Martinsville Speedway - Goody's 500 (News & Notes)

[HacheMan]

The Goody's 500
The NASCAR Sprint Cup series moves to Martinsville Speedway for the sixth race of the 2010 season, the Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500. Brian Brown took a look at past performances, season trends, and spoke with NASCAR contacts to predict how the field should finish on Sunday.


When: Sunday, March 28, 2010; 1:13 p.m./et.


Weather: Mostly cloudy with a high around 59; wind out of the ESE at 6 mph. There is a zero percent chance of precipitation.


The Track: The Half Mile Paperclip

Martinsville Speedway is a half mile paperclip shaped track with intermediate 12 degree banking on the turns. It is a smaller version of New Hampshire Motor Speedway so teams often use the same car and a similar setup at both tracks. Drivers that are successful at NHMS often run well at Martinsville.


Key to Race: LOOK OUT FOR THE HENDRICK BOYS

Hendrick Motorsports has dominated Martinsville. Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson have combined to win eight of the last 11 races at the track. Denny Hamlin shouldn't be completely ignored on Sunday, but if it isn't Gordon or Johnson taking the checkers we will be surprised.


Qualifying Procedures:

46 cars will attempt to qualify for 43 spots. Cars not in the top 35 in the 2010 owner points standings will have to qualify based on speed. Starting positions 1-43 will be determined by qualifying on Friday, March 26 at 3:10 pm/et.


Fantasy Cheat Sheet:

Top 5

No. 48 Jimmie Johnson: Johnson has won five of the past seven races at Martinsville. We expect the No. 48 team will be headed to Victory Lane to claim yet another Martinsville Grandfather Clock.
No. 11 Denny Hamlin: Hamlin has eight top 10 finishes in 10 career starts at Martinsville. He won last year's fall race and should battle J.J. for the win.
No. 14 Tony Stewart: Stewart and Denny Hamlin are the only drivers not named Jimmie Johnson or Jeff Gordon to win a race at Martinsville since 2004. Smoke will eat a ton of the track's famous red hot dogs and have the No. 14 near the front this weekend.
No. 24 Jeff Gordon: Gordon has seven career wins at Martinsville. He will crack the top five and could win with a little luck.
No. 5 Mark Martin: Martin has 23 top 10 finishes at M'ville during his career. He should make it 24 on Sunday.


6 to 10

No. 42 Juan Pablo Montoya: Montoya has notched top 16 finishes in all six of his career starts at Martinsville. I can't believe we are saying this due to his slow start to the season, but Montoya is a safe pick on Sunday.
No. 33 Clint Bowyer: Bowyer has cracked the top 11 in five of his last six starts at Martinsville. He will be fast on Sunday.
No. 99 Carl Edwards: Edwards cracked the top 10 in both of the 2008 races at Martinsville. He should be the top Roush-Fenway driver this weekend.
No. 18 Kyle Busch: Busch has had past success at short-tracks, but his lack of consistency this season makes him too risky of a pick for our top five.
No. 1 Jamie McMurray: McMurray has finished in the top 10 in nine of his 14 career
Martinsville starts. This is the weekend to use the No. 1 car.


