During a six-year period after the turn of the century, Hendrick Motorsports owned Martinsville Speedway, at least where competition on the track was concerned.
Jeff Gordon won both 2003 races at the 0.526-mile short track from the pole, embarking on a dominant run during which he and Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson would take the checkered flag in 10 of 13 races.
Hendrick Motorsports will celebrate its 40th anniversary at Martinsville this weekend, with team owner Rick Hendrick serving as honorary pace car driver and Gordon and 1984 Martinsville winner Geoff Bodine performing Grand Marshal duties for Sunday’s Cook Out 400 (3 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
It was Bodine’s victory in the eighth race of the 1984 season that kept Hendrick in business. Including that triumph, the organization has accumulated 28 wins at the historic short track, a record for team victories at a single venue.
In recent years, however, Hendrick has been forced to share the Martinsville spotlight with Joe Gibbs Racing. In the fall race of 2009, Denny Hamlin started his own streak of three straight victories at the venerable facility.
In the nine most recent Martinsville races, Hendrick and Gibbs drivers have won four each, the only exception being NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney’s victory for Team Penske in last year’s Playoff race.
Though the four recent Hendrick wins are evenly divided among four drivers — Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, William Byron and defending spring race winner Kyle Larson —Martin Truex Jr. has accounted for most of JGR’s success with three victories to one for teammate Christopher Bell.
Starting with the fall race of 2019, Truex won three of four events at Martinsville. He comes to Sunday’s race after suffering a heart-wrenching loss last Sunday at Richmond, where a late caution gave Hamlin a chance to steal the win.
In 2022, Truex struggled at Martinsville—and elsewhere—in the Next Gen Cup car introduced into the Cup Series that year. Since then, his fortunes have improved dramatically.
“Definitely high confidence going into Martinsville compared to the first year of this car,” said Truex, who led 228 laps at Richmond before finishing fourth after an overtime restart. “To be able to go run like we did at Richmond, it gives me a lot of confidence going forward that our Martinsville stuff should be good.
“I love going there. It’s been a really good track for us over the years, aside from the first year of the Next Gen.”
Note: Given the clear advantages of securing pit stall No. 1, it’s surprising that no Cup driver has won a Martinsville race from the pole position since Johnson accomplished the feat in the spring race of 2013.
Hamlin, who leads active drivers with five wins at the paper-clip-shaped track, is the only driver in Sunday’s race who has won at Martinsville from the pole (2010).
Source: Reid Spencer | NASCAR Wire Service
