Two drivers chose to make a one-off return to NASCAR at the race. Three-time Winston Cup Series champion Darrell Waltrip drove the No. 99 Michael Waltrip Racing car by gaining his wife Stevie's permission after his younger brother Michael Waltrip asked if he wanted to race.[9] Since his car was 16th in the Owner's Championship, Waltrip earned an automatic qualifying berth for the event.[10] Despite winning eleven times at Martinsville in the Nextel Cup Series, the Goody's 250 marked Waltrip's first appearance at the track in the Busch Series.[9] Waltrip said he was entering the race because of his belief he could be competitive: "I’m going to come in there, I’ve got the latest and greatest equipment and Michael’s bunch is excited, I’m pumped and I think we’ll have a lot of fun."[10]1992 NASCAR Busch SeriesRookie of the Year and two-time Nextel Cup winner Ricky Craven returned to drive the No. 14 car owned by FitzBradshaw Racing.[1] However, unlike Waltrip, Craven needed to qualify since both FitzBradshaw cars were not within the top-thirty placings in the Owners' Championship.[11] Other drivers returning to compete in the Busch Series included Burney Lamar and Boris Said.[12]
Three practice sessions were held before the Saturday race: all three took place on Friday.[1] The first session ran for 60 minutes, with a half hour practice session reserved for rookie drivers following shortly after. The final practice session lasted 60 minutes.[13] A one-hour test session was scheduled beforehand and it saw Jason Leffler set the only lap time to go under the twenty seconds mark at 19.888 seconds, ahead of the No. 64 car shared by Steve Wallace and his father Rusty Wallace. Sauter was third, Mark McFarland placed fourth, and Menard rounded out the top five.[14]Mike Bliss, Caleb Holman and Eric McClure crashed during the session and the damage to their cars necessitated their withdrawal from the race.[1]
In the first practice session, Stacy Compton was the quickest driver in the field with a lap of 20.010 seconds, seven thousands of a second faster than anyone else on the track. His closest challenger was Steve Wallace in second, with Leffler third, and Brandon Miller fourth. McFarland was fifth-fastest, and Matt McCall came sixth. Kevin Hamlin, Randy LaJoie, David Green, and Dennis Setzer rounded out the session's top ten drivers.[15] Sauter paced the final practice session with a time of 19.877 seconds; Leffler was 0.026 seconds in arrears in second and Casey Atwood came third. Menard was fourth-quickest, ahead of Green and Aric Almirola. McFarland was seventh-fastest, Lamar placed eighth, Ron Hornaday Jr. ninth and Jason Keller completed the top ten heading into qualifying.[16]
** – There were 3 different driver changes by Raceday as there were drivers qualifying the cars for the Cup Series drivers. Dennis Setzer qualified for Kyle Busch, Aric Almirola qualified for Denny Hamlin, and Kevin Hamlin qualified for Reed Sorenson. This was during the peak of the Buschwhacker era where Cup Series drivers would drive in the Busch Series and would ask for other drivers to qualify their Busch Series car while they tried to qualify the Cup Series race which would be the Pennsylvania 500 at the Pocono Raceway.
*** – Had to start at the rear of the field due to driver change.
↑ "NASCAR Race Tracks". NASCAR. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on October 12, 2010. Retrieved October 22, 2010.
↑ ESPN SportsTravel (October 26, 2011). "Martinsville Speedway". ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures. Archived from the original on January 4, 2012. Retrieved January 11, 2016.
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