Maurice Petty, one of NASCAR’s greatest mechanics and a member of the 2014 class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, will be honored this weekend at his home track, Martinsville Speedway. Richard Petty Motorsports will temporarily change the number of its No. 43 Ford to No. 41, the number Petty used during his brief nine-race driving career.
Petty, known simply as “Chief” to his family, friends and peers, was an integral part of his family’s Petty Enterprises racing team. As a mechanic and engine builder he racked up 212 victories in the series now known as Sprint Cup with a host of drivers, including his brother Richard Petty, his father Lee Petty, Jim Paschal, Marvin Panch and Buddy Baker.
In a relatively rare stint as a crew chief, he won the 1970 Daytona 500 with Pete Hamilton driving a Petty Enterprises Plymouth.
NASCAR is allowing regular driver Aric Almirola and the team to earn points as if the car was running its normal No. 43. The Petty family long has been one of the top teams at Martinsville, with 19 Cup victories, 15 of them by Richard Petty.
Townley on hot streak: John Wes Townley of Watkinsville is a Camping World Truck Series driver who once had a reputation for wrecking cars at a pretty steady clip, but as the circuit heads to Martinsville Speedway for Saturday's Kroger 200 he's riding a string of three consecutive top-10 finishes.
Three races ago, at Chicagoland Speedway, he finished a NASCAR-career-best sixth. He followed that with seventh-place finishes at Las Vegas and Talladega.
For the season he has an average finish of 15.1 and has completed 92.7 percent of the laps run this season.
In February, Townley, 23, surprised many by winning the Lucas Oil 200 ARCA race at Daytona International Speedway after starting from the pole.
At first glance, it might seem like his ARCA victory was a turning point in his career, but his fortunes began to change midway through last season. After scoring his first top-10 finish in the truck series at Pocono on Aug. 4, he ran well in the final 11 races, failing to finish only one and scoring another top-10 finish, at Kentucky.
This season he moved from Robby Benton Racing to Red Horse Racing, where he was paired with veteran crew chief Mike Beam at the No. 7 Toyota team.
“Winning at Daytona gave me a little bit of confidence, but not a huge amount,” he said. “The competition level is a lot different in ARCA than it is in the truck series. What’s helped the most is having better equipment and me having more experience in the trucks.”
Townley said he believes he can win one of the four races remaining on the truck schedule this year.
“I think I could do it,” he said. “It’s just a matter of all the cards falling right. My time is coming.”
Elliott races in Alabama: Veteran Sprint Cup driver Bill Elliott, who hasn't raced in Sprint Cup since July 2012, was back behind the wheel of a race car this past weekend.
He raced in a Late Model race at South Alabama Speedway in Opp, where he finished fourth in a 125-lap race won by his son, Chase Elliott.
“Chase and the guys on the crew talked me into it,” Elliott said. “It was a lot of fun.”
Elliott finished just ahead of Harrison Burton, the 13-year-old son of Sprint Cup driver Jeff Burton.
“It felt kind of weird racing someone that young,” Elliott said, “especially when you’re 58.”
The younger Elliott will compete this weekend in the Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville, the track where he made his NASCAR debut earlier this year.
Baseline testing plan: NASCAR announced Thursday that beginning next season the sanctioning body will require drivers to undergo preseason neurocognitive baseline testing as part of its concussion prevention and management program.
“NASCAR made this decision because we think it is important to drivers’ health for doctors to have the best information and tools available in evaluating injuries,” Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR vice president of racing operations, said in making the announcement.
Drivers were encouraged to have the tests this year, but they will be required to next season.
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