Tyler Reddick, Richard Childress Racing, NASCAR (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images) Five drivers have been penalized and will be sent to the rear of the field for the start of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway.Following a weekend off for Easter, the NASCAR Cup Series is back at Martinsville Speedway this weekend for the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500, the first of two races at the track this year and the eighth of 36 races on the 2021 schedule.Before this 500-lap race around the four-turn, 0.526-mile (0.847-kilometer) oval in Ridgeway, Virginia gets underway, however, five drivers are set to drop to the rear of the field as a result of pre-race penalties.Those five drivers are Trackhouse Racing Team’s Daniel Suarez, Richard Childress Racing’s Tyler Reddick, Spire Motorsports teammates Justin Haley and Corey LaJoie, and Rick Ware Racing’s James Davison.They were slated to start in 11th, 13th, 30th, 34th and 37th place, respectively.The three drivers slated to start in the odd positions, Suarez, Reddick and Davison, will be forced to drop to the tail end of the inside lane while the drivers slated to start in the even positions, Haley and LaJoie, will be forced to drop to the tail end of the outside lane.Suarez, who was also docked 10 points in the driver standings and whose crew chief Travis Mack was ejected, was penalized after his #99 Chevrolet was found to have added ballast outside of the approved container, which is a direct violation of section 20.17.2.1.b in the NASCAR Rule Book.Reddick was penalized for unapproved adjustments to his #8 Chevrolet while the #77 Chevrolet of Haley, the #7 Chevrolet of LaJoie and the #15 Chevrolet of Davison all failed pre-race inspection multiple times. Davison was due to start in last place in the 37-car field anyway, so he simply won’t benefit from the penalties issued to the other drivers.With the penalties factored in, here is the updated starting lineup for the 2021 Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway.Starting Lineup1st – Joey Logano2nd – Denny Hamlin3rd – William Byron4th – Ryan Blaney5th – Chase Elliott6th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.7th – Martin Truex Jr.8th – Ryan Newman9th – Kevin Harvick10th – Brad Keselowski11th – Chris Buescher12th – Kyle Busch13th – Ryan Preece14th – Michael McDowell15th – Kyle Larson16th – Erik Jones17th – Kurt Busch18th – Austin Dillon19th – Christopher Bell20th – Alex Bowman21st – Bubba Wallace22nd – Matt DiBenedetto23rd – Ross Chastain24th – Chase Briscoe25th – Quin Houff26th – Cole Custer27th – Aric Almirola28th – J.J. Yeley29th – Josh Bilicki30th – Cody Ware31st – Anthony Alfredo32nd – B.J. McLeod33rd – Daniel Suarez34th – Justin Haley35th – Tyler Reddick36th – Corey LaJoie37th – James DavisonTune in to Fox Sports 1 at 7:30 p.m. ET this evening for the live broadcast of the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 from Martinsville Speedway.
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