Mark Martin Preview - Fontana - February 17, 2009

MARTIN AT FONTANA: Mark Martin, driver of the No. 5 CARQUEST/Kellogg's Chevrolet, will make his 16th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start at Auto Club Speedway this Sunday. Martin won the 1998 Sprint Cup event at the track after leading 165 of 250 laps. He has posted four top-five finishes and seven top-10s at the two-mile oval.

FIRSTS FOR GUSTAFSON: Crew chief Alan Gustafson earned his first career Sprint Cup victory as a crew chief in September 2005 at the Fontana, Calif., racetrack when the No. 5 team led 95 laps. Earlier that season, he captured his first Sprint Cup pole position as a crew chief.

THE NO. 5 TEAM AT FONTANA: Under Gustafson's direction, the No. 5 team has scored one win (2005), one pole position, two top-five finishes and five top-10s in the last eight Sprint Cup events at Auto Club Speedway. In the 17 total events that have been held at the track, the No. 5 team has scored one win, one pole position, four top-five finishes and nine top-10s.

GROUNDBREAKER: With a Camping World Truck Series win in 2006 at Auto Club Speedway, Martin became the first NASCAR driver to win a Sprint Cup, Nationwide, Camping World and IROC Series race at the same track. Martin won the Nationwide Series event in 2005 and the IROC races in 1997 and 1998.

HENDRICK DEBUT: In his first two weeks as a Hendrick Motorsports driver, Martin earned a career-best second-place starting position for the prestigious Daytona 500. He also paced 36 laps of the 60-lap Gatorade Duel qualifying race before finishing second.

LOOP STATISTICS: Although he finished 16th in the Daytona 500, Martin held an average running position of ninth throughout the 152-lap race, ranking him fourth out of 43 drivers in NASCAR's loop data statistics. The No. 5 team also spent more than 90 percent of the race in the top 15 -- the most of any team.

POINT STANDINGS: Martin and the No. 5 team enter the second race of the season ranked 15th in the Sprint Cup Series standings. This is the highest point position the team has left Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in since 2000, when Terry Labonte finished seventh.MARTIN AT FONTANA: Mark Martin, driver of the No. 5 CARQUEST/Kellogg's Chevrolet, will make his 16th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start at Auto Club Speedway this Sunday. Martin won the 1998 Sprint Cup event at the track after leading 165 of 250 laps. He has posted four top-five finishes and seven top-10s at the two-mile oval.

WEST COAST CHASSIS: Gustafson has chosen Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 5-527 for Sunday's race at Auto Club Speedway. This chassis never has been raced, but was run during a Goodyear tire test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in December.

WINNING HISTORY: Rick Hendrick's drivers have won more races at Auto Club Speedway (seven) than at any other track on the West Coast -- six at Phoenix International Raceway, five at Infineon Raceway and four at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Hendrick Motorsports has won seven events out of the 17 the track has hosted since 1997, when Jeff Gordon won the first race held there.

HENDRICK AT FONTANA: Gordon won the first Sprint Cup event held at Auto Club Speedway on June 22, 1997, and teammate Johnson captured the most recent race there last August. Overall, Hendrick drivers have tallied seven wins -- the most for any Sprint Cup owner at the Fontana racetrack -- 21 top-five finishes and 29 top-10s. Hendrick Motorsports drivers have finished in the top-five or better in 15 of the 17 races that have been held there.

JUST DOWN THE ROAD: In its first four seasons, Hendrick Motorsports competed at nearby Riverside (Calif.) International Raceway nine times and won three events. Geoff Bodine took the checkered flag in November 1984, while Tim Richmond went to Victory Lane twice -- November 1986 and June 1987. Overall, Hendrick drivers combined for two pole positions, seven top-five finishes and 10 top-10s at the now closed racetrack, which was just 18 miles southeast of Fontana.

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MARK MARTIN, DRIVER, NO. 5 CARQUEST/KELLOGG'S CHEVROLET (ON GETTING PAST THE DAYTONA 500.): "I do feel a bit of relief getting past the Daytona 500 for lot of reasons. First of all, our performance was awesome at Daytona. So, it feels good knowing that. Even more than that, though, you can control your own destiny at the next tracks that are coming up. So I'm excited to get out there and get down to business week in and out with Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) and the team. I feel like we can control things in the coming weeks more than we could at Daytona, and we don't have to rely on our buddies as much."

MARTIN (ON THE NO. 5 TEAM.): "I feel really good and really comfortable with this race team, but certainly there are a few more lessons to learn. From my standpoint, I've really found areas that I may be able to help with. The team is so strong and has so much depth. Initially, I didn't think I could bring anything to the table, but now with last week behind us, I see areas that I should've been more engaged in. As we move forward, Alan (Gustafson) will find areas where he can help me a little more as well. We're not at 100 percent yet, but I certainly feel we're at 90 percent and will make gains as we go. We'll just take one race at a time and learn more about how we can complement each other."

MARTIN (ON RAINY WEATHER HALTING THE DAYTONA 500.): "It was Tuesday morning before I got over my frustrations over the Daytona 500. My biggest frustration was that, because of tire trouble throughout the week, we played a more protective and conservative approach to the race. We wanted to make sure that we were in a position to use the hammer when it came time to do so. The time, we thought, had come right there before the rain came and we got ready to use it. Before we got that chance, though, the rain came. So, to me, we didn't show our full potential based on the race strategy we played and having it cut short. We knew rain was coming, but we didn't realize it would come when it did. Otherwise, we were seventh with a definite shot to win. With that late pit stop, we moved to the back and got in a position to do even better, we just needed 25 laps to get it done instead of 10."

ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF, NO. 5 CARQUEST/KELLOGG'S CHEVROLET (ON LEAVING THE DAYTONA 500 BEHIND.): "Anytime you can get out of the Daytona 500 unscathed and in one piece, it's an accomplishment. We would normally look at a 16th-place finish in the race and feel good about that. But, this year, that's a tough pill to swallow. The way we ran all week, 16th place is disappointing for us. I feel that we were deserving of a better finish and that we left a lot on the table there at the end. It's definitely frustrating, but overall it could've been a lot worse."

GUSTAFSON (ON HOW THE TEAM HAS MESHED THE PAST TWO WEEKS.): "I honestly feel that we're right on track with where we need to be. All of our race sequences in Daytona went well. We never faced any major issues and really never had any of those 'growing pains' that new teams tend to have. On the flip side, we didn't face any adversity either. Everything went well for us. I imagine that when we face an engine issue or a major handling issue, that we may struggle finding the best ways to work through that. That's to be expected, but the best teams are the ones that face adversity and come out of it in a better position."

GUSTAFSON (ON WEATHER INFLUENCING THE DAYTONA 500.): "Sunday night I was definitely frustrated. I was upset over our finish and some decisions I made throughout the race. But Monday morning, when I walked into the office, I had to leave that behind me. My mind is strictly on California now. We have a lot of opportunity this weekend and the rest of the season for success. That's what this team is focused on now. There's nothing we can do to change last weekend's outcome, but there's a lot we can do to affect the finishes of future races."

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