Whose Title Is it? Gordon,
Johnson Battle For “Mr. Martinsville”
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Together, they
own seven NASCAR Sprint Cup Series titles, but for
Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff
Gordon (No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet) and
Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet) only one
matters this weekend:
Mr Martinsville.
Johnson, the reigning and three-time series champion,
and Gordon, the four-time series champion, both excel at
the famed .526-mile short track. But even the word “excel”
may be too bland.
They ace the place.
As such, Sunday’s Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 could be
a duel for dominance.
Gordon and Johnson have combined to win nine of the
last 12 NASCAR Sprint Cup events at Martinsville — the
highlight their bumper-banging, one-two finish (Johnson
first, Gordon second) in the spring 2007 event.
Johnson has won five of those nine races, Gordon four.
They also rank one-two (Johnson first, Gordon second) in a
crucial pre-race NASCAR Loop Data category, Driver
Rating. Johnson leads at 124.7. Gordon is next at
124.0.
More crazy-good numbers for Johnson: He averages a
top-10 finish at 10 of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ 22
tracks. Martinsville ranks second on that list, with
Johnson’s average finish there at 5.6. His best (5.5) is
at Phoenix International Raceway. He also leads two other
pre-race Loop Data categories for Martinsville —
Average Running Position (6.4) and Laps
in the Top 15 (3,579, or 89.3%).
Gordon leads all active drivers with seven wins and
seven poles at Martinsville. He also has 20 top fives and
26 top 10s in 32 starts there. He’s finished in the
top five in the last eight Martinsville events.
His average finish there — 6.9 — is nearly two positions
better than his second-best track, Indianapolis Motor
Speedway (8.6).
Kyle Busch Seeks To Master Martinsville
After winning last week at Bristol Motor Speedway and
climbing to fourth place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
standings, Kyle Busch (No. 18 M&M’s Toyota)
faces down one of his racing challenges this week at
Martinsville Speedway.
The historic half-mile has held one of the series’
hottest drivers at bay, with Busch posting three top fives
and four top 10s in eight series starts there. According
to pre-race NASCAR Loop Data statistics for Martinsville,
Busch has an Average Running Position of 14.9, with his
best finishes a pair of fourths in 2007.
He finished 38th there last spring and 29th last fall,
both due to brake problems.
“The first race locking up rear brakes and eventually
breaking the rear gear, and then the second race
overheating the front brakes and popping right-front
beads,” Busch said. “We went and tested at Little Rock to
try and get our brakes squared away and we found out how
to pop right-front beads over and over. We fixed that
problem. We used to pop them in 46 to 50 laps and now we
can go 80 laps straight and not see a darn issue.”
Busch heads into this weekend at Martinsville with
momentum, having won a national series race in each of the
last four weeks. Last Sunday, it was the NASCAR Sprint Cup
event at Bristol. Two weeks ago, he won the NASCAR Camping
World Truck Series event at Atlanta. Three weeks ago, he
won the NASCAR Sprint Cup event at his hometown track, Las
Vegas Motor Speedway, and a month ago, he swept both the
NASCAR Nationwide and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
events at Auto Club Speedway.
Don’t Forget Denny: Defending Martinsville
Winner On A Quiet Roll
With much focus given to the Jeff Gordon-Jimmie
Johnson dominance at Martinsville Speedway, and
Kyle Busch’s recent hot streak, Denny Hamlin (No.
11 FedEx Freight Toyota) has crept up the NASCAR
Sprint Cup standings largely unnoticed.
He finished second to Busch, his Joe Gibbs
Racing teammate, last Sunday at Bristol Motor
Speedway, an effort that propelled him into the top 12 for
the first time this season.
Now comes Martinsville, which wears a big bulls-eye on
Hamlin’s schedule.
“This is a great track, with a ton of history and
special style of racing,” he said. “I think it’s where I
am at my best and I know the entire No. 11 FedEx team
circles the Martinsville races on the calendar.”
Hamlin’s quiet climb has been a season-long effort.
Starting with a 26th-place in the Daytona 500, he moved
to 15th after a sixth-place finish at Auto Club Speedway.
A 22nd-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and a 13th
at Atlanta Motor Speedway moved him to 14th in the
standings, before last week’s runner-up effort.
The Bristol finish vaulted Hamlin six spots, to eighth
in the series standings. And now he anticipates Sunday’s
Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500, of which he — a Virginia
native — is the defending winner.
“The experience of winning a Cup race here, at a
Virginia track where I raced Late Models a few years ago,
and in front of great racing fans and in front of my
family, was something I will never forget,” Hamlin said.
