TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE
STP 500
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
MARTINSVILLE, VIRGINIA
MARCH 24, 2019
BOWTIE BULLETS
LEADER OF THE PACK:
Chevrolet has gone to Victory Lane more than any other manufacturer at the oldest track on the circuit, Martinsville Speedway. Since 1949, the Bowtie Brand has captured 56 of the 140 races at the .526-mile, paper-clip-style venue. Buck Baker took Chevrolet to Winner’s Circle for the first time in 1957 piloting the famous ‘Black Widow’ – a car based off the Chevy 150 Utility Sedan. Since then seven other iconic Chevy brands (Bel Air, Biscayne, Impala, Monte Carlo, Lumina, Impala SS and SS) have entered the hallowed ground of Winner’s Circle at Martinsville adding to the long tradition of racing.
TENTH TIME:
Jimmie Johnson pilot of the No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 is a nine-time winner at Martinsville Speedway, and leads all active drivers in wins at the popular Virginia track. A tenth victory would put Johnson ahead of former Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon, and place him third on the all-time Martinsville wins chart. Only Richard Petty (15) and Darrell Waltrip (11) have more victories than the seven-time series champion at the half-mile venue.
STRONG TIES:
Rick Hendrick and Hendrick Motorsports have more victories than any other organization at Martinsville Speedway. Hendrick Motorsports earned their first victory at the half-mile venue in 1984 with Geoff Bodine behind the wheel of a Chevrolet. Since that day, Hendrick Motorsports has gone on to record 23 more victories at Martinsville Speedway – all under the Chevrolet Banner. 2019 marks the 36th year of partnership between Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports, the longest running partnership at the organization.
TUNE-IN:
The STP 500 is scheduled to begin on Sunday, March 24th at 2 pm, ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, MRN, and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
BY THE NUMBERS:
Chevrolet has won 39 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Manufacturer Championships
Team Chevy drivers have scored 779 wins and 701 poles in MENCS competition
Chevrolet drivers have won 56 of 140 races at Martinsville Speedway. Victories by current Team Chevy drivers are:
Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s for Pros Camaro ZL1, has nine victories at Martinsville Speedway (’04, ’06, ’07 – TWICE, ’08, ’09, ’12, ’13 & ‘16)
Kurt Busch No. 1 Camaro ZL1, has visited Victory Lane at Martinsville Speedway twice (’02 & ’14)
A Chevrolet driver has sat on the pole at Martinsville Speedway 54 times
Team Chevy drivers have scored 259 top-five and 488 top-10 finishes at Martinsville Speedway
A Chevrolet has led laps 27,303 (of 63,607 possible laps) at Martinsville Speedway
QUOTABLE QUOTES:
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 – 8th IN STANDINGS: “Martinsville is a track where I still feel like I struggle quite a bit. I seem to usually be pretty good during practice and qualifying, but then have a tough time in the race. It’s a track where I’ve worked, and continue to work, really hard to get better, so hopefully some of that effort will start to show this weekend. For guys who grew up stock car racing, I don’t think this track is that unusual, but for a sprint car guy a short track with tight, flat corners is pretty different. In spite of some mistakes on our end and some bad luck, we’ve had a decent start to the season and are in a good spot in the points, so I’m hoping for a good weekend where we can maintain in the standings and have a solid race. This is a key race come the playoffs, so to go there this weekend and get better and learn some things would be great.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – 12th IN STANDINGS: “It’s short track racing which I enjoy, very different from most of the short tracks that I’ve visited over the years, but it’s a challenge. It’s not a place that I feel like has clicked very well with me, so we have put a lot of effort into trying to run better there and I put a lot of effort into trying to run better there. I like that challenge.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 – 14th IN STANDINGS: “I showed-up at Hendrick with cars and set-ups that just did everything you wanted them to. Rules packages have changed quite a bit since then. And, we’ve just lost our advantage. When I look at our problems in the last couple of years, we’ve said a lot about aero and think that aero is a big piece of it and I don’t disagree. In fact, I don’t know what it really is. When we go to a track where mechanical grip matter, like Martinsville, and we don’t run well, it is mechanical grip too. So, times change. We’ve got to re-think things and re-build things. We’ve put a lot of effort in and it’s just frustrating to not get the results as quick as we want, but we’ll head their optimistic once again and with a lot of new stuff on the cars and see if it works.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE PET INSURANCE CAMARO ZL1 – 16th IN STANDINGS: MARTINSVILLE WAS A STRONG TRACK FOR YOU LAST SEASON. ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK THERE? DO YOU THINK THE TRACK WILL CHANGE AT ALL WITH THE NEW PACKAGE?
