Since the first NASCAR Cup Series season in 1949, short tracks – a track less than a mile in length – have graced the competitive schedule and been part of the fabric that makes up the sport.

NASCAR Hall of Famer aptly nicknamed ‘The King,’ Richard Petty, scored 138 of his record 200 NASCAR Cup Series victories on short tracks – the series-most short-track wins all-time. He also holds the series record for the most wins at a single NASCAR Cup Series track; posting 15 victories at this weekend’s venue, Martinsville Speedway and Petty also won 15 times at North Wilkesboro Speedway – the home to this season’s NASCAR All-Star Race (May 21).

Among the active drivers, 14 have posted wins on short tracks in the NASCAR Cup Series, led by Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch with 26 short-track victories spread across all seven active short tracks – the only driver with wins all seven. Three drivers added their name to the short track winners list last season – Chase Briscoe with his Phoenix Raceway win last Spring, Christopher Bell with his Summer win at New Hampshire, and Chris Buescher with his Bristol Motor Speedway victory last Fall.

“I didn’t grow up doing this kind of racing, so I had a really hard time when it came to short tracks,” said Briscoe. “It’s a different kind of aggressive driving and you really have to have a car that can stick to the bottom and turn well to be able to do anything. I think the biggest thing I’ve had to learn, and I think it’s probably something I’ve just had to learn in general, but taking care of the tires is so important. It’s a long race, tempers get heated and, if you end up using everything up, you’re going to get run over or moved out of the way.”

Active Short Track Winners		Breakdown Of Short Track Wins By Track
Active Drivers	Wins Total	Bristol	Bristol Dirt	Dover	Loudon	Martinsville	Phoenix	Richmond
Kyle Busch	26	8	1	3	3	2	3	6
Kevin Harvick	24	3	0	3	4	1	9	4
Denny Hamlin	17	2	0	1	3	5	2	4
Joey Logano	11	2	1	0	2	1	3	2
Brad Keselowski	10	3	0	1	2	2	0	2
Martin Truex Jr	10	0	0	3	0	3	1	3
Kyle Larson	5	1	0	1	0	0	1	2
Chase Elliott	4	0	0	2	0	1	1	0
Alex Bowman	3	0	0	1	0	1	0	1
Christopher Bell	3	0	1	0	1	1	0	0
William Byron	2	0	0	0	0	1	1	0
Aric Almirola	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Chase Briscoe	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Chris Buescher	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0

Nine of the 14 active NASCAR Cup Series short track winners are looking for their first victory of 2023 – Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Aric Almirola, Chase Briscoe and Chris Buescher. Of the nine, six have previously won in the NASCAR Cup Series at Martinsville Speedway – Hamlin (five wins), Truex Jr. (three wins), Keselowski (two wins), Harvick, Elliott and Bowman (each have one win).

Additionally, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick is the only NASCAR Cup Series driver to win in all three NASCAR national series at Martinsville Speedway (NCS: 2011, NXS: 2006, NCTS: 2009, 2010, 2012).

“It’s just a challenging racetrack,” said Harvick. “Martinsville can eat you up pretty quickly with somebody else’s mistake, or you can get behind pretty quickly. You just have to be able to be aggressive without getting your stuff torn up. If something’s not right, it’ll put you behind in a hurry.”

Harvick (2006) and Ty Gibbs (2022) are the only two active Cup drivers with Xfinity wins at Martinsville.

In addition, seven other drivers entered this weekend have won in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series at Martinsville Speedway – 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace has two wins (2013, 2014), Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin (2011, 2012) and Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch (2016, 2019) each have two wins, Hendrick Motorsport’s drivers Chase Elliott (2017) and William Byron (2022) and Legacy Motor Club’s Noah Gragson (2017) each have one Truck Series win and Team Penske’s Joey Logano also has one win (2015).