“And to have a Martinsville clock sitting in my home that
I see everyday – it reminds me of that day and also how
much went into getting to that point.”
Hamlin ranks fifth in pre-race Driver Rating for
Martinsville (101.3), per NASCAR Loop Data statistics.
His average finish of 8.9 ranks third best behind Johnson
(5.6) and Gordon (6.9), respectively.
Gilliland, No. 71 Chevrolet In 35th As 2009
Car Owner Standings Take Effect At Martinsville
Sunday’s Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 marks the
season’s first event where competitors who are not in the
top 35 of the 2009 car owner standings must qualify for a
starting position.
Prior to this week, the final 2008 car owner standings
were used to “lock in” the top 35.
For the rest of the season, the top 35 in each week’s
owner standings are guaranteed a starting spot. Everyone
else must qualify on time.
Top-35 positioning is crucial to those teams hovering
just above or below the “bubble”. The team occupying the
35th position this week is the No. 71 TRG
Motorsports Chevrolet, driven by David
Gilliland and owned by Kevin Buckler.
The No. 71 was 34th in owner points heading into last
week’s event at Bristol. Gilliland managed to stay in the
top 35 with a 36th-place finish there.
“Being 35th in owner points is like having the last
seat in the last life boat on the Titanic,” Buckler said.
“You breathe a sigh of relief, but you are still out in
the freezing ocean waiting for a life line.”
Now comes Martinsville, with its tight confines and
little room for error.
“We will be able to go to Martinsville and unload the
car in race trim and run,” said Gilliland of the advantage
for his team and crew chief Slugger Labbe. “Slugger and
the guys will be able to work on it and get it a little
closer to what we need in the race. It will definitely
help us in our situation to be better on Sunday. I am
excited to be able to work on the race setup when we
unload.”
The No. 82 Team Red Bull Toyota driven
by Raybestos Rookie of the Year contender Scott
Speed and owned by Dietrich Mateschitz,
is 36th, 21 points out of 35th.
The No. 8 Guitar Hero Chevrolet driven
by Aric Almirola and owned by
Chip Ganassi is 37th, also 21 points out of 35th;
the No. 82 earns the 36th spot due to a tiebreaker. Both
drivers have a season-best finish of 21st; Speed won the
tiebreaker with a higher second-best finish to date, a
28th compared to Almirola’s 30th.
Close behind — by one point — is the No. 98
Energizer/Menards Ford driven by Paul
Menard and owned by Max Jones.
The 96 is 26 points out of 35th.
Above the “bubble,” the No. 20 Home Depot
Chevrolet driven by another Raybestos Rookie
contender, Joey Logano, and owned by
Joe Gibbs, is 34th, 14 points ahead of
Gilliland.
Further ahead, in 33rd, is the No. 34 Taco Bell
Chevrolet driven by John Andretti
and owned by Teresa Earnhardt. The No. 34
is 41 points ahead of the 35th-place No. 71 driven by
Gilliland.
Loop Data Suggests Earnhardt Jr., Martin And
Stewart Could Challenge At Martinsville
Statistically, the Jimmie Johnson-Jeff Gordon,
Hendrick Motorsports tandem is the clear favorite
this weekend at Martinsville Speedway.
But Rick Hendrick’s other two drivers
– Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mark
Martin – are no slouches at the Virginia short
track either.
Of the two, Earnhardt owns the better recent
statistics. He has scored top-10 finishes in three of the
last four races there, and since the inception of Loop
Data, ranks high in a number of key statistics.
Earnhardt has a Driver Rating of 102.4 (fourth-best),
an Average Running Position of 10.4 (fourth), 311 Fastest
Laps Run (fourth), a series-high 396 Green Flag Passes, a
Laps in the Top 15 percentage of 76% (fourth) and 219
Quality Passes (passes of cars in the top 15 under green),
which is second-most.
Earnhardt has never won a Martinsville race, but has
eight top fives in 18 career starts.
Martin, on the other hand, has two Martinsville wins,
but has struggled there recently. His last win came in
2000. He also took the last four Martinsville races off
when he switched to a partial schedule after the 2006
season.
Martin has finished out of the top 10 in his last three
Martinsville races, with his last top five finish coming
in the spring race of 2005.
Since 2005, he has a Driver Rating of 78.2, an Average
Running Position of 17.0, 22 Fastest Laps Run, a Laps in
the Top 15 percentage of 44.7% and a Pass Differential
(passes minus times passed) of 13.
