Say What?

"Martinsville is a tricky track. It has concrete surface in the corners, so it changes a lot during the race. When you have these long runs, and you get these rubber build ups, especially when it’s over 70 degrees outside, you get the clumping of the rubber on the racetrack, so you have to start searching around and trying to find a groove that your car will really work in. Obviously, the shortest way around is always the fastest way around, because there’s not really much momentum that you can build up on the outside at Martinsville. It’s a paper clip and its very stop and go. But then when you have cautions, all that rubber gets cleaned off and you’ve got to start all over again. So, a lot of changes happening there at Martinsville." - Kyle Busch

"I see Martinsville being the track that [the added horsepower] has its intended impact, i.e. the intended impact of adding more horsepower. I think Martinsville stands to change the most just because we’re basically doing two u-turns and trying to force them out of the corners. That’s what it comes down to, especially later in the runs and using up rear tires. That’s what varies throughout a run, so if there’s anywhere that it’s gonna affect, I think it’s gonna affect Martinsville the most. I’m looking forward to seeing what that is. I think as a race team it’s pretty easy to determine with the factors that are gonna change, it’s just the magnitude or the things that maybe take a bit of guesswork and from there you get a good read in practice and see what we’ve got for the race. But a lot of the conditions are all very similar. You have similar weather, the same tire. The only thing that’s really changed is the power, so I’m looking forward to all that and seeing what changes." - Austin Cindric

"This is a track where we feel like we can reset a bit and capitalize. We’ve got a lot of good notes from last year and feel like there’s a strong foundation to build on. Martinsville puts an emphasis on execution, and if we can do that, we should be in a good position." - Josh Berry

Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.  Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.