NASCAR SNCS (MARTINSVILLE) - Series News & Notes
 |
Proving Ground? Martinsville A Crucial Stop For Bowyer And Stewart
Five down, five to go.
Sunday’s Subway 500 at venerable Martinsville Speedway marks the sixth of 10 events in the 2007 Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup – time and opportunity that shrink by the day.
And with urgency palpable, is this the week that third-place Clint Bowyer (No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet) and fourth-place Tony Stewart (No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet) make their lunge at the leaders?
A quick reset: Four-time NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon (No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet) leads the Chase standings with Hendrick Motorsports teammate – and reigning series champion – Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet) second, 68 points behind.
Follow with Bowyer, 78 points out, and Stewart, 198 out, and the call to action is apparent.
This week’s setting is key – Martinsville’s .526-mile surface confounds even the smoothest drivers with its tight turns, an unforgiving flatness and historic quirks (those interior concrete curbs).
Though Gordon and Johnson lead all active drivers with seven and three wins there, respectively, a weeding-out – or jumbling up – could occur.
Bowyer may have the most daunting catch-up task despite his 10-point cushion over Stewart. The first-year Chase participant and second-year driver has an average finish of 18.7 in three career series starts at Martinsville. He finished 11th in April.
“It’s so small that if something happens in front of you, there’s just no getting around it,” Bowyer said of Martinsville. “We finished 11th at Martinsville in the spring and we need to get more out of it this time. We knew we’d have to pick up our program and finish better at all these race tracks and I think we can go there this weekend and do better than we’ve done in the past.”
Stewart also could be poised for a major gain. He excels at Martinsville, where he’s won twice along with six top fives, 10 top 10s and three poles.
He also boasts the top pre-race Driver Rating for Martinsville, according to NASCAR Loop Data statistics – 125.5. Stewart also owns the top Average Running Position (4.382), Fastest Laps (277) and Laps Led (829).
Here’s more inspiration for both Bowyer and Stewart, courtesy of Johnson, who’s made Chase comebacks a personal trademark:
• Trailing the leader by 146 points after five races in ’06, Johnson rebounded to win his first series title;
• In ’04, Johnson trailed the leader by 227 points after five races and finished second in the final standings by only eight points to eventual champion Kurt Busch (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge).
• In ’05, Johnson was tied for the lead with Stewart after five Chase races; Stewart went on to capture his second series title.
Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Notebook, Week 6
Jeff Gordon, The Martinsville Master … Currently out front in his quest for a fifth series title, Jeff Gordon’s Martinsville statistics bode well – and likely awe – as he approaches Sunday’s Subway 500.
Gordon leads all active drivers with seven Martinsville wins. He also has five poles, 17 top fives and 23 top 10s there, plus a second-best (behind Tony Stewart) pre-race Driver Rating of 123.8.
More facts in Gordon’s favor: He’s won two straight, at Talladega Superspeedway two weeks ago and last Saturday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. He and Jimmie Johnson each have a series-high six victories this season.
Gordon also leads the series with six poles, 19 top fives and 25 top 10s in ’07.
And Johnson’s Not Far Behind … Yes, Gordon dominates Martinsville statistics. But Johnson, who trails his Hendrick Motorsports teammate by 68 points in the current Chase standings, has mastered Martinsville, too.
He owns three victories there, and ranks third in pre-race Driver Rating – 117.2 – according to NASCAR Loop Data statistics.
Along with three wins, Johnson has one pole, seven top fives and 10 top 10s at Martinsville.
He’s also eyeing the ’07 series sweep, having won the April event there.
Take A Picture … In April, Johnson and Gordon battled door-to-door to the finish at Martinsville, with Johnson prevailing by 0.065 seconds – the season’s fourth closest finish to date.
Given the two drivers’ similar statistics at the half-mile track, it’s not unrealistic to expect a repeat. And there is this: Gordon and Johnson have finished one-two on three other occasions this season.
In March, Johnson won at Las Vegas, with Gordon finishing second. Gordon swept both Talladega events this year, with Johnson as the runner-up.
Gordon’s last Martinsville victory came during his ’05 season sweep there.
