It was a long weekend from Martinsville. Rain and cautions were a huge factor in the weekend causing plenty of problems. The racing was intense. Plenty of tempers were lost during the weekend after the beating and banging of the old school short track racing from the Paperclip Martinsville Motor Speedway.
Short Saturday Stint
The race was initially scheduled to start at 7:30. Mother nature had other ideas as the race would be delayed. After the 1 hour 40 minute rain delay the night race at Martinsville began. The first caution of the night flew at lap 37 when James Davidson spun out and hit the wall. The spin was initiated when he made contact with Cody Ware. Sadly this caution was the last on track action of the night. On lap 42, the rain came back and NASCAR decided to push the race back to Sunday afternoon at 4pm.
Ryan Blaney Wins Stage 1 On Sunday
Not long after they went back green trouble would strike when Erik Jones made contact with Kurt Busch. Busch spun out in turn 4 but made no contact with anyone else. After the long first stage was all said and done Ryan Blaney won Stage 1. Finishing in second place was Denny Hamlin. In third place was his teammate Martin Truex Jr.
Ryan Blaney Wins Stage 2
With 20 laps remaining in stage two the caution flag flew when Cody Ware blew a tire and spun out. This caution saved Joey Logano as the leader Ryan Blaney was on the verge of lapping his teammate. Trouble with 10 laps remaining as Ryan Newman went sideways and hit Matt Dibenedetto in the right from fender. This brought out the caution. After an exciting battle for the stage win Ryan Blaney won his second stage of the day as he would look for the sweep at Martinsville.
Chaos Ensues In Final Stage
Trouble struck early was Justin Haley spun out in turn four. This brought out the yellow flag. The 10th caution of the race flew Anthony Alfredo made contact with Aric Almirola causing Alfredo to spin out. More trouble and Brad Keselowski spun out on the exit of turn number two. This brought out another caution. Yet another caution flew as Ryan Newman spun out in turn two bringing out the yellow flag. More chaos ensues as Brad Keselowski got into the back of Erik Jones causing Jones to spin and bring out another yellow.
Some green flag trouble was caused when William Byron got into the back of Daniel Suarez and put him into the wall. No caution was thrown. The big one has happened on the backstretch at Martinsville. This started when Kyle Busch and Chris Buescher made contact and both spun out with everyone behind them pilling up. The drivers involved was Matt Dibenidetto, Michael McDowell, Chris Buescher, Erik Jones, Cole Custer, Anthony Alfredo, Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Preece, James Davidson, Aric Almirola, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Brad Keselowski, Justin Haley and Cody Ware.
The chaos continues as the 15th caution of the day flew when Chase Briscoe spun out and hit the wall. After all the chaos of the Blue-EMU Max Pain Relief 500 Martin Truex Jr won at Martinsville. Finishing in second was last fall’s winner Chase Elliott. Denny Hamlin finished in 3rd place.
Outlook
This race was easily the most chaotic race at Martinsville in a long time. The racing was intense and the tempers of the drivers were through the roof. Next up for the NASCAR Cup Series will be another short track. They will stay in Virginia for the second week in the row when they head to Richmond next Sunday afternoon.
