The Cup Series will compete once again on a short track, but this time the race will be under the lights at Martinsville. NASCAR always has higher TV ratings when the race is run on Sunday afternoons, but they knew going up against the final round of the Masters is not a smart a decision. So now we get a Saturday night short track race. If the aggressive driving we have seen in 2022 continues, NASCAR could promote this race as the “Martinsville Battle Royal” where the last car on the track wins the race. The Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 can be seen Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
DRIVER RANKINGS FOR MARTINSVILLE
Martinsville is one of the best tracks on the circuit. The racing is always exciting because the drivers not only need a fast car; they need a hot temper to make it to the front of the field. Drivers cannot be “Mr. Nice Guy” and expect to win a Martinsville. Chase Elliott learned that the hard way (from Denny Hamlin) in 2019. A simple attitude adjustment allowed Elliott to win at Martinsville in 2020 and finish second last year. “Payback is a bitch” is the theme of this race.
Selecting the fastest cars for our Fantasy NASCAR lineups is not tough at Martinsville because some drivers understand the rhythm it takes to get on and off the brakes to make fast laps at Martinsville better than others. Predicting which drivers will be moving their competitors out of the way and which drivers will get punted into the wall Saturday night is impossible. That makes this race tough to handicap for Fantasy NASCAR. All we can do is select our teams and hope our drivers do not piss anyone off during the race.
The Gen-7 car changed the game this year and it will affect the race Saturday night. The larger brakes will allow the drivers to stay on the gas pedal deeper into the corners. I still expect the drivers who have run well at Martinsville in the past to be up front this week. I used the data from the race at the L.A. Coliseum, the race last week at Richmond and the past six races at Martinsville for the driver rankings this week.
Here are my Driver Rankings for the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 …
| Driver |
| 1. Ryan Blaney |
| 2. Martin Truex Jr. |
| 3. Kyle Busch |
| 4. Joey Logano |
| 5. William Byron |
| 6. Chase Elliott |
| 7. Kyle Larson |
| 8. Denny Hamlin |
| 9. Christopher Bell |
| 10. Kevin Harvick |
| 11. Brad Keselowski |
| 12. Alex Bowman |
| 13. Tyler Reddick |
| 14. Ross Chastain |
| 15. Austin Dillon |
| 16. Eric Jones |
| 17. Kurt Busch |
| 18. AJ Allmendinger |
| 19. Aric Almirola |
| 20. Chris Buescher |
| 21. Daniel Suarez |
| 22. Justin Haley |
| 23. Bubba Wallace |
| 24. Chase Briscoe |
| 25. Ty Dillon |
| 26. Cole Custer |
| 27. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. |
| 28. Austin CIndric |
| 29. Harrison Burton |
| 30. Michael McDowell |
| 31. Todd Gilliland |
| 32. Corey LaJoie |
| 33. Cody Ware |
| 34. Josh Bilicki |
| 35. J.J. Yeley |
| 36. BJ Mcleod |
* These rankings will be updated after the final practice
Good Luck This Week!
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