“It will just be faster with more downforce. It will be interesting. We were really strong there in the spring and just kind of struggled there in the fall. Hopefully, we can figure out where we went wrong and get back to running well there.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 – 19th IN STANDINGS: MARTINSVILLE HAS NOT BEEN KIND ON ROOKIES, YOURSELF INCLUDED. HAVE YOU LEANED ON YOUR TEAMMATES A LOT TO UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU NEED TO GET AROUND THAT TRACK? “Yeah, that is a tough race track. It’s very challenging, but I feel like a lot of the same things that work at any other short track are going to work there. So, I’m trying to work on those things and hopefully, when we get there, we will have a better idea. I think we had some bright spots in the fall we just had a wreck on pit road and that blew the brake ducts out of the car so we didn’t have any brakes, but other than that we had some solid points of the race, so I’m looking forward to it.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW COATINGS CAMARO ZL1 – 20th IN STANDINGS: HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT SHORT TRACKS LIKE MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY? “I love going to Martinsville Speedway. It’s an hour away from my house, so it feels like home. Anytime you can get to a short track and beat and bang and really work on those hard-braking corners you feel like you got a chance so I can’t wait to get there. Our cars have had speed this year, and I’m really looking forward to going to the flat paperclip that is Martinsville with Danny Stockman and the No. 3 team. We’re all racers at heart so we love short track racing.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 – 22nd IN STANDINGS: “Short tracks have always suited my driving style. It seems like we always perform well at those tracks, especially in the past couple of years. As we continue to build up our program at Germain Racing, some of our strongest results have come from short tracks and superspeedways. So, we want to go to those places and capitalize every time. We had a good short-track run at Phoenix, and that’s given us a lot of momentum and excitement heading to Martinsville. Our GEICO Camaro ZL1 was up in the top 15 all day during our last race at Martinsville, and I think we’re capable of another strong run.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 KROGER FLAVOR FILL UP CAMARO ZL1 – 22nd IN STANDINGS: OF ALL THE TRACKS ON THE SCHEDULE DO YOU THINK MARTINSVILLE MIGHT BE THE ONLY ONE THAT DOESN’T CHANGE WITH THIS NEW PACKAGE?
“It is still going to change. Aero matters. Little bits matter and we took a pretty large swing at it from the downforce side, so the thing I always heard is people talking about… even going back to Legend car racing, is how aero dynamics don’t matter. Run a windshield or a screen it doesn’t matter, well, take a license plate and stick it out the window against your hand at 45 mph, I promise everything matters. So, Martinsville, we are going over 45 mph, we are going to take all we can get and use that advantage. It won’t change as much as most. I think Bristol is the other one that won’t change quite as much, it will be fast at Bristol, but I think Martinsville is going to be a good time. I like having more power back.”
DANIEL HEMRIC, NO. 8 LIBERTY NATIONAL CAMARO ZL1 – 27TH IN STANDINGS: “It is pretty cool to go back short-track racing this weekend, plus to do it at Martinsville. I remember going to Martinsville as a kid to watch a lot of short track races, just being a fan. Outside of Charlotte Motor Speedway, I would consider Martinsville my home track. It is also a place I haven’t raced at since 2016 in the Truck Series. There has been a little bit of a drought there, so I am looking forward to getting there on Saturday and jumping all in. My crew chief Luke Lambert and all of the guys on this No. 8 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet team all really enjoy Martinsville, so hopefully we can hit on the balance and have a good weekend. I’m just excited to go back short-track racing.”
RYAN PREECE, NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 – 28th IN STANDINGS: HOW EXCITED ARE YOU TO GET TO MARTINSVILLE THE FIRST SHORT TRACK OF THE SEASON?
“Well I’ve won at Martinsville, actually my first modified tour win came at Martinsville so I’m excited to get back there. The atmosphere you get when you go to a place like Martinsville, Bristol, Richmond, it’s just such an electrifying feeling you get. To have everybody that close to you and usually pretty full, packed grandstands. I enjoy the heavy on the brake, get on the gas quicker than other guys. It’s going to be one of those places I have circled on my calendar.”
DARRELL ‘BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 XXX CAMARO ZL1 – 30th IN STANDINGS: WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT RACING AT MARTINSVILLE?
“That is just a short track feel, heavy braking and I’ve over stepped my boundaries there on the Cup side and we have been fast there though. Something about that place clicks. When you show up and you have all the confidence in the world. It’s a track I look forward to most on the schedule. Mostly because of the two wins we have there in the Truck Series. But, new package, I’m not sure how it’s going to race. All these tracks we are going to are unknowns now.”