NASCAR rail: A look at the Subway 500 at Martinsville
SUBWAY 500
AT A GLANCE
WHERE: Martinsville Speedway, Martinsville, Va.
WHEN: 1 p.m. ET
BROADCAST: ABC, live on Sirius satellite radio, channel 128
THE LOWDOWN: The Chase is made up of a microcosm of the NASCAR Nextel Cup schedule, and this Sunday drivers get to challenge the only short track in the playoffs. Beating and banging will once more be the order of the day, so there is still one wild card to play before three of the final four races of the season are contested on 1.5-mile unrestricted, intermediate speedways.
PREVIOUS 5 WINNERS:
2006: Jimmie Johnson
2005: Jeff Gordon
2004: Jimmie Johnson
2003: Jeff Gordon
2002: Kurt Busch
LAST WEEK'S WINNER: JEFF GORDON
What makes Jeff Gordon so dangerous is the myriad of ways he can find to beat you. In the course of his 81 career victories, he's won with fuel mileage gambles, with tire strategy, by surviving field-thinning accidents and through simple domination. Just when it appeared he had exhausted his arsenal, he's found a new strategy - patience. He hung out in the back of the pack at Talladega SuperSpeedway two weeks ago and led only the final lap. At Lowe's last week, he simply wanted to survive 500 miles, but his thoughts turned to victory with 53 laps remaining, and he scored his second consecutive win to take a convincing lead in the points standings.
1. Jeff Gordon
Three-year average finish at Martinsville: 3.33
In the last three years, in 24 combined starts, Hendrick Motorsports has recorded 12 top-fives (50 percent of their entries) and 16 top-10s (66.7 percent), and Gordon has helped lead that charge. He swept victory lane in 2005 - just as he did in 2003 - and then finished second, fifth and second in his last three starts on this half-mile oval.
2. Jimmie Johnson
Three-year average finish at Martinsville: 2.83
When Gordon hasn't been in victory lane, his teammate Johnson carried the torch. Johnson won the fall 2004 race on this track, swept the top 10 in his next three starts and then won the last two Martinsville events. Between them, Johnson and Gordon have an average finish of 3.08 in the last six races, and they finished first and second this spring.
3. Clint Bowyer
Three-year average finish at Martinsville: 18.67
Two weeks ago at Talladega, crew chief Gill Martin reported that one tall hurdle was cleared on that SuperSpeedway and another lay ahead at Lowe's. After the 1.5-mile "cookie-cutter" track, they would not be nearly as worried about the remainder of the Chase races. Bowyer finished second in the Bank of America 500, and it's time to take him seriously as a title contender.
4. Tony Stewart
Three-year average finish at Martinsville: 9.17
If not for his accident at Kansas three weeks ago, Stewart would be part of a four-horse race for the championship. Further frustrating his hopes, however, is the fact that while he dominated at Talladega and battled back from adversity at Lowe's to earn back-to-back top 10s, he's still lost ground to the points leader. It's enough to make him want to hit someone in the pits.
5. Carl Edwards
Three-year average finish at Martinsville: 22.17
Edwards has held a steady wheel in the playoffs, and if he had not been swept into Stewart's accident at Kansas, he too would be in the thick of things. Martinsville could be the track on which he loses even more ground, however. In six career starts on this half-mile bullring, Edwards has never cracked the top 10 and averages a result of 22nd.
6. Kyle Busch
Three-year average finish at Martinsville: 15.00
Busch has been extremely vocal about his dislike for the Car of Tomorrow, but that hasn't kept him from recording solid results in it. He won the first race in this body style at Bristol in the spring and swept the top 10 in his first four attempts. That included a fourth at Martinsville and again on the big sister flat track of New Hampshire International Speedway. It also makes him a driver to watch this week.
7. Kurt Busch
Three-year average finish at Martinsville: 13.33
Since the beginning of 2003, only four drivers have won at Martinsville. In this same No. 2 Dodge, Rusty Wallace joins Gordon, Johnson and Tony Stewart in victory lane. Busch himself took the trophy home after the fall 2002 race, and he thinks it is time that he returns. Unfortunately in the nine races contested since his victory, Busch has only one Martinsville top-five.
8. Kevin Harvick
Three-year average finish at Martinsville: 18.67
Harvick's results at Martinsville are like a hillbilly's teeth - only every other one is good. In 2003 he was 16th in the spring and seventh in the fall. In 2004, he was 19th in the spring and eighth in the fall, and then he fell outside the top 10 for both 2005 races before sweeping the top 10 in 2006. Since he experienced a freak fire in the untested COT this spring and finished 41st, he's due another top 10.
9. Denny Hamlin
Three-year average finish at Martinsville: 12.50
Everything was going Hamlin's way at the start of the season, and now Fate is frowning on the sophomore sensation. Ironically, the only place this flat track king has run poorly during the Chase was at New Hampshire, but he has only one top-five to show for his yeoman's efforts. If he's going to reverse his fortune, however, it's likely to happen on his home state track.
