CONCORD, N.C. – Hendrick Motorsports drivers took turns taking part in a two-day organizational test at Martinsville Speedway this week.
Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson drove in the Tuesday session, while William Byron and Chase Elliott were part of the Wednesday session. As a four-car team, Hendrick Motorsports was able to have two cars at the test and decided to split the test time up among all four of their playoff eligible drivers.
"It’s always good whenever you can get track time and get a test to work on your car," Larson said during a break in testing. "Martinsville is my worst race track. I just don’t have a good feel for this place. Anytime I can get more laps, it’s definitely beneficial just to help me get in a rhythm quicker when I get back here later this year. Hopefully this will help move things along quicker."
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The track time paid dividends for the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion as he was the fastest during Tuesday’s session.
In one difference from when the Cup Series was last there in April, teams at the test used a different Goodyear tire compound than what was used in the spring event.
"Looking at the track visually, it’s certainly laying a lot more rubber than we saw here the entire spring race weekend. So I do find that pretty interesting," Elliott, who won the pole for the season’s first race at Martinsville, said.
However, the different temperatures of the summer test verses the usual chill of early spring and late fall races made it tough for drivers to tell if there was a significant difference in the tire.
"It was a long time ago and I think the track conditions were so different," Bowman said. "Hard to directly compare it. There is maybe more falloff than there was, which I think is pretty important to have a good Martinsville race."
Bowman is one of three drivers in the current Hendrick Motorsports lineup to have won at "The Paperclip"-shaped track. Byron won the most recent race at the .526-mile venue in April and Elliott earned the victory in the 2020 playoff race en route to that season’s championship.
With Martinsville’s placement as the elimination race in the Round of 8 – the final race before the Championship 4 field for Phoenix Raceway is set – that places an added importance on these test sessions.
"It’s one of those oasis tracks for us," Byron said of the Virginia venue where he has three straight top-five finishes. "We got to get here first. If we can get here, I feel really good about the feel that I have for these places with the short-track racing that I’ve been doing and the feel that Rudy (Fugle, crew chief) has for the setup. A lot of that has continued today. We just got to get here first. Kind of a long road to get to that race and still have a shot to make it to the Championship 4."