chris Buescher
- Regan Smith
- Michael Annett
- Joey Gase
- Reed Sorenson
- Josh Wise
- Denny Hamlin
- Aric Almirola
About the Writer
Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network. Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.
The 22-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
Email Jacob at: [email protected]
Follow on Twitter: @Speed77Radio or @JacobSeelman77
Email Race Chaser Online: [email protected]
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