Press Release

BACK
Martinsville 500 Race Report

04.03.16

Martinsville 500 Race Report

Date: April 3, 2016

Event: Martinsville 500 (Round 6 of 36)

Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

Location: Martinsville (Va.) Speedway (.526-mile oval)
Start/Finish: 28th/16th (Running, completed 500 of 500 laps)
Point Standing: 26th (97 points)
Winner: Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
 

Danica Patrick and the No. 10 TaxAct Chevrolet SS team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) ran as high as seventh in Sunday’s Martinsville 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, but handling issues relegated them to a 16th-place result.

Patrick started the race 28th and quickly started moving forward. She cracked the top-20 at lap 58 and 25 laps later was inside the top-15. Patrick noted throughout the first half of the race that the car was “loose in, loose off and tight in the center (of the corner).” Crew chief Billy Scott called for air-pressure and wedge adjustments to help improve the car’s handling.

The No. 10 TaxAct Chevy remained inside the top-20, but Patrick went a lap down at lap 211. The caution flag waved 10 laps later and she was the recipient of the free pass, which put the No. 10 team back on the lead lap in 16th.

At lap 314, after Patrick reported she needed the car to turn the center of the corner better, Scott called her to pit road for tires, fuel and a spring rubber, as well as air-pressure and wedge adjustments. On the subsequent run, Patrick rallied from 16th to 11th. When the team visited pit road again at lap 385, the team made another wedge adjustment. Once the field took the green flag, Patrick raced her way up to seventh.

As the run continued, the handling faded on the No. 10 TaxAct Chevrolet and Patrick radioed to the team that the car was “loose and out of the track.” She fell back to 16th before the caution flag waved again at lap 447.

The team made additional adjustments on the final two trips to pit road, but Patrick wasn’t able to make up any ground in the closing stages of the race and finished 16th. The result marked her best finish thus far in 2016.

“I feel like it was one of those typical Martinsville’s where there is a lot of bodywork damage,” Patrick said. “I look at everyone else’s car and there is, too. I think our biggest problem today was just we generally had some inconsistency with runs. We would have a good one, then a bad one. Luckily, we started the race off with a good 90 laps where we were really making a lot of progress the last half of it. It wasn’t taking off as well, and then we made some changes later on that helped that.

“In general, I thought we had a pretty solid day. We had a lot of contact with a lot of cars, but I feel like that is also fun to watch. It’s fun to watch as a fan and it makes it fun inside the car. You take matters into your own hands pretty easily here at Martinsville. It was, all-in-all, a pretty decent day for the TaxAct team. I was really hoping when we got inside the top-10 we would hold there, but that run it just went loose and that set of tires was a little different. It is what it is.”

Brian Vickers, interim driver of the No. 14 Janssen/Arnie’s Army Charitable Foundation Chevrolet SS for SHR as he subs for the injured Tony Stewart, led the four-car SHR contingent Sunday with a seventh-place finish. Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation/Monster Energy Chevrolet SS for SHR, finished 13th. Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS for SHR, finished 17th.

The victory in the Martinsville 500 was Kyle Busch’s 35th career Sprint Cup win, his first of the season and his first at Martinsville.

A.J. Allmendinger finished .663 of a second behind Kyle Busch in the runner-up spot, while Kyle Larson, Austin Dillon and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top-five. Carl Edwards, Vickers, Paul Menard, Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were eight caution periods for 51 laps, with three drivers failing to finish the 500-lap race.

With round six of 36 complete, Harvick leads SHR in the championship point standings. He remains first with 220 points, four ahead of second-place Johnson. Kurt Busch is eighth with 176 points, 44 out of first. Patrick is 26th with 97 points, 123 out of first. Vickers is 31st with 82 points, 138 out of first.

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Duck Commander 500 on Saturday, April 9 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. The race starts at 7:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX.