What to watch for in today's NASCAR Cup race at Martinsville Speedway

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — There might not be a better track for Ryan Blaney to snap his recent skid than Martinsville Speedway.

Blaney enters today's having failed to finish the last three races — the first time in his career he's had such a streak. He had engine failures at Phoenix and Homestead and wrecked at Las Vegas.

Blaney won last fall's playoff race at Martinsville to secure a spot in the championship race. He's won two of the last three races at Martinsville and has finished no worse than seventh in his last six starts at this historic half-mile track.

"It's always nice to come back to places where you've run well," Blaney said. "It gives you a little bit more of a sense of confidence like, 'OK, I know what I need to be to be fairly decent here or contend for a top five or the win.'"

Today will have its challenges for Blaney, who qualified 32nd — his worst starting spot ever at Martinsville. But recall earlier this year at the Clash. At the quarter-mile track at Bowman-Gray Stadium, Blaney started last in the 23-car field and finished second in the 200-lap race.

While he will have more cars to pass today, he'll also have 400 laps to get to the front.

Green flag is scheduled for 3:11 p.m. ET today on FS1. Here is what else to watch for in today's race:

Chaos

There were 10 cautions in Friday's Craftsman Truck Series race and 14 cautions in Saturday's Xfinity race. Combined, the two races had 38% of their laps run under caution.

How drivers raced in the Xfinity event drew criticism from some competitors in that race.

The question is if the chaos will continue in today's race.

Pit road

Martinsville has among the narrowest pit roads on the circuit. The past two weeks have seen incidents on pit road. Josh Berry and Joey Logano both spun into unoccupied pit stalls last week at Homestead after Berry made contact with Kyle Larson's car and then spun into Logano's car.

At Las Vegas, Carson Hocevar hit Ty Gibbs and spun Gibbs. Hocevar was exiting his stall as Gibbs was entering his.

Will a contender in today's race have their race impacted by contact on pit road?

Christopher Bell turnaround

After what he called a "miserable" day last weekend at Homestead, Christopher Bell looks to turn his fortunes today at Martinsville, starting from the pole.

While Bell won the 2022 playoff race at this track, the results haven't always been good here. He was 22nd in last year's playoff race and missed advancing to the title race. He was 35th in the spring race.

"Certainly our performance isn't where we want it to be at Martinsville," Bell said before winning the pole. "But to put it in perspective, we were in position to do everything I needed to do (to advance to the title race last year) until the pit road mishap that put us in the back of the pack.

"I think that we're just a little bit off and that comes from me driving the car, our setup. We're certainly looking to close the gap to be a contender for the race win, but I do feel like we've been a top-10 car at times."

Hendrick Motorsports cars

Hendrick Motorsports has won five of the last nine races at Martinsville.

Hendrick has three cars starting in the top five in today's race — the first time the organization has done that Martinsville.

Chase Elliott qualified second. Alex Bowman starts third. Kyle Larson qualified fourth.

Points leader William Byron, who has won the spring Martinsville race two of the past three years, starts 10th today.