Throughout the 2024 NASCAR season, Ken Martin, director of historical content for the sanctioning body, will offer his suggestions on which historical races fans should watch from the NASCAR Classics library in preparation for each upcoming race weekend.
Martin has worked exclusively for NASCAR since 2008 but has been involved with the sport since 1982, overseeing various projects. He has worked in the broadcast booth for hundreds of races, assisting the broadcast team with different tasks. This includes calculating the “points as they run” for the historic 1992 finale, the Hooters 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The following suggestions are Ken‘s picks to watch before this Sunday‘s Xfinity 500 at the Martinsville Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Oct. 24, 2004, will be a day forever remembered as one of the darkest days in NASCAR history.
An aircraft owned by Hendrick Motorsports crashed in Virginia, killing all ten passengers on board. Those who lost their lives included Rick Hendrick‘s son Ricky, team president John Hendrick and his two daughters, Jennifer and Kimberly, engine builder Randy Dorton, general manager Jeff Turner, DuPont‘s Joe Jackson and the pilot of the plane, Scott Lathram.
They were on the way to Martinsville Speedway to watch the race, but never made it to the track. Those at the track became aware of the situation as Jimmie Johnson won the race but did not go to Victory Lane because of the tragedy.
Fast forward to 2014 and the Cup Series arrived back at Martinsville on Oct. 24, 10 years to the day that the tragedy occurred.
Hendrick Motorsports was the most dominant team at the track since 2003, as Jeff Gordon won five races at the track and Johnson grabbed eight of his own. It seemed more than fitting if they could pull off another victory during a somber weekend for the organization, with those 10 who lost their lives fresh on everyone‘s minds.
The race also marked the first race of the final round of the playoffs, with a trip to Homestead to race for the championship on the line if any of the eight remaining playoff drivers could pull off a victory.
These drivers included Gordon, Ryan Newman, Joey Logano, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick.
Polesitter Jamie McMurray jumped out to an early lead and led the majority of the first 85 laps before Gordon found his way to the front.
He paced the field for the next 83 laps before the caution flag flew for a two-car incident.
As the race progressed, it seemed like Gordon had the fastest car but a handful of drivers also had strong cars capable of winning, including Logano, Hamlin, Bowyer and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Tony Stewart stayed out on the track as Gordon and Earnhardt Jr. came into the pits for tires under a red flag with 10 laps left.
Earnhardt Jr. powered his way to the front to lead the final four laps, holding off Gordon as the two Hendrick drivers delivered an emotional one-two finish for the organization. It was his first win at the track.
An emotional Earnhardt Jr. noted the tragedy in Victory Lane, talking about how he knows firsthand how hard times like those can be for a grieving family.
Newman, Stewart and Logano rounded out the remainder of the top five.
The highest of highs and the lowest of lows.
Martinsville marked the first race of the final round of the playoffs, as they all eyed the glory of being able to race for a championship at Homestead.
Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch and Joey Logano were the eight drivers remaining. Those drivers have all since been named as one of NASCAR‘s 75 Greatest Drivers in 2023 during NASCAR‘s 75th Anniversary season, making the race look even more iconic in retrospect.
The entire season seemed to belong to Logano and continued to go his way as the months progressed. He kicked off the season with a victory in the Daytona 500, while also winning at Watkins Glen and Bristol before the playoffs started.
A few solid runs over the first handful of playoff races kept Logano moving on to the next round but he really ignited when the series arrived at Charlotte.
He won the race at Charlotte and followed that up with wins at Kansas and Talladega before putting his No. 22 car on the pole at Martinsville.
His victory at Kansas came despite some late-race drama on the track between Matt Kenseth and himself, as Kenseth later claimed that it cost him a shot at racing for the championship.
Logano continued with his foot on the pedal at Martinsville, leading 207 laps before Kenseth exacted his revenge. Kenseth plowed into Logano‘s car heading into the turn, as Logano was still leading the race, destroying both of their cars in the process. This would eventually lead to a 37th-place finish for Logano and a two-race suspension for Kenseth.
This set up a late-race battle for the win, which was slowed by a handful of caution flags. The last of which set up a shootout for the win.
Gordon, who had already announced that the 2015 season would be the last of his legendary career, held off a hard-charging Jamie McMurray to capture his 93rd career victory and punch his ticket to race for a fifth Cup Series title at Homestead.
Ross Chastain never had it easy.
He made his NASCAR national series debut in 2011 in the Craftsman Truck Series, making five starts before going full-time for Bobby Dotter in 2012.
Chastain showed flashes of promise, including a third-place finish at Bristol and a seventh at Martinsville. This helped him land a part-time schedule with Brad Keselowski Racing for the 2013 season.
He made 14 starts and finished 10th or better in half of them, showing even more signs that the 20-year-old driver had a bright future if the stars could just simply align for the Alva, Florida driver.
Unfortunately, that was not the case. He landed a full-time ride for 2015 in the Xfinity Series for JD Motorsports and kept trucking away for the team through the 2017 season.
That same season he made his Cup Series debut for Jay Robinson, finishing an impressive 20th for the team.
He got his big break the following season, getting a chance to drive the No. 42 car for Chip Ganassi Racing in the Xfinity Series. He sat on the pole and led 90 laps at Darlington in his first start for the team but contact with Kevin Harvick eventually led to a 25th-place finish.
Two weeks later he won at Las Vegas, showing the world that despite the equipment he had up to that point in his career, he could be a winning driver.
Fast forward through full-time rides with Jay Robinson, Kaulig Racing and a few starts with Spire Motorsports and Roush Fenway Racing, Chastain had seemingly seen it all.
2021 finally seemed to be the year where everything aligned for Chastain as he captured a full-time ride with Ganassi for the Cup Series campaign.
He finished 20th in points but three top-five finishes and eight top-10s built momentum for the following season. That was until it happened again.
Ganassi shut down his team and sold the assets to the new Justin Marks and Pitbull partnership, dubbed Trackhouse Racing.
Chastain was eventually hired to drive their No. 1 car but the now 29-year-old driver was backed into another situation where he couldn‘t build off of a previous season and was starting with a fresh slate.
Somehow, it all seemed to click off the bat for the new team and driver.
After two struggling efforts at Daytona and Auto Club Speedway, Chastain finished third at Las Vegas and put together back-to-back second-place finishes the next two weeks at Phoenix and Atlanta. The following race at COTA saw Chastain capture the first victory of his Cup Series career, seemingly locking himself into the playoffs for the first time as well.
The playoffs saw Chastain make it through the first and second rounds, leaving him as one of the eight remaining drivers vying for a title at the end of the season in Phoenix.
The first two races of the round couldn‘t have gone much better for Chastain, as he finished second yet again at Las Vegas and at Homestead.
He arrived at Martinsville with his season on the line, needing a victory or enough points to move himself into position to race for the title and achieve all of his dreams.
As his chances of moving on looked slim to none as the final laps passed by, Chastain air-mailed his car into the turn, riding the wall all the way past the start/finish line. He passed Denny Hamlin in the process, leaving him with a fourth-place finish and knocking Hamlin out of the playoffs while putting himself in with one of the most clutch moments in NASCAR history.
The move, hailed the “Hail Melon” had the entire NASCAR community buzzing, as Chastain heroically put himself alongside Martinsville race winner Christopher Bell, Joey Logano and Chase Elliott in the Final 4.
Read the full article here