Bobby McCarty sets Martinsville 300 pole ‘but lord help those near the transfer’

For the second year in a row, Bobby McCarty posted the fastest time in qualifying for the Martinsville 300 and it once again resulted in a new track record.

This time, driving the R&S Race Cars No. 6, McCarty actually defeated head-to-head the car that he drove to the pole last year in the Nelson Motorsports No. 22. Carson Kvapil of JR Motorsports and Ryan Millington in his family car completed the top-four and will each lead the field to green in their respective heat races.

NEW. TRACK. RECORD.@BobbyMac_6 banks $5,000 as the fastest driver in #VSCU300 qualifying at @MartinsvilleSwy and resets his own track record in the process! pic.twitter.com/SPVPLZc2pt

— NASCAR Roots (@NASCARRoots) September 23, 2023

There will be four 25-lap qualifying races and each one will transfer the top-10 finishers into the 200-lap main event. This is the second year in a row that such a format has been used — a contrast to previous formats where the front row or up to the top-20 would be locked-in.

It’s a point of contention to McCarty that he has set a track record two years in a row and has enjoyed no security whatsoever.

“Honestly, it’s kind of frustrating,” McCarty said. “It’s fine man. I have a ton of confidence in this car and this whole group. … We were fastest in practice and qualified on the pole so hopefully I can win this thing finally this year so we can go celebrate.”

He does get a $5000 bonus out of it.

As for the Nelson Motorsports No. 22, it’s a completely different team than the one McCarty left at the end of the season, but Huffman has started to hit his stride in it over the past three months. That’s especially true of their victory together in the $30,000-to-win Old North State Nationals CARS Tour race at Tri-County last month.

Now Huffman has a chance to win a $32,000 and a grandfather clock with a team he never even considered joining until this summer.

“Solid day for us,” Huffman said. “Started today on platform, fell behind a little bit and was middle of the running order in practice and slowly made it better. It came to life there at the end and now we’re really close.”

Ryan Millington took a family team that has run up front in CARS Tour competition all season to the fourth pole position and is equally proud of their practice and time trials effort throughout the afternoon and evening.

“We’ve come here quite a few years and had some really good cars and just some really bad luck,” Milligan said. “In 2018 or 2019, qualified seventh for example, but we’ve got a hot rod this year. We’ve been really fast in CARS Tour the past two months and hopefully it points us to a solid top-five, top-three kind of run and maybe get a clock.”

Certainly, the four pole sitters have the clearest path to the Ridgeway Grandfather Clock starting up front. It gets a little sketchier the further back into the running order one goes.

For example, CARS Tour race winner Mason Diaz of Chad Bryant Racing will start 11th in his heat after posting the 43rd fastest time. That’s a P11 starting position in his heat race needing to get inside the top-10 by 25 laps around a bunch of desperate drivers.

“We’ll be fine,” Diaz said. “We just missed it a little bit but we know what our car is capable of based on practice. We should be fine to make it, 100 percent tomorrow and then we’ll have 200 laps to make the rest of the passes.”

There were no huge surprises in time trials really, beyond maybe Ronnie Bassett Jr. in 59th, after they changed a transmission earlier in the practice session. South Boston track champion Carter Langley qualified 41st and will also have to gain a position in his heat.

Beyond that, everyone who you would expect to make the race qualified into the top-10 of their respective heats and just need to stay there.

For example, Kaden Honeycutt posted the 23rd fastest time and will start sixth in his heat. Last year, he shared the front row with then Nelson Motorsports teammate McCarty and they battled like hell for the pole and nearly took each other out of the running.

Less of that, Honeycutt agrees.

“We just got over our heads and nearly let someone else win,” Honeycutt said. “We just have to be smart. I think we have some smart racers in our heat in Kvapil, Brandon (Pierce) and a bunch of CARS Tour guys we race every week so I feel good about that.”

Huffman was watching that race last year, and now that he drives for Barry Nelson, remembers having a conversation with him about that day.

“I was like, how close did you come to yanking them both out of the car and ask them what in the world are you two doing,” Huffman said with a laugh.

Then there’s defending winner Peyton Sellers, who enjoyed a silently productive night with a 13th fastest lap, resulting in a fourth place start in the first heat.

“Very satisfied qualifying 13th,” Sellers said. “That’s fourth in the first heat with Bobby so we’ll learn a little bit about what he’s got, how we stack up. I think we’re out of the trouble so we just need to be smart, avoid a flat tire and keep the fenders.”

Are there any nerves?

“Everyone is in the same boat,” Sellers added. “You just try to race everyone with respect and hope they will you too. I think everyone realizes they have to use their heads up front but lord help those who are in a transfer spot with a couple of laps to go.”

ValleyStar Credit Union 300 Time Trials

Heat 1

1. Bobby McCarty
2. Daniel Silvestri
3. Sam Yarbrough
4. Peyton Sellers
5. Kres Vandyke
6. Kade Brown
7. Trevor Ward
8. George Waldrop
9. Jamey Caudell
10. Logan Clark
11. Carter Langley
12. Andrew Grady
13. Derrick Lancaster
14. Steve Zacharias
15. Casey Kelley
16. Jimmy Mullins
17. Camden Gullie
18. Justin Carroll
19. Tristen Barnes
20. Chase Robertson
21. Chase Ratliff

HEAT 2

1. Landon Huffman
2. Doug Barnes Jr
3. Dillon Harville
4. Jacob Borst
5. Mike Looney
6. Justin Hicks
7. Connor Hall
8. Zack Miracle
9. Dustin Rumley
10. Magnum Tate
11. Michael Faulk
12. Blayne Harrison
13. Katie Hettinger
14. Ryan Matthews
15. Brody Duggins
16. Austin Somero
17. John Goin
18. Jamie York
19. Tate Fogleman
20. Colby Higgins
21. Jessica Cann

HEAT 3

1. Carson Kvapil
2. Brendan Queen
3. Jared Fryar
4. Matt Cox
5. William Sawalich
6. Kaden Honeycutt
7. Kyle Dudley
8. Chase Dixon
9. Chase Burrow
10. Josh Kossek
11. Mason Diaz
12. Brad Housewright
13. Conner Jones
14. Jason Myers
15. Ronnie Bassett Jr.
16. Kenny Forbes
17. Karl Budzevski
18. Thomas Scott
19. Mike Chambers
20. Cris Horton Jr
21. Zachary Dabbs

HEAT 4

Jon

1. Ryan Millington
2. Matthew Waltz
3. Riley Gentry
4. Blake Stallings
5. Jacob Heafner
6. Dexter Canipe Jr
7. Davey Callihan
8. Dylan Ward
9. Landon Pembelton
10. Brandon Pierce
11. Trent Barnes
12. Riley Neal
13. Heath Causey
14. Cole Bruce
15. Cory Dunn
16. Ross ‘Boo Boo’ Dalton
17. Anthony Adams
18. Buddy Isles
19. Jonathan Worley
20. James Sweeney