NASCAR could keep a rare streak alive at Martinsville

If an eighth different winner emerges in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season’s eighth race, it would mark the first time it has happened in nearly two decades.

For the second consecutive year, a NASCAR Cup Series season has opened up with seven different winners in the first seven races.

Team Penske rookie Austin Cindric earned his first career victory in the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway before Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman won at Auto Club Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway, respectively.

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe then earned the first victory of his career at Phoenix Raceway before Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron won at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Trackhouse Racing Team’s Ross Chastain then joined Cindric and Briscoe on the list of first-time winners this year, winning at Circuit of the Americas.

Most recently, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin scored his first top 12 finish of the season in the form of a trip to victory lane this past Sunday at Richmond Raceway.

But in 2021, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr., who won the season’s fourth race at Phoenix Raceway, became the season’s first two-time race winner, winning the eighth race at Martinsville Speedway to prevent an eighth different winner from emerging.

So for the second straight year, the Cup Series is set to enter the four-turn, 0.526-mile (0.847-kilometer) oval in Ridgeway, Virginia with a shot to see eight different winners in the first eight races, as “The Paperclip” is scheduled to host a race this Saturday night.

And if it happens, it would mark the first time it has happened since 2003.

In the 2003 season, the season actually opened with nine different winners in nine races. Kurt Busch became the first driver to win twice, winning the sixth race at Bristol Motor Speedway and then the 10th race at Auto Club Speedway.

The all-time record for different winners to start a season is 10 in 10 races, a record which was set back in the 2000 season. Dale Earnhardt Jr. become the first driver to win twice, winning the seventh race at Texas Motor Speedway and then the 11th race at Richmond Raceway.

Tune in to Fox Sports 1 this Saturday, April 9 for the live broadcast of the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 — not the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 — from Martinsville Speedway. This year, the spring race at the track is just a 400-lap race as opposed to a 500-lap race after an offseason change. Start your free trial of FuboTV now if you have not yet done so and don’t miss any of it!