Look Out For These Guys … Aside from Tony Stewart’s Martinsville resume, two other Chase participants have won at the Virginia half-mile.
They are Kurt Busch and Jeff Burton (No. 31 AT&T Mobility Chevrolet).
Busch’s win came in the fall of ’02. He has two top fives, four top 10s and one pole at Martinsville. Burton won there in the fall of ’97. He has nine top fives and 13 top 10s at Martinsville.
Busch is seventh in the current Chase standings. Burton is 10th.
Other drivers to watch are Kyle Busch (No. 5 Kellogg’s/CARQUEST Chevrolet), who has two top fives and three top 10s at Martinsville, and Denny Hamlin (No. 11 FedEx Chevrolet), who has two top fives, three top 10s and one pole.
Kyle Busch is sixth in the Chase standings. Hamlin is ninth.
Double-Duty Drivers … Three drivers, all Chase participants – Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Clint Bowyer – will compete in Saturday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event, the Kroger 200.
Bowyer will drive for Kevin Harvick Inc., while Busch and Hamlin will drive Billy Ballew Motorsports trucks – perhaps a harbinger of ’08, when Busch joins Hamlin at Joe Gibbs Racing.
Flexibility An Important Key For NASCAR’s New Car
Sunday’s Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway marks the 15th event for the Car of Tomorrow – NASCAR’s next-generation race car that will compete fulltime in ’08.
The new car returns to Martinsville, where it ran in only its second event in April. Teams will use the new car in 16 of 36 events in ’07.
A seven-year project of NASCAR’s Research and Development Center, the new car incorporates crucial safety innovations, better competition and cost containment opportunities.
Hendrick Motorsports has won seven of the 14 previous events, including the last time the car competed two weeks ago at Talladega, where Jeff Gordon prevailed.
Teams already have realized one of the new car’s goals – flexibility. The ability to use the same car at multiple (and different) tracks is a key component.
Five teams have used the same chassis in seven of the previous 14 events. And at Talladega – also the car’s restrictor-plate debut – five teams used a car that had raced at one or more of the new car’s previous events
New Car By The Numbers
Using the same car at different tracks, rather than building track-specific cars, is a major cost-containment plus of NASCAR’s new car. Here’s a quick look at this season’s savings-come-to-life:
• Five teams have used the same chassis in seven of the previous new-car events, to date;
• Four teams have used the same chassis in eight of the previous new-car events, to date;
• Two teams have used the same chassis in nine of the previous new-car events, to date;
• One team has used the same chassis in 10 of the previous new-car events, to date;
• Sunday’s Subway 500 marks the 15th new-car event in ’07. The Nov. 11 event at Phoenix International Raceway is this season’s final new-car event.
Locked In: Blaney, No. 22 Team Earn Top 35 Boost
Dave Blaney continued a recent trend of good runs with a sixth-place finish last Saturday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. It was his second top-10 effect in as many races, following on the heels of a season-high third third place two weeks ago at Talladega Superspeedway.
More importantly, Blaney’s and his team’s good work lifted the No. 22 Caterpillar Toyota another spot in the car owner standings, no small success. The No. 22 is now 34th, after climbing to 35th post-Talladega. Which means the Bill Davis-owned team is ensured a berth for this Sunday’s Subway 500 at Martinsville.
The top 35 teams in the owner standings are guaranteed automatic starting spots each week. Other teams must earn their berths based on qualifying speeds.
The No. 22 leads the 35th-place team – the No. 45 American Spirit Motor Oil Dodge owned and driven by Kyle Petty – by 39 points. The 36th-place team, the Glen Wood-owned No. 21 Little Debbie Ford, trails the No. 45 points by 109.
