RIDGEWAY, Va. (WFXR) — For the 3rd straight season, the Martinsville Speedway spring NASCAR Cup Series race will be 400 laps rather than the traditional 500 laps. The reason for the shorter 2022 spring race was because it was a night race. Before the change in 2022, the last scheduled 400-lap cup race at Martinsville was in October 1956.
“I think what it does is that it separates the two races so the first one is 400 and the fall is 500. You have a difference and you have different strategies in both. They both have a significant meaning. 400 obviously you have 100 laps less to get the job done. So strategy is much different than a 500. Now the 500 in the fall, that is a playoff event so that has a whole lot of significance as well. So competitors look at the fall much different that the spring,” said Martinsville Speedway president Clay Campbell.
