MARTINSVILLE -- Martinsville Speedway will host a Busch Series night race July 22, track and series officials confirmed Saturday.

The race, expected to be a 250-lap event, will be held the same weekend the Nextel Cup series is at Pocono Raceway. Because the Busch race will be the night before the Cup event, some Cup drivers likely will compete at Martinsville.

No other series is scheduled to race with the Busch Series that weekend. Portable lights will be used. Clay Campbell, track president, said there are no plans to add permanent lights.

The July race marks Martinsville's first Busch race since 1994. Martinsville gets the Busch date that once belonged to Pikes Peak International Raceway in Fountain, Colo.

International Speedway Corp., which owns Martinsville Speedway, purchased the Pikes Peak facility and closed it. ISC will move the Pikes Peak Busch race to Martinsville.

The Busch Series is the Triple-A of stock-car racing. The series has been used as a stepping stone to the Cup series for several drivers, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart.

Martinsville hosted 33 Busch races between 1982-94. The list of race winners includes former Cup champions Bobby Labonte and Terry Labonte, along with Harry Gant and local drivers Jimmy Hensley and Rick Mast.

Since the track has not hosted a Busch Series race in more than a decade, it is expected to host a test session sometime before the event.

Campbell said race tickets will probably be available in December. The Martinsville race is No. 21 in the 35-race schedule that begins Feb. 18 at Daytona and ends Nov. 18 at Homestead. The Busch Series will race in Mexico City for the second consecutive year. That race will be March 5.

No fan

Pole-sitter Tony Stewart says he does not like the rule that gives one driver his lap back for each caution up to the final 10 laps of a race. The rule, commonly known as the Lucky Dog rule, has changed racing at Martinsville.

With so many cautions on the short track, the rule allows more teams to be on the lead lap later in the race. That alters pit strategy. If 20 teams are on the lead lap, the top 10 might stay out but the last 10 likely will pit and could use their new tires, which make the cars faster, to climb to the front.

Stewart's beef, though is with how fair the rule is. "I'm still frustrated,'' Stewart said. "I think [it] is the worst thing that has ever happened to our sport. A guy works hard to get people a lap down and you're penalizing the guys that are doing a good job.

"Say you're the leader and you've led 400 laps of a 500-lap race and then with 20 laps to go, you cut a tire down and you've got to go in the pits and you lose two laps. Well, the caution comes out, you don't have that time to get those two laps back, so why give the other guys that opportunity late in the race?''

Fast times

Newcomer Denny Hamlin, making his third career Cup start, was the fastest in Saturday's final practice session.

"This is definitely a race we have a shot at,'' said Hamlin, who starts fifth. The Chesterfield, Va., native is making his first Cup start at Martinsville but the track isn't new to him. He finished third in the late model race here last year. Saturday, he led the way with a lap of 96.869 mph. He was followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. (96.259 mph), Ricky Rudd (96.215), Joe Nemechek (96.141) and pole-sitter Tony Stewart (96.132).

Hamlin recorded his fast lap before leaving the track early to fly to Memphis, Tenn., where the Busch Series raced Saturday.

Moving back

Mark Martin will start at the rear of the 43-car field today after going to a backup car. Martin bounced off the wall in the final practice session and damaged the right side. Martin was to have started 35th, so he loses few spots in going to the backup car.

Martin enters today fifth in the championship chase, 51 points behind co-leaders Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson.

Pit stops

Jeremy Mayfield, Robby Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip each spun during practice Saturday but none hit the wall. ... Chris Hussey will be unable to serve as Kevin Harvick's interim crew chief this weekend because of a family obligation. Car owner Richard Childress said that Rick Viers, a crew chief for one of Childress' teams, might make the pit calls for Harvick today.