NASCAR: 5 drivers penalized ahead of Martinsville race
By Asher Fair
Five drivers have been penalized and will be sent to the rear of the field for the start of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway.
Following a weekend off for Easter, the NASCAR Cup Series is back at Martinsville Speedway this weekend for the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500, the first of two races at the track this year and the eighth of 36 races on the 2021 schedule.
Before this 500-lap race around the four-turn, 0.526-mile (0.847-kilometer) oval in Ridgeway, Virginia gets underway, however, five drivers are set to drop to the rear of the field as a result of pre-race penalties.
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Those five drivers are Trackhouse Racing Team’s Daniel Suarez, Richard Childress Racing’s Tyler Reddick, Spire Motorsports teammates Justin Haley and Corey LaJoie, and Rick Ware Racing’s James Davison.
They were slated to start in 11th, 13th, 30th, 34th and 37th place, respectively.
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The three drivers slated to start in the odd positions, Suarez, Reddick and Davison, will be forced to drop to the tail end of the inside lane while the drivers slated to start in the even positions, Haley and LaJoie, will be forced to drop to the tail end of the outside lane.
Suarez, who was also docked 10 points in the driver standings and whose crew chief Travis Mack was ejected, was penalized after his #99 Chevrolet was found to have added ballast outside of the approved container, which is a direct violation of section 20.17.2.1.b in the NASCAR Rule Book.
Reddick was penalized for unapproved adjustments to his #8 Chevrolet while the #77 Chevrolet of Haley, the #7 Chevrolet of LaJoie and the #15 Chevrolet of Davison all failed pre-race inspection multiple times. Davison was due to start in last place in the 37-car field anyway, so he simply won’t benefit from the penalties issued to the other drivers.
With the penalties factored in, here is the updated starting lineup for the 2021 Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway.
Starting Lineup
1st – Joey Logano
2nd – Denny Hamlin
3rd – William Byron
4th – Ryan Blaney
5th – Chase Elliott
6th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
7th – Martin Truex Jr.
8th – Ryan Newman
9th – Kevin Harvick
10th – Brad Keselowski
11th – Chris Buescher
12th – Kyle Busch
13th – Ryan Preece
14th – Michael McDowell
15th – Kyle Larson
16th – Erik Jones
17th – Kurt Busch
18th – Austin Dillon
19th – Christopher Bell
20th – Alex Bowman
21st – Bubba Wallace
22nd – Matt DiBenedetto
23rd – Ross Chastain
24th – Chase Briscoe
25th – Quin Houff
26th – Cole Custer
27th – Aric Almirola
28th – J.J. Yeley
29th – Josh Bilicki
30th – Cody Ware
31st – Anthony Alfredo
32nd – B.J. McLeod
33rd – Daniel Suarez
34th – Justin Haley
35th – Tyler Reddick
36th – Corey LaJoie
37th – James Davison
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Tune in to Fox Sports 1 at 7:30 p.m. ET this evening for the live broadcast of the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 from Martinsville Speedway.