Though not a Hendrick Motorsports driver, Tony
Stewart’s No. 14 Chevrolet does use Hendrick
engines. The statistics suggest Stewart may be a factor on
Sunday.
He has a Driver Rating of 113.7 (third), an Average
Running Position of 7.4 (third), 312 Fastest Laps Run
(third) and a Laps in the Top 15 percentage of 86.6%
(third).
Stewart won there in 2006, breaking a staggering streak
laid down by Gordon and Johnson. The two have paired for
nine of the last 12 Martinsville wins. Stewart,
Denny Hamlin and Rusty Wallace
are the only other drivers to win since 2003.
Martinsville Milestone: 25th Anniversary Of
Hendrick Motorsports’ First NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win
With 25 years, 175 wins and eight NASCAR Sprint Cup
titles in his rearview mirror, Hendrick
Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick
knows how to mark special occasions in the sport.
So how did he celebrate his first series win on April
29, 1984 at Martinsville Speedway?
Armed with toilet paper, Hendrick and some friends
road-tripped that Sunday night to Pleasant Grove, N.C.,
where they redecorated driver Geoff Bodine’s
front yard.
“He did that?” Bodine said. “I thought the neighbors
did that. Now I know. They could have done anything that
night — painted my house pink — and it wouldn’t have
bothered me. We were so happy.”
While victory celebrations have evolved, Hendrick
Motorsports’ transformation from fledging All-Star Racing,
as it was known then, to its current powerhouse status
began at one of NASCAR’s most historic tracks. On that
April day in 1984, Bodine led 55 laps, passing
then-defending series champion Bobby Allison
with 48 laps remaining to take the lead and the win.
Hendrick, a Palmer Springs, Va., native, wasn’t even
there. At church with his wife, Linda, he
got the winning news via phone, delivered by then-general
manager Jimmy Johnson.
“We missed Rick, but, you know, no one thought we were
ready to win,” Bodine said. “It was only our eighth race
together with a brand new race team. How do you do that?
How do you win your eighth race out?”
Native Virginians In The NASCAR Sprint Cup
Series Garage
From the No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy
Chevrolet: Car chief David Bryant
(Farmville), mechanic Jim Jenkins
(Hampton) and engineer Tom Stewart
(Hampton).
From the No. 19 Stanley Tools Dodge:
Driver Elliott Sadler (Emporia), engineer
Kevin Kidd (Tazewell) and gas man
Rodney Rhodes (Hickory).
From the No. 14 Old Spice Chevrolet:
Crew chief Darian Grubb (Floyd), mechanic
Darrell Haskins (Danville) and shock
specialist Adam Gravitt (South Boston).
From the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota:
Front tire carrier Brad Donaghy (Orange
County) and tire specialist Keith Eads
(Arlington).
From the No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet:
Tire specialist Charles Moles (Floyd) and
transporter drivers Barry Sheppard
(Stuart) and Mark Williams (Stuart).
From the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet:
Driver Jeff Burton (South Boston), tire
specialist Tracy Ramsey (Fredericksburg),
mechanic Greg Meredith (Fancy Gap),
engineer Jeff Curtis (Fairfax), gas man
Curt Bowman (Meadows of Dan) and
transporter drivers Franky Nester
(Ridgeway) and James Nunn (Ararat).
From the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet:
Gas man Caleb Hurd (Pulaski) and
transporter driver Kirk George (Ararat).
From the No. 5 CARQUEST/Kellogg’s Chevrolet:
Nos. 5 & 88 team manager Brian Whitesell
(Stuarts Draft), front tire changer Kyle Turner
(Yorktown) and spotter Jeremy Brickhouse
(Chesapeake).
From the No. 8 Guitar Hero Chevrolet:
Car chief Jefferson Hodges
(Williamsburg), catch can man Mark Schmuck
(Virginia Beach) and gas man Benjy Grubbs
(Richmond).
Also: Ed Watkins
(Dover) – No. 43 jack man; Anthony Cardamone
(Bristol) – No. 55 jack man; Pete Wright
(Martinsville) – No. 82 mechanic and No. 11 driver
Denny Hamlin (Chesterfield).
What To Know: A Guide to Off-Track NASCAR
Happenings
Small Track, Big Impact
Martinsville Speedway officials, plus local and state
leaders, announced Tuesday that the historic track, which
hosted the first official NASCAR Sprint Cup event in 1949,
has an annual impact of $170 million on the local economy.
A study conducted by the Washington Economics Group
produced the result. The study also determined that 2,824
permanent jobs for Virginia residents can be tied directly
or indirectly to the track.
