🏎 Chase's Comeback

What team will be most improved after F1's April break?

April 13, 2023

"The best 5 minutes in motorsports"

- Money Lap

Good Morning! F1 is currently enjoying their spring break, but that doesn't mean there's any shortage of racing taking place. This weekend, NASCAR is heading to Martinsville, while IndyCar is gearing up for the Long Beach Grand Prix.

Although Chase Elliott's return to the driver's seat is the main highlight of the weekend, there are many other storylines to look out for. Let's get caught up, but first, let's see how well you know Martinsville with a little trivia!

Who has completed the most official laps at Martinsville Speedway?

*Answer at the bottom

As always, at the bottom, we'd appreciate your feedback in our poll.

Money Lap Fantasy by eRacr

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Standings

Motorsports Moneyline

Martinsville Driver Odds (provided by BetMGM)

+650 William Byron

+650 Kyle Larson

+700 Christopher Bell

+700 Denny Hamlin

+700 Chase Elliott

Trending Up 📈

Chase Elliott - Look for Chase Elliott to make a splash as he makes his return to the seat this weekend. HMS has shown an incredible amount of speed in 2023 which could provide for an impressive comeback story.

Trending Down 📉

Martin Truex Jr. - Truex and the no. 19 team have hit an early season slouch. He hasn't been able to finish in the top-10 over the past four races.

eRacr's AI Generated Fantasy Lineup

Based on current trends and previous race statistics here is the ideal lineup for your NASCAR Fantasy team heading into Martinsville:

  1. William Byron

  2. Christopher Bell

  3. Joey Logano

  4. Ryan Blaney

  5. Chase Elliott

Garage: Kyle Larson

NASCAR

Back in the Saddle

Chase Elliott, the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion, is set to return to competition this weekend at Martinsville Speedway after missing six races due to a fractured tibia in his left leg sustained while snowboarding in Colorado. Elliott's team owner Rick Hendrick praised his dedication and hard work to return to the No. 9 team. Elliott has been granted a medical waiver by NASCAR and remains eligible for the championship, but he will likely need to win to secure a spot in the playoffs. Elliott's return will also coincide with crew chief Alan Gustafson's return after serving a four-week suspension.

Leahy Lands 23XII Gig

Keegan Leahy, the 2021 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series champion and 23XI Racing’s eNASCAR driver, has been appointed as performance consultant with the team. Leahy, who holds a degree in physics, will be responsible for whatever he can do to help the race car or drivers become faster. After Tyler Reddick won the NASCAR Cup Series race from Circuit of the Americas, he credited Leahy for helping him improve his speed on the road course. Leahy’s impact is already being felt and his skillset will become a valuable asset to race teams, according to Denny Hamlin, owner of 23XI Racing.

“What I can say is what we did work on this week, especially my one-on-one with Tyler Reddick, and Denny Hamlin was there in the meeting as well, we really got to go over what I thought they were doing in the simulator. How I thought they could go faster, just watching what they were doing, drawing on my experience from racing Circuit of the Americas on iRacing."

Keegan Leahy

More NASCAR

🕰️ Zane Smith enters cup race at Martinsville... He'll fill in for Ware in the no. 51 giving him two chances at a grandfather clock

☝️ Chase Briscoe raced his way to a top 5 in Bristol with a broken finger... he's set to have surgery after Martinsville

F1

Alonso Alludes to a Change in the Pecking Order

Fernando Alonso anticipates that the competitive order in Formula 1 will shift more frequently due to the development war in the upcoming European races. The four-week break until the Azerbaijan Grand Prix is expected to allow teams to debut their first major car upgrades in Baku. The introduction of new performance-enhancing components will give opportunities for the competitive order to change often as the season progresses.

The first three races being away from Europe made it challenging to bring upgrades, but from now on, teams are expected to showcase their level and race-by-race and develop their cars faster. Alonso himself has scored three podiums so far, and even if his team loses out in the development war, he considers it a successful season.

Wolff's Weapon of Choice

Toto Wolff, the Mercedes motorsport boss, has called for precise rule tweaks to Formula 1's weekend format with a "Stanley knife" rather than radical changes with a "baseball bat". Wolff has called for a more traditional grand prix weekend, though he is open-minded about the direction of the sport. He added that data should be used to help decide what is good for audiences and for the sport's brand. There have been calls for revisions to the sprint race structure to ditch the Saturday FP2 session in favor of a separate qualifying shootout, which could be implemented as early as July's race in Austria.

More F1

📅 George Russell and other F1 drivers are advocating for changes to the F1 season calendar... they say the schedule should be more sustainable

🎟️ Vegas Grand Prix coming out with even more ludicrous ticket offerings... You can now purchase tickets with no way of viewing the race

IndyCar

A Rivalry Renewed

Former open-wheel racing rivals Townsend Bell and the late Dan Wheldon's sons, Jaxon and Sebastian, respectively, made their car-racing debuts in the Skip Barber Formula Race Series. Jaxon won rounds one and two, with Sebastian finishing second in both races. The rivalry between the two fathers had occurred in 2001, in the Indy Lights series. While Wheldon went on to win the 2005 IndyCar Series championship and a pair of Indianapolis 500s, Bell had a distinguished career in CART, the Indy Racing League, and IndyCar.

More IndyCar

🔧 IndyCar offers one of the most diverse schedules... take a deep dive into how teams prepare for each track type, surface and weather

eNASCAR

Bobby Zalenski was the king of Monza on Tuesday night as he cruised to his second eNASCAR win of the season. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver started from pole and never looked back, leading every lap of the 30-lap race at the famous Italian track. Zalenski showed why he is the road course ace of the series, as he scored his 13th career win.

The race was not a walk in the park for everyone, as a huge pile-up on lap one took out several drivers, including Vicente Salas and Zack Novak. The reigning champion Casey Kirwan also had a spin in the chicane, but recovered to finish fourth. Tucker Minter and Keegan Leahy joined Zalenski on the podium, while Jordy Lopez finished fifth. Zalenski celebrated his win with a smile and a pinch of his fingers, like a true Italian chef.

GLOBAL MOTORSPORT

Take a trip to far away motorsport lands

👊 Toyota expecting a fight in WEC return at Portimao... Toyota's dominant two lap lead in the season opener won't be repeated this weekend

🪜 Racer's Marshall Pruett claims another ladder series is in serious need... championship leader running out of money and out of opportunities

Memes

ONBOARD OF THE DAY

Ross Chastain 2022 Martinsville Onboard

Relive the last 20 laps of the Fall 2022 Martinsville race with Ross Chastain. Hang on tight as he beats down the wall during the infamous (and now illegal) hail melon wall ride!

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*Answer

Richard Petty has completed the most official laps around the half mile oval recording a whopping 27,891 laps. Those are Denny Hamlin kind of numbers! Petty also holds the most wins at the track (15) as well as the most Top 5's (30).

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