Martinsville Speedway is a stock car racing short track in Ridgeway, Virginia, just south of Martinsville. The track was also one of the first paved oval tracks in stock car racing, being built in 1947 by partners H. Clay Earles, Henry Lawrence, and Sam Rice, nearly a year before NASCAR was officially formed.[2] It is also the only race track that has been on the NASCAR circuit from its beginning in 1948. Along with this, Martinsville is the only oval track on the NASCAR circuit to have asphalt surfaces on the straightaways and concrete to cover the turns. At 0.526 miles (847 m) in length, it is the shortest track in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. It is owned by International Speedway Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of NASCAR.
Entry list
(R) denotes rookie driver.
(i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.
The first practice session was held on Friday, October 30, at 1:00 PM EST, and would last for 55 minutes.[3]Timothy Peters, driving for Red Horse Racing, would set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 19.721, and an average speed of 96.020 mph (154.529 km/h).[4]
The final practice session was held on Friday, October 30, at 2:30 PM EST, and would last for 1 hour and 20 minutes.[3]Timothy Peters, driving for Red Horse Racing, would set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 19.708, and an average speed of 96.083 mph (154.631 km/h).[5]
Qualifying was held on Saturday, October 31, at 10:15 AM EST.[3] The qualifying system used is a multi car, multi lap, three round system where in the first round, everyone would set a time to determine positions 25–32. Then, the fastest 24 qualifiers would move on to the second round to determine positions 13–24. Lastly, the fastest 12 qualifiers would move on to the third round to determine positions 1–12.[6]
Cole Custer, driving for JR Motorsports, would win the pole after advancing from the preliminary rounds and setting the fastest time in Round 3, with a lap of 19.530, and an average speed of 96.959 mph (156.040 km/h).[7]
