Background

Martinsville Speedway is a four-turn short track that is 0.526 miles (0.847 km) long.^[5] The track's turns are banked at eleven degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, has a zero-degree banking.^[5] Like the front stretch, the back straight away also doesn't have a banked surface.^[5] The race consists of 500 laps, which is equivalent to a race distance of 263 miles (423 km).^[5]

Before the race, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was leading the Drivers' Championship with 199 points, while Brad Keselowski stood in second with 187 points. Jimmie Johnson followed in the third position, 19 points ahead of Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle in fourth and fifth. Kyle Busch, with 163, was four points ahead of Kasey Kahne and nine ahead of Paul Menard, as Joey Logano was one point ahead of Denny Hamlin and five ahead of Matt Kenseth in tenth and eleventh. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. completed the first twelve positions with 139 points.^[6] The defending winner of the race was Ryan Newman, who won the race in 2012.^[7]

Entry list

(R) - Denotes rookie driver.

(i) - Denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.

Practice and qualifying

Three practice sessions were scheduled before the race. The first session, held on April 5, 2013, was 90 minutes long. The second and third were scheduled on April 6, and were 45 and 60 minutes long.^[8] During the first practice session, Johnson was quickest with a time of 19.214 seconds, ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya and Clint Bowyer in second and third. Jeff Gordon followed in the fourth position, ahead of Keselowski in fifth.^[9]

In the Saturday morning session, Bowyer was quickest, ahead of Kyle Busch and Gordon in second and third. Brian Vickers and Newman followed in the fourth and fifth positions.^[10] Jamie McMurray, Biffle, Jeff Burton, Martin Truex Jr., and Kevin Harvick rounded out the first ten positions.^[10] In the final practice session for the race, Bowyer was quickest with a time of 19.518 seconds.^[11] Johnson followed in second, ahead of Edwards and Biffle in third and fourth.^[11] Burton, who was eighth-quickest in second practice,^[10] managed fifth.^[11]

During qualifying, forty-four cars were entered, meaning only one car was not able to start because of NASCAR's qualifying procedure.^[12] Johnson clinched his thirtieth career pole position, with a time of 19.244 seconds.^[13] After his qualifying run, Johnson commented, "In the first run out, we were in (qualifying) trim and made two or three laps, and I knew right away that we had a great shot at it today. At that point, I just needed to do my job and not mess up."^[3] He was joined on the front row of the grid by Marcos Ambrose.^[13] Vickers qualified third, Logano took fourth, and Kahne started fifth.^[13] Gordon, Keselowski., Kenseth, Newman, and Edwards completed the first ten positions on the grid.^[13] The driver who failed to qualify for the race was Mike Bliss.^[13]

Race

Qualifying

Race results