2007 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Owner Points – After 31 Races
Pos. Points Team Owner Driver
30th 2,620 No. 66 Chevrolet Joe Custer Jeff Green 31st 2,574 No. 38 Ford Robert Yates David Gilliland 32nd 2,530 No. 88 Ford Robert Yates Ricky Rudd 33rd 2,511 No. 70 Chevrolet Joe Custer Johnny Sauter 34th 2,450 No. 21 Toyota Bill Davis Dave Blaney
35th 2,411 No. 45 Dodge Kyle Petty Kyle Petty
36th 2,302 No. 21 Ford Glen Wood Bill Elliott 37th 2,075 No. 10 Dodge James Rocco Scott Riggs 38th 2,006 No. 00 Toyota Cal Wells David Reutimann 39th 1,961 No. 83 Toyota Dietrich Mateschitz Brian Vickers 40th 1,547 No. 13 Chevrolet Jay Frye Joe Nemechek
Keys To Victory
Martinsville Speedway
• Denny Hamlin: “Martinsville is definitely a race track where you have to roll the center really well and use little to no brake at all at that race track.”
• Crew chief Chad Knaus: “Because it is a 500-lap race, it is very difficult, so you have to have a lot of patience and keep a little reserve for the end of the race.”
• Crew chief Steve Letarte: “When you catch a lapped car and he wants to run the bottom or protect the bottom, you have to have a car that can move up. It’s basic short-track racing, it has to roll or have good drive-off.”
• Jimmie Johnson: “As a driver, the discipline that you need in the braking zone and getting through the center of the turns is very, very important there.”
In The Loop: Stewart, Hendrick Motorsports Dominant At Martinsville
If recent history is any indication, the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series standings will look a lot like they do now once the checkered flag flies on the Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway.
The top two drivers – Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson – have phenomenal numbers at Martinsville. They’ll likely continue the struggle at the top.
Gordon, who leads Johnson by 68 points with five Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup races complete, ranks in the top five in practically every key Loop Data category.
In collecting five consecutive top-five finishes (including a season sweep in 2005), Gordon has earned the second-best Driver Rating (123.8), the second-best Average Running Position (7.4), the second-highest number of Fastest Laps Run (263), and the second-most Laps in the Top 15 (2,172/86.9%).
Hendrick Motorsports teammate Johnson sits just behind Gordon in the above categories. He has third-best numbers in Driver Rating (117.2), Average Running Position (7.9), Fastest Laps Run (224) and Laps in the Top 15 (2,093/83.7%).
One driver in particular is in dire need of a repeat of past performances – Tony Stewart. Stewart trails Gordon by 198 points, but a turnaround is in sight. Stewart has excelled at Martinsville in recent years, launching himself to the top of most of the Loop Data statistical categories. With a win last season and four consecutive top 10s, Stewart ranks first in Martinsville Driver Rating (125.5), Average Running Position (4.4), Fastest Laps Run (277) and Laps in the Top 15 (2,401/96%).
One result seems likely, though: the victor should come from the Chase field. The top four (and six of the top eight) in Driver Rating are in the Chase.
One dark-horse driver who has top numbers at Martinsville is native Virginian Ricky Rudd (No. 88 Snickers Ford).
With an average finish of 10.3 in three Martinsville races since 2005, Rudd has earned a Driver Rating of 94.3 (sixth-best) and an Average Running Position of 11.1 (fourth-best).
NNCS, Etc.
On The Line: Martin Truex Jr. On Weekly NASCAR Teleconference
Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup competitor Martin Truex Jr. (No. 1 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet) was the guest on Tuesday’s weekly NASCAR Teleconference. Truex comes into this week’s Subway 500 in 11th place, in the Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup standings, with five races remaining in the season.
He finished 17th last Saturday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, dropping one spot in the Chase standings. Following are some highlights from the teleconference:
Q: “Talk about your outlook going into these last five races and how you’re going to keep running hard and try to end the season as high as you can.”
Truex: “Yeah, we sure are. I have been real proud of my team and their efforts, and we have had some great race cars through out the Chase. It just seems everything that could go wrong has went wrong. It has been a little frustrating, but we are looking forward to the last five races.
“We are just going to go out there and run as fast as we can, and try to win a few of them. Hopefully we will be able to move up in the points, you know, towards the front.”
Q: “When drivers like Johnson and Gordon get off to a quick start and build that early lead and they are so consistent, how frustrating is it for you to try and make up that ground knowing that they are always going to be in the top five or top 10? What is your mind set going in there?”
