NASCAR returns to the track on June 10th at Martinsville Speedway for the tracks' first ever Cup Series race under the lights. Once again, there will be no qualifying or practice ahead of the green flag on Wednesday.
"It's trying not to panic at the first part when you're not exactly perfect that is the challenge. We're starting these races on green race tracks, there's no practice, no anything so I can't tell you how different the car drives from lap 1 than what it will at lap 300 tomorrow night," Denny Hamlin said.
"You kind of just got to deal with what you have and wait for a pit stop to work on it so it's been a little bit different from there, but I definitely feel like I'm confident in being able to fire it off into turn 1 as hard as I need to each week," Martin Truex Jr. said.
Another thing that will be missing when drivers arrive at Martinsville will be fans, and although NASCAR announced a plan this week to implement spectators at selected tracks, Martinsville is not part of that plan yet.
"I miss it a lot. I mean to me I miss the pre-race stuff as much as anything. You're going out to driver intros and fans are either rooting you on or cussing you out. I mean I'll take a few cuss outs now I don't even care. I just want to hear something. The silence is deafening right now," Hamlin said.
As the sport continues to pave the way for other leagues to return after the coronavirus pandemic shutdown, it also hopes to use its spotlight to push for change.
"We want everybody to be included and not feel out of place in any way if they decided to come. Listening and learning about what people think is part of the process and this is kind of the next step in that," Truex said.
Green flag for Wednesday's race at Martinsville Speedway is set for 7:00 o'clock.