On May 7, 2026, a group of West Michigan investors announced the official revival of Howard Miller, the century-old clockmaker whose Ridgeway subsidiary had crafted the Martinsville trophy since acquiring the brand in 2004. The company had announced its closure in July 2025, citing tariffs, a struggling housing market, and rising costs that its third-generation CEO, Howard “Buzz” Miller, called “unsustainable.”

What followed was a close-out sale at its Zeeland headquarters in October, an equipment auction in February 2026, and extensive inventory liquidation. And the family kept stating publicly that it could not find a buyer. Then, almost at the last possible moment, it did.

In fact, the new ownership group (led by J.C. Huizenga of the Kentwood-based Huizenga Group, BrandHaven founder Bill McKendry, and Traeger Grills supply chain executive Phil Poel) had actually first approached Howard Miller as far back as mid-2025, even as the company was preparing to close its doors.

“Howard Miller is a rare kind of brand — one with deep cultural roots and a legacy of craftsmanship that still resonates today,” Huizenga said. “This investment is as much emotional as it is strategic. We see an opportunity to not just preserve what Howard Miller has been, but to reintroduce what it can be for the next generation.”

Day-to-day operations will now be run by Jim O’Keefe, who is Howard Miller’s new President and a company veteran who previously served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing, alongside Director of Marketing Andrew Christmann, who is also a part of the ownership group.

Members of the Miller family will continue to stay involved as advisors. Former CEO Buzz Miller offered a measured blessing on the handover: “We are incredibly proud of what Howard Miller has represented for a century. To see a group step forward that not only understands the business but genuinely values the legacy and what it means to this community gives us great confidence in what comes next.”

Meanwhile, McKendry talked about how this time the company will go well beyond clocks: “Howard Miller has long been a category leader in clocks, but it’s been under-leveraged emotionally. At its best, this brand helps people mark life’s most meaningful moments. That’s the opportunity in front of us; to reconnect the product to the role it plays in people’s lives.”

Their plans also include relaunching the most recognisable designs before introducing new collections later in 2026, operating out of Zeeland with a leaner team focused on design, marketing, and production support.

As O’Keefe put it: “For a century, Howard Miller has marked time beautifully. We know this work is about more than just continuing a product line. It is about preserving and growing a brand heritage that we are excited to keep moving forward.”

The news, though, arrives with a twist for NASCAR, because the track had already moved on. When the closure was announced last year, Martinsville Speedway named Hermle Clocks North America, a Virginia-based manufacturer roughly two hours from the track, as the new trophy producer ahead of the 2026 season.

The new trophy was renamed the H. Clay Earles Clock, a fitting tribute to the tradition’s founder, with a design that differs only slightly from the Ridgeway original, featuring the event logo etched into the door glass. Martinsville celebrated the partnership publicly and promised fans the prize was secure.

But now with Howard Miller back from the brink, still holding the Ridgeway brand name that is tradition itself, the entire story has taken an unexpected turn. Whether the Ridgeway nameplate ever re-enters the Martinsville picture remains an open question. However, the craftsman behind sixty years of the sport’s most iconic trophy is, against all odds, still in business.

Moreover, when the closure was first announced, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who won his only Martinsville clock at the 2014 Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500, did not mince words: “Whomever makes the next version better make them exactly like the previous versions. Don’t get cute and f— this up.”

NASCAR commentator Mike Joy, who had used to visit the Ridgeway factory for TV broadcasts in both the early 1990s and early 2000s, offered history alongside his optimism, noting how the clock’s production journey has already been involved in complicate matters quite a lot – from being fully made on-site in Ridgeway, Virginia, to being assembled there with components from China, to NASCAR buying finished clocks from retail stores for a period after ISC dissolved the original Ridgeway association, before Howard Miller acquired the brand in 2004 and stabilised the supply.

That the tradition survived all of that, and now this, says something.

Inside NASCAR’s Most Iconic Trophy Collection

The list of drivers who own a Martinsville clock reads almost like a Hall of Fame roster.

Richard Petty holds the record with 15 Martinsville victories, though only 12 came after the clock tradition began in 1964, making his collection the largest ever assembled. Those dozen clocks, spread across multiple rooms of his home, became part of NASCAR lore in their own right.

As Martinsville Speedway president Clay Campbell once noted with a laugh: “It’s always been kind of a standing joke through all of the clocks he has in all the various rooms of his house, that it must be pretty noisy over there every 15 minutes.”

Then there is Darrell Waltrip with 11, though only three reportedly remain in his possession after years of gifting them to family and friends. Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon each have nine, with Johnson keeping nearly all of his and Gordon splitting his between personal displays and gifts.

Among active drivers, Denny Hamlin leads with six, with the most recent coming in March 2025, when he ended a 10-year drought at the Paperclip by leading a race-high 274 of the final laps to hold off teammate Christopher Bell. The win was his first at Martinsville since 2015. And to understand how long that was, just note that six of the top-10 finishers from that 2015 race had retired from Cup Series competition by the time Hamlin returned to victory lane.

Meanwhile, William Byron keeps both his 2023 clocks, one from the Cup Series race, one from the Craftsman Truck Series event, displayed prominently in his Charlotte apartment.

And that established our point. A Martinsville clock is designed to live in a home, to chime on the quarter-hour, and to be pointed out to guests.