Martinsville Speedway president W. Clay
Campbell was joined at Tuesday’s announcement by
Chuck Yaros, associate economist for the
Washington Economics Group, which did the study;
Deborah Buchanan, Chairman, Henry County Board of
Supervisors; Gene Teague, Martinsville
City Councilman; Ward Armstrong, who
represents the 10th district in the Virginia House of
Delegates; Roscoe Reynolds, who
represents the 20th district in the Virginia State Senate
and Mark Heath, President and CEO of the
Martinsville and Henry County Economic Development
Corporation.
Sunday’s Honorary Officials
Country music superstar Trace Adkins
will be busy during pre-race ceremonies for Sunday’s
Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville.
He’ll serve as both Grand Marshal and Honorary Starter
for the event, leading 500 local men, women and their
families as honorary Grand Marshals. Goody’s Headache
Powders and Martinsville officials selected 500 people
from the Martinsville and Henry County, Va., area for the
honor, and to salute hard workers everywhere.
Adkins, however, won’t sing the National Anthem. He and
the rest of the crowd will enjoy the effort of the 29th
Army Band from the Virginia National Guard.
NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race Announcement
Mark Martin will participate in a
NASCAR CAM video teleconference on Wednesday, March 25 to
discuss the 25th annual NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race on May
16 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
His availability will follow an official announcement
at noon Wednesday.
Martin, a two-time winner of the event, will make his
20th all-star start in May. Wednesday’s NASCAR CAM is
scheduled at 3 p.m., ET. For more information, visit
Ambrose To Auction Off Special Helmet
Tasmania native Marcos Ambrose (No. 47 Little
Debbie/Kingsford/Clorox Toyota) is doing a good
deed during Sunday’s Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 at
Martinsville, and he’d like NASCAR fans to help him out.
Recent deadly wildfires devastated southern Australia,
and Sunday, he’ll wear a specially-painted helmet that
will be auctioned off to benefit wildfire survivors and
rescue workers.
The Martinsville event marks the second consecutive
week Ambrose will wear the helmet painted by Nick
Pastura, an American artist.
He wore it last week to an 11th-place finish at
Bristol, and will wear it again next week at Texas Motor
Speedway. The helmet will be auctioned off Monday, April
6, online at
www.marcosambrose.com.
All proceeds will go the Yarra Glen Volunteer
Fire Brigade, a unit of the Victorian
Country Fire Authority in southern Australia. One
of the Brigade’s members, Steve Teear, is
an Ambrose fan who worked around the clock for nearly two
weeks battling wildfires. He also visited Charlotte, N.C.,
last year on a tour of Australian race fans.
Ambrose hopes to raise $230,000, which would help
Teear’s Brigade purchase a new 3,000-liter,
four-wheel-drive water tanker.
For more information on the auction, please visit
www.marcosambrose.com.
Up Next: Texas Motor Speedway
After consecutive short-track events, the NASCAR Sprint
Cup Series stretches out a bit, traveling to Fort Worth,
Texas for the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on
Sunday, April 5.
Carl Edwards (No. 99 Aflac Ford) won
both 2008 events at Texas, beating second-place finishers
Jimmie Johnson in the spring event and
Jeff Gordon in the fall.
Edwards also led the most laps in both events, 123 in
the spring and 212 in the fall.
Next Sunday’s race will air on FOX starting at 1:30
p.m. ET. The green flag will drop at approximately 2 p.m.
Fast Facts
The Race: Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500
The Place: Martinsville Speedway
(.526-mile concrete oval)
The Date: Sunday, March 29
The Time: 2 p.m. ET
Race Distance: 500 laps/263 miles
TV: FOX , 1:30 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN (Locally WZBB-FM 99.9) and
Sirius Satellite.
2008 Polesitter: Jeff Gordon
2008 Winner: Denny Hamlin
Schedule: (All times local ET) Friday –
Practice, 12-1:30 p.m., Qualifying, 3:40 p.m. Saturday –
Practice, 10:30-11:15 a.m., 11:50 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
Track Contact: Mike Smith, (276)
956-7236;
mksmith@martinsvillespeedway.com.
2009 Top 12 Drivers
Driver Points
1 Jeff Gordon 794
2 Kurt Busch 718
3 Clint Bowyer 715
4 Kyle Busch 709
5 Carl Edwards 665
6 Kasey Kahne 639
7 Tony Stewart 633
8 Denny Hamlin 631
9 Jimmie Johnson 627
10 Matt Kenseth 610
11 David Reutimann 607
12 Kevin Harvick 584
