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Johnson Approaching Some ‘Regal’ Marks At Martinsville

Charlotte, NC (3/30/09) – While he might not have the cowboy hat to match, Jimmie Johnson and Richard Petty have a lot in common when it comes to Martinsville Speedway.
Johnson captured his sixth career NASCAR Sprint Cup victory Sunday at the diminutive .526-mile Virginia oval, a far cry from the 15 total races Petty won in his Cup career at Martinsville. But it’s the way Johnson is scoring the wins at Martinsville – in bunches – and his consistent record at the track that makes for an interesting comparison.

Johnson won for the fifth time in his last six Martinsville Cup starts when he took the checkered flag in Sunday’s Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500. The streak immediately reminded us of Petty winning seven of eight Martinsville events beginning with the 1968 Old Dominion 500 and ending with the same event in 1972. Along the way, Petty won five straight races during the hot stretch. Johnson’s best streak to date at Martinsville is three in a row during the 2006-2007 seasons and Sunday’s win was his second-straight at the track after capturing the Fall race there last year.

Those are the easy comparisons. The other stuff is scary.

Petty set what seemed to be insurmountable marks with 11 Top-5 Martinsville finishes in 12 races from 1967 through 1972. In 23 Cup events from 1962 through 1974, Petty finished out of the Top-10 just three times. If you take away the final 15 races in the twilight of his career when he never finished in the Top-10, Petty had 30 Top-5 and 37 Top-10 efforts in 52 Cup starts at Martinsville.

While Johnson’s record isn’t as impressive in terms of shear tonnage, his six wins, 11 Top-5 and 14 Top-10 finishes in 15 career starts at the track are nothing to sneeze at. In fact, Johnson has not finished out of the Top-10 at Martinsville in his past 14 Cup races – his only subpar effort coming when he finished 35th in the 2002 Virginia 500 the first-ever time he competed at the track.

In his last eight Martinsville Cup races, Johnson has finished no worse than fourth posting a sterling 1.87 finishing average in those events. Even more amazing is that in the Hendrick Motorsports driver has completed all 7,460 laps contested in the last 14 Cup races at Martinsville.

We’re not saying Johnson is ever going to come close to equaling or surpassing Petty’s marks at Martinsville, but he’s got one heck of a start. Even ‘The King’ would agree Johnson’s record at Martinsville is the kind of performance you can tip your hat to.

Tired Of Flat Tires

Sunday’s race at Martinsville was plagued by a rash of flat tires and subsequent caution flags. It seems the brake temps were so high that they would melt the inner bead where the tire meets the rim. Because of that, Goodyear will probably get a free pass this time around.

No questions or doubts here about what happened Sunday – but we sure are getting ‘tired’ of races being impacted by rubber-related issues. Let’s hope the brake and tire guys can do a better job of it the next time NASCAR comes to Martinsville.

Martinsville Wet Again

You have to wonder what Martinsville Speedway has done to tick off the racing gods.

It seems like at least one of the two races held each spring at legendary Virginia half-mile oval gets rained out. This year, Friday’s Cup qualifying and Saturday’s Truck Series race were lost to wet and cold conditions.

Then again, the event cancellations might have less to do with divine intervention and more with the NASCAR schedule makers who insist on slating races at places like Atlanta, Bristol and Martinsville in March when the odds of inclement weather are high.

You would think that if you lose enough events over the years to bad weather at a specific racetrack in a specific month, perhaps you’d reconfigure the schedule so those events are held at a time of year where the odds of good weather in that geographic area are high.

Then again, it’s NASCAR and when you have been doing the same thing for 60 years, why change it, right?

Officially Bummed

While rainouts are a bummer for fans and racers alike, one group of people the bad weather hits the hardest are the NASCAR race officials.

This weekend, the wet weather forced the ‘hardest working people in show business’ to adjust several schedules. NASCAR sent several Truck Series officials home after Saturday’s rainout, preferring to save on the extra hotel cost and the additional money to have multiple flights changed.

That meant that a number of Cup Series officials had to work yesterday’s race, make the more than two-hour drive home to the Charlotte area, and then drive back early Monday morning to fill in for the Truck event. Many of those same officials will have to be headed to Texas by Wednesday for next weekend’s events.

Tough luck guys. Hope you have sunny skies the rest of this season.

Hot Dog!

Martinsville again peddled thousands of their ‘mystery meat’ Hot Dogs to eager race fans and teams throughout the weekend. As a native of Wisconsin where a Hot Dog is more of a sausage in a natural casing, the Martinsville versions are a far cry from the haute cuisine tube steaks we’re used to.

To each his own, I guess – just don’t expect to see us eating at Martinsville Hot Dog anytime soon.

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