Truex: “Well it’s definitely hard. Once you get behind, you really need to pray for a lot of things to go your way for you to catch them. Obviously they were the point leaders coming in for a reason. They have been strong for a long time.
“So for us, we just try and do the best job we could. We knew we could perform well enough to run with them. I think even till now we have done that. It is just, you know, getting the finishes.
“For some reason we have had a lot of trouble, just to have good races and not have stuff happen to us. We have kind of been in the wrong place at the wrong time a lot since the Chase started. We haven’t had things go right for us and that is frustrating, but on the flip side we can sit back and look at how we ran and say we have performed well enough to be right there with them. We just haven’t been able to get it done. So that is the most frustrating part for us.”
For the complete teleconference transcript visit www.nascarmedia.com.
Montoya Maintaining Rookie Points Lead
No change in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings, where Juan Pablo Montoya (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge) continues to lead David Ragan (No. 6 AAA Ford).
Montoya finished 37th last week at Lowe’s Motor Speedway while Ragan finished 40th. The margin between them remains 15 points (226-211).
A Virginian’s Fond Farewell
Sunday’s Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway should mark the final NASCAR NEXTEL Cup appearance by Chesapeake native Ricky Rudd in his home state. Rudd, who returned last week at Lowe’s Motor Speedway after missing the last six races with a left shoulder injury, has said he will retire following the ‘07 season.
Rudd, 51, suffered a separated shoulder in a Sept. 2 accident at California Speedway. He’d been sidelined until last weekend, when he returned to finish 11th at LMS.
Carpentier Makes It Official
Former open-wheel standout Patrick Carpentier, announced as the new Gillett Evernham Motorsports driver on Oct. 10, was scheduled to be formally introduced as such in his hometown of Montreal on Tuesday.
Per his new team, Carpentier will compete fulltime in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series in ’08, and also in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
He made his stock-car debut in the first NASCAR Busch Series event in Montreal on Aug. 4, followed the next week by his NASCAR NEXTEL Cup debut at Watkins Glen International.
Kyle Petty To Make Historic Career Start
Veteran driver Kyle Petty will take sole possession of fifth place on the all-time series start list Sunday when he takes the green flag at Martinsville Speedway.
Currently tied with three-time series champion Darrell Waltrip with 809 career starts, Petty also will make his 54th career start at Martinsville.
NASCAR’s Brian France Honored
NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France will be inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame next Monday night (Oct. 22) at Cipriani on 42nd Street in New York, during the 17th annual induction ceremonies. France is one of 12 inductees this year; the others include ABC World News Tonight anchor Charles Gibson and Univision CEO Joe Uva.
Established in 1991 by Broadcasting & Cable Magazine, the Hall of Fame membership includes Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow and Ronald Reagan.
Martinsville Speedway Makes A Cover
The historic .526-mile track in southern Virginia recently was chosen as the cover image for the new book One Helluva Ride: How NASCAR Swept the Nation, by Washington Post staffer Liz Clarke, a longtime NASCAR beat writer.
The Race: Subway 500 The Place: Martinsville Speedway, Martinsville, Va. The Date: Sunday, Oct. 21 The Time: 1:30 p.m. (ET) TV: ABC, 1 p.m. (ET) Radio: MRN; SIRIUS Satellite Radio, Channel 128 The Track: .526-mile oval The Distance: 263 miles, 500 laps The Purse: $4,872,371 2006 Polesitter: Kurt Busch 2006 Winner: Jimmie Johnson Series Standings Pos. Driver Pts. 1 Gordon 5,880 2 Johnson 5,812 3 Bowyer 5,802 4 Stewart 5,682 5 Edwards 5,640 6 Kyle Busch 5,600 7 Kurt Busch 5,565 8 Harvick 5,552 9 Hamlin 5,531 10 Burton 5,514 11 Truex Jr. 5,502 12 Kenseth 5,438 Pre-Race On-Track Schedule (ET): Friday—Practice, noon-1:30 p.m. Qualifying, 3:45 p.m.; Saturday—Practice, 10-10:50 a.m. and 12:50-1:50 p.m.