2008 Goody’s Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville Speedway

More Short Track Excitement:

The 2008 Goody's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville Speedway brings the NASCAR Sprint Cup series to NASCAR's oldest short track. This beautiful half-mile paperclip shaped speedway is the only race track on the schedule that has hosted NASCAR since 1949.

This weekend will be the 119th race spanning 60 years at this historic Virginia race track.

Tickets:

Speedway ticket office (877)RACE-TIX

Buy online from TicketsNow (direct link)

The Track:

Martinsville Speedway is a .526 mile true oval. Asphalt straightaways and concrete in the turns. Martinsville only has 12 degrees of banking in the turns so drivers will really use their brakes to get it slowed down for the corners. Racing at Martinsville has been described as driving down a drag strip, turning around and driving back up the other lane, 500 times.

Race Distance:

263 Miles = 500 Laps

The Big Picture:

When the Sprint Cup series raced two weeks ago in Bristol point leader Kyle Busch was running up front again when bad luck struck. He ended up two laps down but it was good enough for 17th. He maintains the point lead but gave up a bit of his cushion.

The top twelve are now:

1. Kyle Busch
2. Greg Biffle -30
3. Kevin Harvick -33
4. Jeff Burton -37
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -96
6. Kasey Kahne -108
7. Tony Stewart -126
8. Ryan Newman -147
9. Clint Bowyer -176
10. Kurt Busch -177
11. Matt Kenseth -178
12. Martin Truex Jr. -187

Storylines:

NASCAR has raced at this facility since he original NASCAR season in 1949. This year marks the 60th season of racing on the quaint short track.

Expect lots of great historical information about this speedway and plenty of conversation about the best hot dogs in the sport. Martinsville Speedway is a uniquely down-home speedway in the big-money sport of NASCAR.

Media Coverage:

TV: FOX Sunday, March 30th, 1:30 PM Eastern

Radio: MRN and SIRIUS Satellite

Actual Race: 2:00PM

Recent Events:

2007 Winner: Jimmie Johnson

2007 Polesitter: Jeff Gordon

Last Year:

As the laps wound down in 2007 Jeff Gordon had the faster car but couldn't find a way past his teammate Jimmie Johnson for the win. Johnson beat Gordon to the finish line by half a carlength to score his third Martinsville win in a row.

Predictions:

The Hendrick Motorsports drivers have dominated the races at Martinsville Speedway. Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson have combined to win eight of the last ten races in Martinsville.

Although Johnson has won the last three races in a row I am going with Jeff Gordon for my primary pick this weekend.

For my backup I am going with the last driver to win at Martinsville before Johnson went on his tear. Tony Stewart typically runs well in Martinsville and the Joe Gibbs Toyota drivers have been flexing their muscles in 2008.