MARTINSVILLE, Va. — A year after William Byron capped the 40th anniversary of Hendrick Motorsports’ first NASCAR Cup Series victory with a win of his own at Martinsville Speedway, the winningest organization in NASCAR history will look to keep the good times rolling on Sunday in the Cook Out 400.
Following Kyle Larson’s win at Homestead-Miami Speedway last Sunday, HMS is nearing the 41st anniversary of Geoff Bodine’s 1984 Martinsville win that kept the doors open and led to Rick Hendrick’s team becoming the greatest in NASCAR history.
All four of Hendrick’s drivers — Larson, Byron, Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman — have at least one Martinsville victory on their respective resumes, with Byron winning twice at the Paperclip in the last six Martinsville races.
It’s far from a foregone conclusion that a Hendrick Chevy will come across the line first on Sunday, however. The biggest threat to the four-car HMS stable may very well be 2023 Cup Series champion and two-time Martinsville winner Ryan Blaney, who has won the last two fall races at the half-mile oval.
Team Penske’s Blaney boasts a career average finish of 8.3 at Martinsville, and hasn’t finished worse than 11th since 2018. After an engine failure forced Blaney — who led 124 laps and won Stage 1 in the Straight Talk Wireless 400 — behind the wall late in the race at Homestead, he’d like nothing more than to enact revenge at a track that statistically is one of his best. His Penske teammate Joey Logano — a winner at Martinsville in the fall of 2018 — also can’t be counted out.
Nor can the Penske-affiliated Wood Brothers with driver Josh Berry, who earned his first NASCAR win in the Xfinity Series race at Martinsville in the spring of 2021.
While Hendrick Motorsports and Team Penske have both put together legendary Martinsville resumes, Joe Gibbs Racing can never be counted out. Denny Hamlin has the most Martinsville wins (five) of all active Cup Series drivers, while Christopher Bell won at Martinsville in the fall of 2022.
Bell won the pole for Sunday’s race in Saturday’s qualifying session, while Elliott will start beside him on the front row. 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace was the fastest driver in practice on Saturday afternoon.
Three-time Martinsville winner Martin Truex Jr. is no longer behind the wheel of Gibbs’ No. 19, but Chase Briscoe appears to be a suitable replacement. In the six Martinsville races with NASCAR’s Next-Gen car, Briscoe hasn’t finished worse than 15th in a stretch that includes five top-10 finishes and four top-five results. Briscoe led 109 laps at Martinsville in the spring of 2023.
Through six races in the 2025 season, the Cup Series has seen a relatively low level of parity. Four drivers — Berry, Byron, Larson and three-time winner Bell — have found victory lane this season, and 10 of the drivers currently inside the top-16 in the standings race out of the Gibbs, Hendrick or Penske shop.
Historically, Martinsville doesn’t pander to parity, either. It’s a track where champions and legends are often those standing in victory lane, and a track where one mistake can quickly become multiple. Cool brakes and cooler heads prevail at Martinsville, and underdog stories don’t usually play out into the latter stages of races.
In that aspect, Martinsville could be compared to the two tracks it’s sandwiched between in the early portion of the 2025 schedule — the preceding race at Homestead-Miami Speedway and the succeeding race at Darlington Raceway, two tracks that also see veterans and champions rise to the occasion.
When the pay window opens at Martinsville on Sunday afternoon, don’t be surprised if the cast of characters up front is comprised of drivers that currently reside in the top-10 in the standings or those that have a champion’s patch sewn onto their firesuit. Martinsville is one of the toughest tracks on the circuit for a reason, and it’s a venue that has earned its reputation as one where only the greatest earn a coveted grandfather clock.
–Samuel Stubbs, Field Level Media
