Short Track Battle:
For the second week in a row the NEXTEL Cup drivers will do battle on a short track. After the high banks and high speeds of Bristol this weekend's race on the flat Martinsville half-mile will seem a lot slower. Here are the vital stats and my predictions for this Sunday's race.
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.
The Big Picture:
This is race number 6 of the 36 race season. Still too early in the season for any driver to break away, or be out of the points race completely. However, the frequent bumping and banging here makes a DNF a very real possibility for everyone.
The current points top ten are: 1. Jimmie Johnson 835. 2. Greg Biffle 741. 3. Tony Stewart 679. 4. Carl Edwards 678. 5. Elliott Sadler 657. 6. Kevin Harvick 654. 7. Kurt Busch 635. 8. Dale Jarrett 611. 9. Rusty Wallace 611. 10. Mark Martin 609.
Storylines:
Brakes! Brakes! Brakes! Drivers accelerate hard off the corners and then have to really slow down to make the corners. Use your brakes up and you can't turn good lap times so drivers will have to be gentle early in the race and save some brakes for a mad dash at the end.
Media Coverage:
TV: Fox 12:30 PM Eastern
Radio: MRN and XM Satellite
Actual Race: 1:20PM
Last Year:
After winning both Martinsillve races in 2003 Jeff Gordon picked up where he left off and won the pole for the race. He was again having a strong run when a chunk of concrete broke off of the track and hit his car. This left a pothole that caused a red flag which halted competition for over an hour while track crews patched the track surface. Jeff's car wasn't the same after that and he finished 6th.
It was Rusty Wallace that broke a 133-race losing streak and claimed a big win.
Predictions:
Jimmie Johnson won here last fall and Jeff Gordon won both Martinsville races in 2003. I'm going to pick these two guys to dominate most of the day as these two Hendrick Motorsports drivers have proven that they know how to get it done here.
