Well… Now it’s on! NASCAR has packed the April schedule with a Virginia run on short track racing.

*OK fine… Technically, the Bristol Motor Speedway is in Tennessee. However, Bristol itself is split on the Virginia border…

Richmond is up first. Martinsville the weekend after. Bristol (yeah yeah) is on Easter Sunday. This is reversed from Spring of 2021.

So far, season points races have seen young and newer Cup stars in the victory spotlights. Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski have wins in non-point, pre-season events.

Austin Cindric made his NASCAR Cup points debut in the #2 Penske Ford and won the Daytona 500. Defending Cup Champion Kyle Larson grabbed a win at Auto Club Speedway in California. Alex Bowman took Vegas making 7 career Cup wins. Chase Briscoe also notched his first Cup win with a checkers at Phoenix. William Byron added to his two previous wins (2021, 2020) with a victory in Atlanta. The most recent success came at Circuit of the Americas as Ross Chastain placed his first Cup win.

Ross Chastain places his first Cup win with the new Trackhouse Racing (formed from previous Ganassi team)

Oddly enough, Chase Elliott is currently leading the points with no wins but “top finish position” math adds up. Elliott is, oddly enough, the lone Hendrick driver without a win but is certainly making the effort.

Early season racing has focused on speed, drafting and shaking down the “new generation” car in race conditions. One exhibition short track outing gave a clue but the Virginia sweep will find all the tight pack nuances of how these bigger brakes and sequential shifting play out. The tight quarter pit stops will also make the teams hit all the new marks for tires and fuel.

NASCAR Cup features runs at all three tracks. The Xfinity Series runs at Richmond and Martinsville but skips the “dirt race” of Bristol. Camping World Trucks skip Richmond but run Martinsville and Bristol. Richmond Raceway also will host the Whelen Modified Series with the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 to fill out the Toyota Owners / Toyota Care weekend.

Xfinity will be on race number seven coming away from Circuit of The Americas. AJ Allmendinger grabbed the road course win. Ty Gibbs has two wins so far with Austin Hill and Noah Gragson holding one each. Cole Custer also has an Xfinity win but is running points in the Cup series. Gragson barely has a points lead in the series.

Noah Gragson wins at Phoenix and carries a slim Xfinity points lead

Camping World Trucks will be running their fifth race of the season at Martinsville. Chandler Smith and Corey Heim have one win. Zane Smith has two wins from Daytona and COTA. The math of finish positions and a win has Chandler Smith currently on top of the points going into Martinsville.

Chandler Smith wins at Las Vegas and holds the current Camping World points lead

Also, Richmond and Martinsville invite fans to the tracks on race week for “Charity Laps”. For Richmond Raceway on March 30, register and drive your car on the track with funds benefiting the Henrico Firefighter Foundation. For Martinsville on April 6, your car on the track benefits Vet Tix (Organization supplying sport and entertainment for United States Veterans).

Another highlight for the season in Virginia is Martinsville Speedway celebrating 75 years of NASCAR racing history at the track. The honors are reflected with a special anniversary display at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. However, Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 weekend at Martinsville is just beyond. We have Richmond Raceway first up for April short track racing. The Whelen Modified race is a welcome return at Richmond with series runs there peppered back to 1990. Modified racing made a NASCAR sanction first for Virginia and Richmond way back in 1948.

Ryan Preece and Ryan Newman racing close at Richmond in the Whelen Modified Series – 2021

It’s time. April is NASCAR in Virginia. Also – Don’t forget to check your short tracks, too. Home tracks, dirt tracks and drag strips are all coming alive this month! Go racing!

Richmond Raceway – Toyota Owner’s Weekend – April 1-3

Martinsville Speedway – Blue Emu Pain Relief Weekend – April 7-9

Bristol Motor Speedway – Food City Dirt Race Weekend – April 15-17

The hills of Franklin County are roaring out for fast laps and big name racing at the Hannabass & Rowe Collision Center – Kenny Minter Classic 110. But first… A little background…

Things seem to be a little brighter for a place that had fallen back and was laps down. Newer facilities were keeping up with changes but Franklin County Speedway was barely holding on. Folks in the area know the stories and some might even know the real story. The facility had made a hole and seemed ready to fall into it… (That’s one of the stories…)

There was a fellow who could see beyond what was there and remembered times of what used to be. Crowds, racing and a bit of a reputation were a part of the history. Langley Austin took it all in with a plan to put things in motion. Like a driver with a banged up race car in the garage, he began to fix, paint, hammer and build. He needed a little time, a little luck and more than a little money…

As it turned out, luck gave him some time. 2020 came in with some events in the works and was quickly put back off track. Covid-19 came in and shut things down everywhere. This, however, gave Austin some time to do some basic work around that track that took more muscle than money. Without events to plan and work around, he was able to make a good push on fixing some things instead of just throwing duct tape on it. He put the time to good use and was even able to get some events on.

Some of those events had some real impact. Late Model drivers were drawn in as larger tracks with larger footprints were dark. He brought Modified drivers in from around the region with good racing and publicity. The Solid Rock Carriers CARS Tour ran there in 2020. All of it was done with CV19 restrictions in place and limited capacity. As luck would have it, the small track was making some waves with events that, realistically, would not have been there at all if not for the circumstances of a pandemic.

Langley Austin is no stranger to racing. His RACE22 website is a regional racing staple of track news around the southeast region and beyond. He knows Franklin County Speedway as well as anyone having grown up in the area, attending races as a kid and later working there. Austin has the gears in motion with Moonshine Capital Promotions taking the momentum of what was 2020 and pushing it forward. He’s not alone in his efforts. His wife, Kimberly, is just as involved as he is. It’s possible she is the real brain power in the deal and he is there for the lifting…

Luck and time. A bit of cash flow in the mix has made for some more improvements and basic fixes. All of which leads to this weekend and the SMART Modified Tour.

The SMART Tour is bringing NASCAR Hall Of Fame driver Bobby Labonte. Current NASCAR Cup driver Ryan Preece is racing. Well known Modified drivers like Burt and Jason Myers, Jeremy Gerstner, Brian Lofton and more will be on track. Matt Hirschman and rookie Caleb Heady have won this season. Ryan Preece raced and won at South Boston last month. Local champion Dennis Holden is getting behind the wheel.

Getting Franklin County on the SMART schedule is a big deal. Langley Austin has been busy turning the luck and hard work of some profile events in 2020 into some real traction for the 2021 season.

If it’s been a while since you’ve made the trip to Franklin County Speedway, this is a good weekend for it. You might be a little surprised by some of the changes. You will see some NASCAR stars and some good racing.

NOTE!! There are still mandates in place. Face masks are still a thing. Distancing in the stands is still a thing. Respect of everyone and staying safe is always a thing. Race with care!

The current seat of NASCAR is Charlotte, NC.  However, from this big city and central hub of racing teams the scene rolls back in time to many places and personalities of much more variety. The NASCAR Hall of Fame nominees for 2013 induction showcase this variety all too well.

The field of those on the list for consideration highlight the earliest days of the sport. Fireball Roberts, Wendell Scott, Tim Flock and others advanced the racing, the style and the stories that shaped NASCAR to what it is. Other nominees such as Rick Hendrick and Richard Childress, well known to even the youngest fans, have taken the ropes from the veterans and moved the sport forward to what we see now. (more…)