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Mash The Gas – Martinsville Preview

The paper-clip shaped Martinsville Speedway hosts race #7 of the Chase for the Sprint Cup with the running of the Tums Fast Relief 500. Martinsville is known for tight close quarters racing and the bump and run style that goes along with it makes it very easy to lose positions and valuable points. Plus, the Tums Fast Relief 500 presents possibly the final opportunity to deliver a payback this season and settle old scores from throughout the year.

500 is the number of laps that will be run on the just over half mile Virginia track for an actual race length of 263 miles. The green flag is scheduled to fly at 1:43 pm EDT on Sunday, October 28th.

Favorites:
Jimmie Johnson
John Wiedemann: What should have been a 25th or worse finish after Jimmie Johnson spun and backed into the wall at Kansas was amazingly turned into a top ten and Johnson maintained the seven point gap behind Brad Keselowski. The #48 crew saved the day by rebuilding the back of Johnson’s car and he responded by racing back up through the field. Now on to Martinsville, which is another great track for Johnson. With four fall race wins (six total) and a worst finish of sixth in a fall race at Martinsville added to the boost from the Kansas result, Johnson is my pick to win.

Dan Margetta: Jimmie Johnson has had tremendous success at Martinsville, capturing six wins and fourteen top five finishes. He owns the best driver rating at the tight half mile and is ready to pounce on point leader Brad Keselowski. The statement the #48 team sent last weekend that they can effectively back their car in the fence and still not lose points, cannot go unnoticed and Martinsville is the perfect place for them to increase the pressure by closing the gap between themselves and the leader.

Denny Hamlin
DM: Normally Denny Hamlin would be a lock for the favorite at Martinsville based on his four wins and nine top five finishes combined with his performance at the last flat track where he dominated the race in New Hampshire. However, the New Hampshire car was destroyed in a crash in testing at Kansas and lately the #11 team has given up too many points. They now find themselves in a do or die situation almost needing to win Martinsville to remain in the title fight. The last time they were in this situation, Hamlin called his shot and backed it up. So far he’s been silent leading up to Martinsville.

JW: The math is simple, Denny Hamlin needs to gain five points on both Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski over the next four races to get to the top. With Keselowski avoiding trouble and Johnson recovering from trouble, the task for Hamlin is pretty difficult. Hamlin has four wins nine top five and twelve top ten finishes in fourteen races at Martinsville. This is a track where he can definitely make a championship charge.

Brad Keselowski
JW: Points leader Brad Keselowski avoided blown tires and accidents, notably by driving in between the spinning cars of Ryan Newman and Kyle Busch on his way to finish in the top ten at Kansas. Keselowski has a 13th place average finish in five races with a best finish of ninth captured this spring at Martinsville. As always with BK, stats don’t matter. Look for Keselowski to get a solid top five and go for the win if the cards fall right.

DM: Brad Keselowski and the #2 team have been racing like the points leader the last few weeks, finishing a respectable eleventh at Charlotte and then dodging numerous bullets to finish eighth at Kansas. That strategy may not work at Martinsville where playing it conservative could get you knocked out of the way. They bring a brand new car to the roughest track on the circuit this week which shows how serious they are to win the championship.

Clint Bowyer
DM: Bowyer is an accomplished flat track racer who fared well here in the Spring only to be involved in a late race tangle while battling for the lead. He only has a single top five finish to go along with seven top ten results at Martinsville but still finds himself within shouting distance of the title. The team can’t afford to lose any points this weekend which puts them in a simple strategy mode of just racing for the win.

JW: Clint Bowyer didn’t come up with the win that many were expecting at Kansas. A sixth place run allowed him to pick up a couple points and he remains 25 points behind. With four races left, time is running out for most of the Chase drivers. At this point drivers who are in fourth place or further back need something to happen to the front runners as well as having top five finishes themselves. Bowyer finished 10th in the spring and will need to better that result this weekend. Bowyer was running up front and got in an incident with Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon on a late restart, taking all three out of contention for the win, so another Chase win this weekend isn’t out of the question.