10. Jeff Burton
Three-year average finish at Martinsville: 18.83
Burton is a flat track master who found his mojo just in time to come home to Virginia. In 68 previous starts on the minimally banked courses of Martinsville, Phoenix and New Hampshire, he has amassed seven victories, 21 top-fives and 48 top-15s. Better still, he hails from just up the road in South Boston, Va., so friends and family will fill the stands and direct all their positive energy his way.
11. Martin Truex Jr.
Three-year average finish at Martinsville: 28.00
In many ways, the pressure is off Truex. He got off to a great start in the Chase with a fifth at New Hampshire, but has failed to crack the top 10 since. With a 38th at Kansas and a 42nd at Talladega, he can't win the NASCAR Nextel Cup unless everyone else experiences the same amount of trouble, so now all he has to do is race flat out for victories and pride.
12. Matt Kenseth
Three-year average finish at Martinsville: 14.00
It seemed impossible that a driver who made the Chase on the strength of eight top-fives and 21 top-15s in the first 26 regular season races would finish outside the top 25 in four consecutive events now that the points are more valuable than ever. But as we saw him spinning out of 15th last week at Lowe's, it was time to admit that Fate turned her back on him.
Three-year average finish on the short, flat tracks: Martinsville Speedway, New Hampshire International Speedway and Phoenix International Raceway
Driver Avg. Finish Attempts
Jeff Gordon 6.33 18
Jimmie Johnson 7.67 18
Tony Stewart 9.72 18
Denny Hamlin 10.75 12
Kevin Harvick 12.94 18
Jeff Burton 13.11 18
Ryan Newman 14.44 18
Matt Kenseth 14.89 18
Carl Edwards 15.50 18
Dale Earnhardt Jr 15.61 18
Kyle Busch 15.63 16
Kurt Busch 16.53 18
Kasey Kahne 16.94 18
Bobby Labonte 18.11 18
Martin Truex Jr 18.60 10
Greg Biffle 19.61 18
Ricky Rudd 19.73 11
Jamie McMurray 19.78 18
Clint Bowyer 20.64 11
J J Yeley 20.82 11
Juan Montoya 22.75 4
David Ragan 23.00 5
Reed Sorenson 23.00 10
Jeff Green 23.22 18
Joe Nemechek 23.78 18
Brian Vickers 23.83 18
Tony Raines 24.08 12
Casey Mears 25.00 18
Elliott Sadler 25.39 18
Kyle Petty 25.41 17
Dale Jarrett 25.83 18
Dave Blaney 25.88 16
Johnny Sauter 26.25 8
Scott Riggs 26.39 18
Jeremy Mayfield 27.75 16
David Stremme 27.80 10
Robby Gordon 29.17 18
Michael Waltrip 30.33 18
David Gilliland 31.57 7
David Reutimann 32.25 4
Bill Elliott 32.33 3
Paul Menard 33.25 4
Ward Burton 36.38 8
Kevin Lepage 38.80 15
A J Allmendinger 41.75 4
John Andretti 42.00 4
Laps in the top 10 at Martinsville during the last three years
Driver Top-10 Laps Possible Laps %
Tony Stewart 2,722 3,500 77.8%
Jimmie Johnson 2,615 3,500 74.7%
Jeff Gordon 2,439 3,500 69.7%
Kurt Busch 2,154 3,500 61.5%
Jamie McMurray 1,897 3,500 54.2%
Dale Earnhardt Jr 1,840 3,500 52.6%
Kyle Busch 1,322 2,500 52.9%
Kevin Harvick 1,300 3,500 37.1%
Ryan Newman 1,280 3,500 36.6%
Denny Hamlin 1,107 2,000 55.4%
Kasey Kahne 981 3,500 28.0%
Jeff Burton 955 3,500 27.3%
Bobby Labonte 944 3,500 27.0%
Elliott Sadler 863 3,500 24.7%
Jeremy Mayfield 763 3,000 25.4%
Ricky Rudd 689 2,500 27.6%
Matt Kenseth 602 3,500 17.2%
Jeff Green 532 3,500 15.2%
Greg Biffle 320 3,500 9.1%
Clint Bowyer 301 1,500 20.1%
Joe Nemechek 291 3,500 8.3%
Kyle Petty 277 3,500 7.9%
Carl Edwards 273 3,000 9.1%
Tony Raines 258 1,500 17.2%
J J Yeley 215 1,500 14.3%
Scott Riggs 193 3,500 5.5%
Reed Sorenson 185 1,500 12.3%
Casey Mears 101 3,500 2.9%
Brian Vickers 96 3,000 3.2%
Dave Blaney 88 2,500 3.5%
Ward Burton 60 1,500 4.0%
Michael Waltrip 56 3,000 1.9%
Dale Jarrett 36 3,500 1.0%
Martin Truex Jr 24 1,500 1.6%
Juan Montoya 21 500 4.2%
Robby Gordon 16 3,500 0.5%
David Ragan 13 1,000 1.3%
Johnny Sauter 1 1,500 0.1%
David Stremme 0 1,500 0.0%
Kevin Lepage 0 1,500 0.0%
David Gilliland 0 1,000 0.0%
David Reutimann 0 500 0.0%
A J Allmendinger 0 500 0.0%