The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season heads to Martinsville Speedway this Sunday as fans get ready to see the final four drivers competing for this year\u2019s title advancing to Phoenix after battling it out on \u2018The Paperclip\u2019.<\/p>\n
Martinsville is the quintessential stock car racing short track, which promotes close-quarters bullring-style racing with fans surrounding the track, making for a spectacular event not only from a spectator\u2019s standpoint, but also from the driver\u2019s and team\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Championship Four challenger Denny Hamlin<\/a> recently shared his thoughts on where the track stands in the grand scheme of NASCAR\u2019s track types. During a typical season, the sport visits a variety, from superspeedways to intermediates to road courses, each with its own set of challenges. Different styles of track often see a different driver pool excel at it, for example, Shane van Gisbergen<\/a>\u2018s domination of the road course genre.<\/p>\n Martinsville Speedway is one place where Hamlin thinks that these crests and troughs of performance specific to track style are equalized to an extent. He elaborated on an episode of his podcast and said, \u201cIt\u2019s a fair indicator of strength of team and driver. It\u2019s got a little bit more variability because sometimes the restarts can get outta control.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt depends on how many of these guys are up front in the first couple rows if we do have a restart inside 20-30 laps. But I think it\u2019s a fair indicator of strength of car and driver,\u201d he added<\/a>, referencing the 0.5-mile-long venue\u2019s often chaotic ends to races, which especially holds true for junior series such as Trucks.<\/p>\n With the likes of Hamlin himself, who is excellent at superspeedway racing, to Kyle Larson<\/a>, who has evident intermediate speed, it remains to be seen who can conquer the bullring this coming Sunday as drivers fight for the final two spots in the Final 4.<\/p>\n