2023-04-16 20:31:59
The NASCAR Cup Series‘ April schedule continues Sunday with the NOCO 400 at Martinsville Speedway, and we’ve got you covered with all the action from start to finish, exclusively on FS1 and the FOX Sports App!
Sunday’s race is made up of 400 laps around a 0.526-mile short track. Drivers will face a unique challenge at this track, which has a unique racing surface with asphalt on the straightaways and concrete in the turns.
Ryan Preece’s No. 41 Ford is on the pole Sunday after a strong day of qualifying for Stewart-Haas Racing on Saturday landed all four of its drivers in the top seven — Aric Almirola (third), Chase Briscoe (fourth) and Kevin Harvick (seventh).
Chase Elliott is back in action after a six-race absence due to a broken leg kept him out of the driver’s seat since late February. Josh Berry is on standby as a relief driver in the event that Elliott can’t finish his first race back from injury.
In the event of inclement weather, Sunday’s race will be considered official at Lap 180 — the end of Stage 2.
Here are the top moments!
Green!
Preece cleared Daniel Suárez from the inside line to lead the opening lap as things got underway in Ridgeway, Virginia.
Bumper cars
There was a bit of early contact between Austin Cindric and Erik Jones, but it wasn’t detrimental to either driver.
Meanwhile, Preece opened up his lead to over a second on Suárez, while Elliott made little progress since starting 24th.
Heating up
Elsewhere, Chase Briscoe took the fifth spot away from Martin Truex Jr., while Tyler Reddick began to catch up to Suárez and Almirola, who had fallen back to roughly 1.1 seconds behind Preece.
In the end, Preece led every lap en route to the Stage 1 win — the first stage win of his career.
Almirola, Reddick, Suárez and Briscoe rounded out the top five in the opening stage, which went entirely caution-free.
Close call!
Preece was this close to making a very costly mistake under caution, as he almost came to pit road a lap before the pits were open. He redirected and avoided a major blunder, and the green flag was back out at Lap 92.
Meanwhile, Almirola started to close the gap on Preece for the lead, which was just over half a second.
Around he goes!
The caution came out after Harrison Burton took a spin in Turn 2.
Follow the leader
The first lead change of the day came at Lap 136, when Ross Chastain overtook Preece, who had led all 135 laps prior.
Then, Preece was penalized for speeding on pit road, along with Truex and Bubba Wallace.
All-out effort
The green flag returned with 38 laps to go in Stage 2, as Ryan Blaney and Michael McDowell traded blows on the track. Meanwhile, there was a good bit of back-and-forth going on between Almirola and Suárez.
Late in the second stage, Harvick ran down Chastain for the lead, while Preece was buried back way in traffic.
Stay tuned for updates!
Setting the stage
Ahead of the action, FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass broke down what and who to look out for Sunday.
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