Roger Diez
Last Sunday night I was tempted to call the Richmond police to report a crime. Martin Truex Jr. was robbed! After a rare start on wet-weather tires, Truex led a race-high 228 laps and was poised to win. But with the white flag almost in sight, a Kyle Larson spin triggered a caution flag and an overtime restart. But Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin got the jump on the restart and went on take his second win of the season. Joey Logano was second, Larson third, and Truex, who had led a race-high 228 laps, finished fourth. He expressed his displeasure to Hamlin and Larson by hitting both on the cool-down lap. Nevertheless, Truex sits atop the points chart with 270, 14 points ahead of Larson and 18 clear of Hamlin.
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This weekend, it’s another short track, this time the Martinsville “paperclip,” so named because of its long straights and tight turns. Three teams have dominated the track since the introduction of the Gen 7 car: the Hendrick Chevys, Penske Fords, and Gibbs Toyotas. Ryan Blaney won last fall for Penske and Larson for Hendrick in the spring. Christopher Bell (Gibbs) and William Byron (Hendrick) won in 2022, and Alex Bowman (Hendrick) and Truex (Gibbs) won in 2021. Truex has won Martinsville three times overall, second only to Hamlin, who has five wins. But Hamlin’s last win was nine years ago, in 2015. Other Martinsville winners among active drivers are Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Logano, and Kyle Busch. There have also been seven different winners in the last seven Martinsville Cup races. Will we see an eighth tomorrow? The oddsmakers seem to think so, picking Hamlin at 9-2 to break his 9-year Martinsville drought. But Larson (11-2), Truex (15-2), Blaney (8-1), Bell (17-2), and Byron (12-1) are all recent winners. Logano (12-1) hasn’t won there since 2018, Keselowski (16-1) since 2018, and Elliott (18-1) since 2020. All three major NASCAR series are running this weekend, with the Craftsman Truck race Friday night. Cup qualifying airs today at 2:30 p.m. on FS2 with the DUDE Wipes 250 for Xfinity cars at 4:30 p.m. on FS1. Tomorrow’s Cookout 400 is on FS1 at noon.
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Formula 1 is in Japan this weekend for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. The series first ran there in 1976 and 1977 but then did not return until 1987. Since then, it has been a continuous event except for 2020 and 2021, when it was canceled due to Covid. The biggest winners in Japan have been McLaren with eight victories, Ferrari with seven, and Mercedes and Red Bull with six each. Max Verstappen has won both races since Covid with Mercedes winning the six previous rounds. Lewis Hamilton won four of those, plus one for McLaren. The 2024 season is shaping up to be a battle between Red Bull and Ferrari with McLaren a distant third. After three races, the points are close in both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships. Despite his DNF in Australia, Verstappen leads the drivers’ points with 51. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc has 47, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez 46, and Australian GP winner Carlos Sainz has 40. McLaren drivers are third and fourth with Oscar Piastri at 28 and Lando Norris 27. The constructors’ race is also very close, with Red Bull’s 97 to Ferrari’s 93. McLaren has 55 points and Mercedes just 26. Barring a repeat of Australia’s mechanical issues, I expect to see the Red Bull and Ferrari teams again battling for the podium positions. Due to the time zones and the International Date Line, qualifying aired Friday night and ESPN will broadcast the race itself Saturday at 10 p.m.