The penultimate race of the 2026 NASCAR season is this weekend at Martinsville Speedway and Ford’s championship contenders in the Cup and Truck Series have their work cut out for them. Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney are in must-win scenarios after separate multi-car accidents took them out of Sunday’s Cup race at Talladega while Layne Riggs trails by 43 points in the NCTS battle.
THE SCHEDULE
- Friday, October 30 -- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, 6 p.m. ET (FS1)
- Sunday, November 1-- NASCAR Cup Series, 2 p.m. ET (NBC)
UP TO SPEED
PROUD TO HONOR
Driver pairings for the inaugural Veterans Day Classic on Nov. 11 at Daytona International Speedway were announced this week as the 12-driver Ford field was divided into six groups of two representing all six branches of the military. The drivers will compete in Ford Mustang Dark Horse Rs on the Daytona road course. Tickets can be purchased online at fordveteransdayclassic.com.
Veterans Day Classic Driver Lineup
- Army: Brad Keselowski and Joey Hand
- Navy: Ryan Preece and Logan Sargeant
- Air Force: Austin Cindric and Frankie Muniz
- Marines: Ryan Blaney and Ben Hobson
- Coast Guard: Joey Logano and Ty Majeski
- Space Force: Noah Gragson and Layne Riggs
FORD DRIVERS IN THE CHASE
- 5th – Joey Logano (-100 behind Kyle Larson)
- 6th – Ryan Blaney (-107)
- 8th – Austin Cindric (-183)
- 15th – Ryan Preece (-249)
- 16th – Chris Buescher (-255)
BLANEY LOOKING TO STAY ALIVE
Ryan Blaney has won two of the last three Martinsville playoff races and likely needs another in order to stay in championship contention. The 2023 series champion is 107 points behind leader Kyle Larson, but no track has been better to Blaney than this half-mile short track. Sunday will mark his 22nd career start at Martinsville and his 8.0 career average finish is the best of any track currently on the circuit (at least five starts). Further proof of his track consistency can be found in the fact he has finished 11th or better in 15 straight events, including the spring event earlier this season when he was sixth.
LOGANO LIKES MARTINSVILLE
Ford’s other playoff contender, Joey Logano is 100 points out of the lead and is also in a likely must-win scenario, but just like Blaney, he’s had a great deal of success at Martinsville Speedway. Logano’s average starting position of 8.3 ranks second among current tracks where he has made at least five starts with World Wide Technology Raceway being the only one that is better (7.8). And just like Blaney, he comes into Sunday’s race on a streak that has seen him post 14 consecutive top-10 finishes at the half-mile paperclip, including a third place effort in the spring.
BUESCHER TO MAKE 400TH CAREER CUP START
Chris Buescher will be making his 400th career NASCAR Cup Series start this weekend at Martinsville Speedway, a place where he has a pair of top 10 finishes in 22 starts. Buescher made his debut in 2015 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA, with Front Row Motorsports and finished 20th. Since then, he’s posted six victories, including a career-best three in 2023 when he won at Richmond, Michigan and Daytona. Buescher becomes the fourth active Ford driver to make that many starts, joining Joey Logano (649), Brad Keselowski (627) and Ryan Blaney (412).
A LOOK BACK
KESELOWSKI AND MARTINSVILLE
Brad Keselowski outdueled Kyle Busch down the stretch to win his first grandfather clock after capturing the STP 500 on Apr. 2, 2017. The two drivers waged a memorable battle that saw them swap the lead five times in the last 160 laps, but Keselowski ended up making the decisive pass on lap 458 and led the final 43 circuits to become the first repeat winner in 2017. Keselowski added a second clock in 2019 when he dominated the spring race, leading 446-of-500 laps including the final 127.
FORD DRIVERS IN THE CHASE
- 2nd – Layne Riggs (-43 behind leader Kaden Honeycutt)
- 3rd – Ty Majeski (-141)
- 4th – Chandler Smith (-142)
- 8th – Ben Rhodes (-203)
RIGGS AT MARTINSVILLE
Layne Riggs finds himself in need of a major points day this weekend at Martinsville Speedway as he sits 43 points behind leader Kaden Honeycutt with two races remaining. This will mark the fifth career NCTS start at Martinsville for Riggs, who sat on the pole and finished third at this event one year ago. He has started all four of his previous races inside the top 10 (4.0 average) while averaging an 8.8 finishing position.
MANUFACTURERS' RACE
Ford holds a 26-point lead over Toyota in the race for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series manufacturers' championship with two races remaining. Ford has won that title twice when it posted back-to-back 12-win seasons in 1999 and 2000. Greg Biffle was the driving force behind both of those titles as he won nine times in ‘99 and then provided owner Jack Roush with his first NASCAR championship in 2000.
PAST WINNERS
FORD NASCAR CUP SERIES WINNERS AT MARTINSVILLE
1961 – Fred Lorenzen (1)
1962 – Nelson Stacy (2)
1963 – Fred Lorenzen (2)
1964 – Fred Lorenzen (Sweep)
1965 – Fred Lorenzen and Junior Johnson
1966 – Fred Lorenzen (2)
1969 – Richard Petty (Sweep)
1986 – Ricky Rudd (1)
1990 – Geoffrey Bodine (Sweep)
1992 – Mark Martin and Geoffrey Bodine
1993 – Ernie Irvan (2)
1994 – Rusty Wallace (Sweep)
1995 – Rusty Wallace (1)
1996 – Rusty Wallace (1)
1997 – Jeff Burton (1)
1998 – Ricky Rudd (2)
2000 – Mark Martin (1)
2001 – Dale Jarrett and Ricky Craven
2002 – Kurt Busch (2)
2017 – Brad Keselowski (1)
2018 – Clint Bowyer and Joey Logano
2019 – Brad Keselowski (1)
2023 – Ryan Blaney (2)
2024 – Ryan Blaney (2)
FORD NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES WINNERS AT MARTINSVILLE
1995 – Joe Ruttman
2003 – Jon Wood (2)
2004 – Rick Crawford (1)
2005 – Ricky Craven (2)
2015 – Joey Logano (1)
2020 – Grant Enfinger
