Fletcher Takes Mazda MX-5 Cup at Martinsville with Photo Finish

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (Oct. 23, 2025) – The second-ever Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin race at Martinsville Speedway somehow matched— and maybe even exceeded— the thrills of the inaugural race. In a green-white-checker finish, Jeremy Fletcher (No. 22 McCumbee McAleer Racing) beat Westin Workman (No.13 BSI Racing) to the line by 0.003-second at the iconic half mile NASCAR track.

Coming off last year’s fantastically entertaining debut race, there was no shortage of hype surrounding the second year of Mazda MX-5 Cup racing at Martinsville. Once again, race fans got another amazing show with battles for the lead throughout the 100 laps and very few yellow flags.

The drama started before the race even began because Nathan Nicholson (No. 56 Advanced Autosports), the fastest driver in qualifying, was sent to the back of the grid for failing post-qualifying tech. This put Frankie Barroso (No. 50 Spark Performance) in the pole spot for the first time in his Mazda MX-5 Cup career.

Barroso held his own against Fletcher, the newly crowned MX-5 Cup Champion, and Workman before the trio began to battle for the lead. Behind them, Nicholson was making up ground quickly and sportscar superstar Earl Bamber (No. 31 Hendricks Motorsports), who started sixth, was moving in to claim a spot on the podium.

When the caution flag came out for the lap 50 stage break, Workman was the leader, followed by Fletcher and Bamber, then Jagger Jones (No. 86 BSI Racing) and Nicholson. That would not be how the second stage started, however. New this year, during the stage break, a fan pulled a number out of a hat that set an inversion for the top 10. The fan pulled the number seven, which meant the top seven cars inverted for the start of stage two.

Ironically, the driver who was seventh and thus inherited the pole for the next stage, was Barroso.

On his second shot at leading the field to green, Barroso was once again able to defend his lead, but it didn’t take long for Nicholson, who had a great start, to get around him and into the lead and Fletcher followed.

The race looked like it was reverting back to how the field was running at the end of stage one until Ethan Tovo (No. 30 McCumbee McAleer Racing) bounced off the side of Bamber and into the barrels at the entrance to the track’s former pit lane. A red flag was issued to clean up the area and replace the barrels, but Tovo and Bamber’s races were done.

The race resumed with 27 laps to go and Nicholson in the lead. He and Workman were able to pull away from the field, but a late-race yellow created a green-white-checkered situation, just like last year.

After finishing runner-up in last year’s race, Workman had learned re-starting on the inside, behind the leader, was the place to be. He lined up behind Nicholson for the start, with Fletcher taking the outside of the front row.

Workman was unable to execute a bump-and-run on Nicholson, the way it was used on him last year, and Fletcher could only hang on to the outside for so long before he had to fall in line behind Nicholson.

Coming off the back straight on the final lap, Nicholson went defensive, pulling to the inside, this slowed both his and Fletcher’s corner entry dramatically. The two made side-to-side contact as Workman quickly caught and tagged the rear bumper of Fletcher, who got sideways and nearly put Nicholson in the wall.

Nicholson had to back out of the throttle and Fletcher and Workman drag raced to the finish line for a photo finish. The timing screens showed the winner was Fletcher by 0.003-second.

“I was on the radio asking for advice (about the restart),” Fletcher said. “My car chief Dalton Dow once called on the radio and tells me that I’m not here to win the race unless I go to the top side. So, I went to the top because I wasn’t going to let him say that and look where it got us.”

Fletcher learned a lot from last year’s race that he was able to use toward this year’s victory.

“We all knew that the invert was coming, and we wanted to stay clean for the first 50 laps,” Fletcher said. “I was happy to sit behind Weston [Workman]. It kind of turns to chaos in the last 50. We learned that last year. I was just kind of waiting for that. I think I timed it decently. I wasn’t in a position I would ideally want to be on that last lap, on the top side, but it paid out in our favor.”

On top of the $250,000 Fletcher got for winning the championship two weeks ago, he received a cool $25,000 for the win Thursday night and a Martinsville clock.

Finishing second again was tough for Workman, but he knew he had done everything he could to get the win.

“Last year was replaying in my head, and honestly, I just tried to do what happened to me last year,” Workman said. “Nicholson did a good job of holding his own. I thought maybe Fletcher and Nicholson would take each other out, and I was going to slot through for the win, but just came up short this year. It sucks to finish second again, but I’m happy to be here and happy BSI finished two and three.”

Jones was thrilled to complete the podium at Martinsville after finishing 16th in last year’s race and having to put a pause on his 2025 MX-5 Cup season after a big crash on the St. Petersburg street circuit.

“I didn’t really get much practice today,” Jones said. “We had some issues, so if I hadn’t run here last year, I would have been in trouble. I just took what I learned about protecting the bottom, which was huge, especially this year, and just took that experience and was able to come home P3.”

Polesitter Frankie Barroso was able to finish fourth, while Sally Mott (No. 15 Spark Performance) earned her first ever MX-5 Cup top five finish.

The 2025 Mazda MX-5 Cup season has officially come to an end. The 2026 season kicks off January 21 at Daytona International Speedway.

All races from the 2025 season can be watched anytime on the IMSA and RACER YouTube channels.