Qualifying will take on a double story line at Martinsville, not just for the handful of drivers that need to make the show, but for the top competitors who want a decent chance for a good finish or to win the race. Sunday’s race will actually begin on Friday. Barring circumstances on the track when you see single digits in the driver’s starting position column, you also see a lot of single digits in their finishing column as well.

Pit Selection This is an important element at just about any track with the advantage being able to choose a stall that’s easy in or out, but none more than at the close confines of Martinsville. Being among the fortunate drivers that get a choice of the few desired pit stalls can equate to good fortune throughout the race.

Having the first pit stall allows the driver an easy exit, avoiding pit road contact and possible damage to the race car. In addition to the first stall, a few others have openings on one side or the other that gives the drivers more room to maneuver in out of their box. With only about five stalls considered to be an advantage over the rest you can bet that the top qualifiers will be the ones to take advantage of getting their pick. Because of this fact, the struggling teams and the go or go-homers will be up against the top teams pulling out all of the stops in order to put down a good qualifying lap. This will place the rest that do make the show to the back of the pack as well as being relegated to whatever pit box they get adding even more frustration to their efforts.

Track Position. It’s so difficult to pass at Martinsville that track position may be the most valuable asset a team can have. In addition, the advantage of starting up front at the drop of the green flag is paramount to staying out of the brawl that will develop from about position 10 back. It’s also easier to keep the fenders on your car and preserve your brakes when you are the one setting the pace. At Martinsville it’s almost easier to “ride” and log laps while leading as it is at the back of the pack at other tracks.

Pit Strategy During cautions that occur fairly soon into a run there will always be a group of cars that will gamble on staying out or taking just two tires just to get track position. There are an incredible amount of lead changes that occur simultaneously with cautions at Martinsville just for this reason, almost more than you will see on the track. Tires are important there, but sometimes not as much as track position. Playing with pit strategy will pay off if another caution comes out within a specific range and everyone else pits so that the teams that gambled can get back on sequence with the rest of the field. If there happens to be an uncharacteristic 50-60 lap run it can backfire big on the teams that rolled the dice. Usually the only time that the leader is safe not to get shuffled back because of pit strategy is after a long green flag run or the even more rare green flag stops.

An extra element to pit strategy. It always adds to the excitement on the track when you have 43 cars running on the half mile “paperclip” on various pit strategies, a mix of old & new tires, lap traffic and one line racing. Last year at Martinsville there were 13 cautions and 21 cars on the lead lap at its conclusion. There will be plenty of “Luck Dogs” to ensure the racing is as tight as Pit Road throughout the entire race. On re-starts with the lap down cars getting the preferred line at the bottom, the saying of cautions breed cautions will definitely come into play. The leaders will have to drive hard into turn one on re-starts to try to clear the lap cars and some will not give up the position easily.