NASCAR: Looking back at the last five Martinsville races

The NASCAR Cup Series makes its first trip of the year to Martinsville Speedway. What do the last five races at the track tell us about this year’s edition?

On Sunday, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series makes its first trip of 2018 to Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia for the STP 500. The Cup Series has been coming to this track since 1949, which means we have a long history here full of tough races and great performances. Today, though, we’re going to look at just the last five visits to Martinsville to see if we can learn anything about Sunday’s race from the recent results at the track.

Fall 2015

Has it really been that long? Jeff Gordon won the final race of his NASCAR career, leading 35 laps on his way to the win. This was also the race during which Matt Kenseth intentionally wrecked Joey Logano. Logano led 207 laps, but he finished 37th.

What’s interesting is that I was looking back at the race and at the comments on Racing Reference and the commenters were talking for days before the race about how Kenseth would probably wreck Logano. I was busy with some school stuff around that time in 2015 and was only catching Cup races via highlights, so I had never realized just how much that narrative was there in advance.

Also, Brad Keselowski led 143 laps but finished 32nd after getting into an incident with none other than Matt Kenseth!

Spring 2016

Kyle Busch won and A.J. Allmendinger finished second. Kevin Harvick led 72 laps but finished 17th. This race featured a really interesting top 10. In addition to Allmendinger, Austin Dillon, Brian Vickers, Paul Menard, and Ryan Newman wound up on that list. Four Childress or Childress-affiliated cars finished in the top 10!

Fall 2016

This race featured a much more normal finishing order, with the top five being race winner Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch. Joey Logano finished ninth. A.J. Allmendinger had another strong run and finished 10th.

Spring 2017

There was not really any surprise in the top two, as Brad Keselowski won and Kyle Busch finished second. Chase Elliott finished third. The Childress and JTG Daugherty cars ran well again, with top 11 runs for Austin Dillon, A.J. Allmendinger, Ryan Newman, and Chris Buescher. Denny Hamlin led 24 laps and finished 30th. Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. had strong cars, but both ended up outside the top 10.

Fall 2017

Our most recent trip to Martinsville ended with Kyle Busch in victory lane. Martin Truex Jr. finished second. Clint Bowyer, Brad Keselowski, and Kevin Harvick also had top five finishes. Disappointment was abound, though, as Chase Elliott and Joey Logano both looked like contenders for most of the race but had trouble late. Allmendinger wrecked early.