Nick Sanchez drove to a smooth and steady fourth in Friday night’s Long John Silver’s 200 at Martinsville. (Photo: Josh James | The Podium Finish)
RIDGEWAY, Va. — Nick Sanchez may have felt like he rode a roller coaster prior to Friday night’s Long John Silver’s 200 at Martinsville Speedway.
After winning at Daytona and finishing fifth at Atlanta, Sanchez finished 17th at Atlanta and Bristol before placing 18th at Circuit of the Americas. Dropping from second to sixth in the championship standings, the driver of the No. 2 Gainbridge Chevrolet Silverado entry, fielded by Rev Racing, sought for relief at the 0.526-mile short track in southwestern Virginia.
Enter Martinsville, a short track that can test the resolve of any driver, regardless of age and experience. Even with the frustrating results in the past month, the NASCAR Drive for Diversity graduate was not too discouraged in himself nor with his team led by crew chief Kevin “Bono” Minion.
Qualifying fifth for the 200-lap race at Martinsville, Sanchez was patient and focused, tallying a fifth place result in Stage 1, garnering six stage points. Although he slipped to a 13th place finish in Stage 2, Sanchez and his No. 2 were unwavering in their confidence and determination to return to their consistent, frontrunner status.
Unlike Sanchez’s prior three races, there was no late race caution or external circumstances that derailed his performance. Instead, Sanchez, Manion and the No. 2 team were sharp, keen and methodical at the rough and rugged paperclip.
With Sanchez finishing fourth in a race won by Eckes, the 22-year-old Miami native was not too disappointed with his Friday night result.
“Ultimately, I just need a little bit more truck at the end to contend in a short run,” Sanchez said. “So it could have played in my favor a little bit more, but it is what it is. Like I had the opportunity to take the lead off the 19, I just couldn’t.
“So, at the end of the day, I don’t feel like the win got away because I was down a little bit versus where he was so not too disappointed on that. But yeah, I could have obviously played on my favorite a little bit more.”
Putting things in perspective, Sanchez was relieved to score a top five finish at the scrappy short track after being dealt with some unusual circumstances in the past two Truck races at Circuit of the Americas and Bristol.
“We qualified fifth, we ran top five all night and we finished fourth,” he said. “I didn’t lead the whole race and lose it. I was second or third place truck the whole night and like I said, lost one spot to where I probably should have been.
“I think we walked out of here Martinsville with a decent finish. The last couple weeks, it’s been like anything and everything that could take us out of a decent finish or a win happened. Some being my fault.”
In this case, a nearly faultless race for Sanchez may pay dividends besides a nice box score performance for the season statistics. As Sanchez points out, he may have an advantage come November given what he learned on Friday night.
Nick Sanchez showcased poise and patience to get a fourth place finish in Friday night’s Long John Silver’s 200 at Martinsville. (Photo: Josh James | The Podium Finish)
“I’m just happy to finish where we should have and keep building off this because this is a super important race for the Playoffs,” Sanchez observed. “This is the penultimate race. So you want to have a good showing here in the spring so you could tune on your stuff for the fall. Because if you’re out to lunch today, you’re going to be shooting it blind in the fall.
“So I’m happy. This is a very important race. And I think we executed it the way we needed to.”
Along with proper and smooth execution on all fronts, Sanchez had a chance to roll the dice for his second win of the year and his Truck career. Even if it did not pay off, he could not resist the opportunity to cash in on a meaningful victory.
“It’s Martinsville, right? You’re vulnerable on the outside, but I could have filed in to third and played it safe,” he admitted. “But you got to at least give yourself a shot for the win. And choosing front row gives you that. The 19 was better than me. The 98, I could have, a couple times, I almost took the lead.
“And I feel like that’s just the truck. The 19 was pretty strong on his entry into [Turn] 1, hooked up really good on the restart. So it was just hard to get to his outside and pin him down off of [Turn] 2. So yeah, I don’t change really a thing. And I had a shot to get it and I just didn’t happen to get it.”
Sanchez will get another shot to contend for a win with this Friday night’s SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas Motor Speedway. Last year, Sanchez won the pole, led 168 laps and nearly won the race before a late race tangle with Carson Hocevar resulted in a Turn 1 crash collecting Zane Smith and Eckes.
Now, Sanchez hopes to capture the checkered flag in “The Lone Star State” and avenge his bitter defeat from last year’s race.
“I feel good,” Sanchez said. “Last year, I don’t want to say an anomaly, but there was comp cautions, they’re not live pit road. So there were some things that played in my favor that took strategy and just circumstance out of it. But I feel like our trucks are probably going to be much faster than it was last year.
“And I’m a totally different driver than I was there last year, so I’m hoping for a better result. And I’d like to lead more laps and more stages, but I don’t think that’s possible. I just want to win the race.”
Editor’s Notes
Nathan Solomon contributed to this article onsite from Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia.
