The NASCAR Cup SeriesThe 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 consists of 400 laps around a short 0.526-mile track. Drivers will face a unique challenge on this track, which has a unique competition surface with asphalt on the straights and concrete on the corners.
Ryan Preece’s No. 41 Ford is on the pole Sunday after a strong day of qualifying for Stewart-Haas Racing, which dropped four of its drivers in the top seven on Saturday: Aric Almirola (third), Chase Briscoe (fourth) and Kevin Harvick (seventh).
Chase Elliott returns to 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 case Elliott is unable to finish his first race back from injury.
In the event of inclement weather, Sunday’s race will be considered official on lap 180, the end of Stage 2.
Here are the best moments!
Green!
Preece took Daniel Suarez off the inside line to lead the first lap as things got underway at Ridgeway, Virginia.
Crash cars
There was some early contact between Austin Cindric and Erik Jones, but it wasn’t detrimental to either driver.
Meanwhile, Preece opened his lead to more than a second over Suarez, while Elliott made little progress after starting 24th.
Warming up
Elsewhere, Chase Briscoe took fifth place from Martin Truex Jr., while Tyler Reddick began to catch up with Suarez and Almirola, who had fallen to about 1.1 seconds behind Preece.
In the end, Preece led every lap en route to a Stage 1 win, the first stage win of his career.
Almirola, Reddick, Suárez and Briscoe completed the top five in the first phase, which was completely caution-free.
Close call!
Preece was so close to make a very costly mistake under caution as he almost hit pit road a lap before the pits were open. He rerouted and avoided a major mistake, and the green flag came out again on lap 92.
Meanwhile, Almirola has started to close the gap on Preece for the lead, which has been just over half a second.
It goes around!
The caution came out after Harrison Burton spun on lap 2.
follow the leader
The first lead change of the day came on lap 136, when Ross Chastain passed Preece, who had led the previous 135 laps.
Preece was then penalized for speeding on pit road, along with Truex and Bubba Wallace.
Total effort
The green flag returned with 38 laps to go in the second stage as Ryan Blaney and Michael McDowell traded blows on the track. Meanwhile, there has been a good back and forth between Almirola and Suárez.
At the end of the second stage, Harvick ran by Chastain for the lead, while Preece was buried in traffic.
Stay tuned for updates!
Setting the scene
Ahead of the action, FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass explained what and who to watch out for on Sunday.
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