Newman at Martinsville Speedway
· Newman returns to Martinsville this weekend, the site of one of his 18 Cup Series victories, for his 39th NCS event at the 1-mile track. In 38 races, Newman has an average finish of 14.8 with 17 top-10s, including eight finishes inside the top five.
· Newman won the spring race back in 2012, leading the final 12 laps after starting fifth. He’s completed nearly 98 percent of all the laps at ‘The Paperclip,’ and finished in the top-10 for 45 percent of his starts.
· Newman’s other top finishes include a runner-up result in 2007 and two third-place finishes (2004, 2014). Most recently, Newman finished 12th in last season’s spring event, and 18th in the fall.
Newman in Modified Race Thursday
· Prior to hopping in his Cup car Saturday night, Newman will run in Thursday night’s NASCAR Modified Tour season opener, the first visit to ‘The Paperclip’ for the series since 2010.
· Only nine of the drivers who competed in that race are on the entry list for the return. Newman and Ryan Preece tested at Martinsville a few weeks back in a modified, and join a stacked field of 40 cars on the entry list.
· Newman has 28 NWMT starts all-time, including 20 at Loudon and eight at Bristol. He has four NWMT wins and 11 top-10s in the series.
Scott Graves at Martinsville Speedway
· Graves will call his 10th Cup event at Martinsville this weekend, where he has an average finish of 20.4, but is coming off two top-12 finishes with Newman. The duo ran 10th in the 2019 fall race and backed that up with a 12th-place finish last spring.
· Prior to 2019, Graves had a top finish of 15th, which came in 2017.
QUOTE WORTHY
Newman on racing at Martinsville:
“Our short track program has been a major focus for our shop the last few weeks, and it’ll be in full display the next couple weeks. A lot goes into being successful at Martinsville, especially with the brakes and simply keeping your best stuff for late in the race. We were solid in two of the last three events up there, so our hope is to keep the momentum we do have and put together a good day in our Guaranteed Rate Ford.”
Last Time Out
Newman earned his best finish on the young season in the Bristol Dirt race two weeks ago, picking up stage points in each of the opening two segments before finishing fifth.
Where They Rank
Newman is 19th in the points standings entering the eighth race of 2021.
On the Car
Guaranteed Rate returns to the No. 6 machine for its second points event of 2021.
RFR PR
