Truckin’ Thursdays: Memorable Truck Series Moments at Martinsville

You’ve almost made it!

This weekend marks the final time the Camping World Truck Series will sit silent before descending upon Martinsville Speedway to bring in the month of April. Sitting dormant since Atlanta Motor Speedway, the second race of the season, it’s nearly impossible for teams, drivers or fans to gain any kind of momentum regarding the series until the summer months. Despite the frustration from fans over the caution clock and the addition of a Chase, there are still plenty of reasons why you should tune in next weekend.

First Time Winners:

There’s little more thrilling than the pure emotion coming from a driver that’s just scored a first career win, and that’s exactly what happened with Darrell Wallace, Jr. in the 2013 Kroger 200. Leading a race-high 96 laps, Wallace held on to the top spot through a six-lap shootout to the finish. Wiping tears from his face, Wallace, could hardly contain his emotions in Victory Lane as he celebrated his first of five career Truck Series wins.

And if that’s not enough, Wallace took the win once again in Oct., 2014, running the No. 34 as a tribute to Hall of Fame inductee Wendell Scott, as his days with Kyle Busch Motorsports dwindled to a close. He took the No. 54 team to Victory Lane one more time in the season finale before his tenure with the organization ended, closing out his career with KBM on one of the highest notes possible without winning the championship.

Running Out of Room to Race:

In what has long been known as classic Martinsville, the narrow track often lends itself to contact, whether intentional or unintentional. In this case, it’s easy to blame Matt Crafton for sending John Wes Townley into the wall, but it’s also hard to deny the head of steam he had going into the corner and the help he got from behind in the form of a push from Chase Elliott.

Sometimes blocking to defend a position isn’t the wisest of choices. John Wes Townley moved to throw a block on Ryan Blaney but instead took out Brandon Jones in the process. The wreck resulted in a nearly 11-minute red flag to clean up the carnage.

Tempers Flaring:

Sticking with the theme of running out of room to race, after running each other close all race long, Kevin Harvick and Ty Dillon got together, much to the dismay of Harvick, who voiced his displeasure after the checkered flag flew. Of course, Dillon didn’t mince his words either, though he did see the incident substantially different than Harvick did.

All it took was a little bump-and-run from Timothy Peters that was enough to get Johnny Sauter loose, slide his No. 98 up the track and trigger a post-race confrontation. While Sauter was understandably upset, he did remember they were racing at Martinsville where the bump-and-run is quite prominent, didn’t he?

Your Turn: Did I miss your favorite moment from Truck Series Racing at Martinsville? Feel free to let me know in the comments below or on Twitter, and we’ll spotlight your choices in next Thursday’s column.