Kasey Kahne
JW: I’ve been waiting for Kasey Kahne to have a breakout race in the Chase and it has yet to happen. Like Bowyer, he is slipping out of contention for the Cup. Kahne captured the pole for the spring race and ran near the front until his engine let go, another disappointment from the early season for the #5 team. The early season let downs seem to be in the past but Kahne needs a win if the Cup is in this season’s future.

DM: Kahne is the final driver in the standings who is not a full race behind the lead and his Martinsville stats aren’t overly impressive with a single top five finish to go along with two top ten results. Kahne does have a flat track win at New Hampshire earlier this year and they #5 team has steadily gained points on the lead the last few weeks. He’ll need to show a more aggressive side this week to continue that trend which may be a bit out of his element.

Tony Stewart
DM: A Stewart-Haas car has won the last two Martinsville races with Stewart winning this race a year ago and teammate Ryan Newman grabbing the victory in the Spring. Stewart has three Martinsville wins and nine top five finishes which ranks him fourth best driver rating wise. Stewart has been uncharacteristically quiet in the Chase so far this year and Martinsville could be the place he wakes up.

JW: Just when you are not thinking about him, Tony Stewart pops up and dominates a race. Could that be the case at Martinsville? Maybe Stewart will win out the next four races and capture the Sprint Cup Championship again. I wouldn’t put anything past Stewart, but at this point I think his Championship hopes are done. And that is when Stewart comes back and reminds you of the Champion that he is.

Jeff Gordon
DM: Gordon was on a roll for a few weeks, rattling off top three finishes with ease until Charlotte when he and the team cooled off. He owns seven Martinsville wins and twenty five top five finishes which places him second in the driver ratings. In the Spring he was in position to win until tangling with Clint Bowyer and others with a few laps to go and could be the guy to beat on Sunday.

JW: True, Gordon was the driver to beat in the spring, leading 329 laps. But it was Johnson at the end, leading 111 laps, that had the race in hand. The three driver meeting between Bowyer, Johnson and Gordon parted the seas and Ryan Newman capitalized with the win. Gordon has climbed from the basement to the middle of the stairs but time has run out for him to climb to the top. The recovery Gordon made with his early season struggles to make it into the Chase and now eighth in the standings shows that he still has plenty of fuel in the tank. Challenging for wins at the end of the season should be icing on the cake for the #24 team.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.
JW: Dale Earnhardt Jr’s chance for a championship was probably remote prior to missing two races and is completely gone now. Coming back from concussion issues, it will be hard to predict how Junior will fare. I’m thinking the questioning from the media will produce more of a headache than the actual driving for Earnhardt. Finishing third in the spring after the aforementioned restart wreck was the culmination of a climb through the field into contention at the end of the day. Junior has a streak of top ten finishes in his last four Martinsville races coming into this weekend.

Chase Standings heading into Martinsville:
Brad Keselowski 2250 points, still 7 points ahead of Johnson
Jimmie Johnson 2243 points, spectacular recovery to maintain 2nd in points
Denny Hamlin 2230 points, drops 5 points to 20 behind leader
Clint Bowyer 2225 points, picked up 3 to 25 points behind BK
Kasey Kahne 2220 points, gained 5 points to 30 behind
Martin Truex Jr. 2207 points, great run gains only 6 points to 43 behind
Tony Stewart 2203 points, recovers from spin and picks up 3 points, now 47 behind
Jeff Gordon 2199 points, loses a single point to 51 points behind BK
Matt Kenseth 2195 points, another Chase win but 55 points behind leader
Kevin Harvick 2191 points, loses 3 points to 59 points behind
Greg Biffle 2188 points, crash drops him five positions and 62 points out of lead
Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2128 points, he should be back this week, but Champ hopes are gone

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