The two annual stops to Martinsville a year ago were snoozefests. With a high downforce, low horsepower package, no one could pass. Brad Keselowski led 446 of 500 laps last spring. Second place finisher Chase Elliott led 49 of 500 laps himself. Between them, that’s 495 of 500 laps led. Joey Logano led the other five laps in a four lead change race. In the fall playoff race a year ago, Martin Truex Jr. led 464 laps with William Byron (30) and Kyle Larson (6) being the only other drivers to pace the field.

This past year’s spring race was much better. We saw 14 lead changes among eight drivers. That’s more drivers leading this race back in June than both races last year combined.

There was a ton of passing throughout the field all race as the no practice and no qualifying certainly helped in that.

The quick cars on the season started up front but the setups were a guessing game. As a result, some guessed wrong since they had no on track activity prior to get their setups right. Both front row starters were a lap down by the Lap 60 competition caution. Furthermore, five of the top eight starters were down a lap by the end of the first stage.

By the second stage, some of those a lap down adjusted their cars and were able to starting climbing back up again. Credit the no practice for allowing that.

Then, we had the old aero package back. The 2018 version is here for short tracks this season and it’s certainly helped. 

But, we’ve also seen the playoff races be tame on short tracks because of what’s at stake. Richmond and Bristol in the opening round weren’t very good because of no one wanted to take themselves out in a crash.

What do we get on Sunday?

With the playoff bubble being wide again, I think we could see a tame race because you can’t afford to get crash damage early. You need to be there in the end.