11 to 20

No. 29 Kevin Harvick: Harvick has managed to avoid trouble at Martinsville during his career. He should continue to avoid the frequent accidents and could crack the top 10 on Sunday.
No. 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Junior has finished in the top six in nine of his 20 career starts at Martinsville. He should have no trouble cracking the top 15 on Sunday.
No. 39 Ryan Newman: Newman has qualified inside the top 10 in 11 of his 16 Cup starts at Martinsville. His strong qualifying skills will help Newman to break out of his 2010 slump.
No. 31 Jeff Burton: Burton has averaged a 15th place finish at Martinsville during his career. He should finish right around his average this weekend.
No. 2 Kurt Busch: Busch has really struggled at Martinsville lately. There are much better weekends to use the No. 2 driver.
No. 17 Matt Kenseth: Kenseth has just two top five finishes in 20 Cup starts at Martinsville. He isn't a great option this weekend.
No. 20 Joey Logano: Logano has been much improved this season. He won't match the 12th place finish he had last fall at M'ville, but he should easily crack the top 20.
No. 83 Brian Vickers: Vickers has driven strong cars at Martinsville in five of the past six races. He should have no problem cracking the top 20 on Sunday.
No. 9 Kasey Kahne: Kahne has led just 18 laps in 11 career starts at Martinsville. He isn't a great choice.
No. 47 Marcos Ambrose: Ambrose has been great on short-tracks during his career, including last weekend when he had a top five car before being caught up in an unfortunate wreck. This is a good opportunity to use the Terrific Tasmanian.


21 to 30

No. 16 Greg Biffle: Biffle has just one top 10 finish in 14 career starts at Martinsville. There are far better weekends to use The Biff.
No. 6 David Ragan: Ragan has cracked the top 27 in all seven of his career starts at Martinsville. He will do it again this weekend.
No. 98 Paul Menard: Menard is quickly becoming the story of the 2010 season. He is bound to have some bad luck soon, but it might be worth riding his hot streak for a few more races.
No. 43 A.J. Allmendinger: Allmendinger had a nice run at M'ville this spring. He won't match the ninth place finish, but he shouldn't have a problem cracking the top 25.
No. 56 Martin Truex Jr.: Truex Jr has just one top 10 finish in eight career starts at Martinsville. There are better weekends to use him.
No. 00 David Reutimann: Reutimann has never cracked the top 15 at Martinsville. This isn't a race to use him
No. 19 Elliott Sadler: Sadler has just three top 10 finishes in 22 career starts at Martinsville. There are far better options this weekend.
No. 12 Brad Keselowski: Keselowski struggled pretty mightily in his first trip to a short-track last weekend. Stay away from him until he loses the yellow-stripe in 2011.
No. 82 Scott Speed: Speed has never had much success at Martinsville, but he is a new driver this season.
No. 78 Regan Smith: Smith is a bit of a short-track stallion. He could surprise with a top 25 finish this weekend.


31 to 35

No. 34 Travis Kvapil: Kvapil has had decent success on short-tracks during his career. He is a decent option as a fifth driver on most fantasy teams.
No. 71 Bobby Labonte: Labonte has been terrible in four of the last six races at Martinsville. He isn't a great pick.
No. 55 Michael McDowell: McDowell will be doing well to qualify for Sunday's race.
No. 77 Sam Hornish Jr.: Hornish Jr. will struggle to crack the top 30 at Martinsville.
No. 7 Robby Gordon: Gordon hasn't cracked the top 30 at Martinsville in the past nine races. He isn't guaranteed a spot in the race, but he should make the race.


Field Fillers

No. 26 Boris Said
No. 90 Casey Mears
No. 13 Max Papis
No. 37 David Gilliland
No. 09 Aric Almirola
No. 38 Kevin Conway
No. 66 Dave Blaney
No. 87 Joe Nemechek
No. 46 Terry Cook
No. 36 Mike Bliss
No. 35 Johnny Sauter


Brownie's Picks

Top Four:

1. Jimmie Johnson
2. Denny Hamlin
3. Tony Stewart
4. Jeff Gordon

Sleepers:

1. Jamie McMurray
2. Paul Menard

Bust of the Week:

Greg Biffle

 

[HacheMan]

Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500
Track history: One of the oldest tracks on the Cup circuit, Martinsville Speedway opened as a half-mile dirt track in 1947 with only 750 seats. The track hosted one of 8 races held in the 1949 "Strictly Stock" series which eventually became the NASCAR Cup series. Today, Martinsville seats 91,000 and has 25 corporate suites. The Virginia track, paved in 1955, is a flat paperclip shaped half-mile oval, which is tough on drivers, brakes and sheet metal. Most of the passing is done by shoving someone out of your way. This usually causes some payback, but that's racin' on a short track. Since it doesn't take long before the leaders catch the end of the field, they're coming up on some cars that don't want to go down a lap. That's when it really gets hairy. These guys at the rear are usually not handling very well already, but now they'll overdrive the cars to stay ahead of the leaders. Martinsville is a lot different from the half-mile Bristol Motor Speedway, which is high-banked and totally concrete. Martinsville is flatter, with longer 800-foot asphalt straights, and a concrete surface, added in 1976, throughout the turns. At .526 miles, it is also Sprint Cup's shortest track.

First Martinsville 'Strictly Stock' race: Curtis Turner, in his No. 41 Frank Christian-owned 1949 Oldsmobile, led a field of 15 cars to the green flag of the September 25, 1949 Strictly Stock race on the ½ mile dirt oval track. Turner led 18 laps and finished 9th. Red Byron started the No. 22 Parks Novelty Oldsmobile 3rd in the lineup, led 97 of the 200 lap race, and finished 3 laps ahead of 2nd place, Lee Petty. Byron earned $1,500 for the win. He won 2 races in the 8-race season and became the 1949 series champion.

2009 Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500: Rain cancelled qualifying for the March 29, 2009 Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500. Jeff Gordon's No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet was the owner's points leader at the time so he led the field to the green flag. Gordon finished 4th after leading 147 of the 500 lap event. Denny Hamlin's No. 11 FedEx Toyota was the front runner for the most laps (296) but came up short at the end. He finished 2nd to Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet. This was Johnson's sixth win in 15 races at Martinsville. It was his 5th victory in the last 6 Cup races held at this track.

Last Martinsville Cup race: Ryan Newman earned his third career pole at Martinsville to start up front for the October 25, 2009 Tums Fast Relief 500. He led 23 laps, spent most of the race in the top 5 and finished 7th. Denny Hamlin started 17th in the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota and, like the March 2009 race, he dominated the event by leading 206 of the 501 laps. This time, unlike the March race, the native Virginian didn't come up short. Hamlin scored his 2nd Martinsville victory and 8th top 10 in 9 starts at the paper-clip shaped track.

Your fantasy game won't allow you to pick all track favorites so Mid-Pack Attack is here to help. A mid-packer may not win the race but has as good a shot at a top 15 finish as track favorites Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart. There were 46 cars on the preliminary entry list for this weekend's Cup race. Here are our picks for Sunday's Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500 in Martinsville, Virginia.

Mid-Pack picks

Juan Pablo Montoya is the only driver who has finished all of his Martinsville races (6 starts) and almost all on the lead lap. He finished down one lap, but still in 14th place, in the fall 2008 race. That says he can handle himself pretty well in close short track racing. Montoya's worst finish was a 16th in his first start at the Virginia half-mile. He's ranked 3rd in NASCAR Statistics "Quality Passes" (passing while running in the top 15) category (behind favorites Johnson and Gordon). He passed 165 times in those six races. This is a good week to put Juan in as your third or fourth driver.

At the six short track (Bristol, Martinsville and Richmond) races in 2009, Ryan Newman finished all inside the top 10. In 16 starts at Martinsville Speedway, he earned three poles and eight top-10 finishes, including a 6th and 7th last season. He qualifies 2nd best here (to favorite Gordon) with an 8.3 average start. Newman's last three races this season ended in 18th, 17th and 16th place finishes, respectively. We think he will continue that progression and pick up his first top 15 of 2010.

After three not-so-good races at Martinsville, it looked like AJ Allmendinger finally figured it out in 2009. He finished 9th in this race last year. In the October race, he was running in the top 15 when he and Joey Logano got into a shoving match. Allmendinger got the short end of that deal and, at mid-race, ended up in the wall. The No. 43 team actually tested their Martinsville car last week at the little track in Rockingham (N.C.). They feel they were able to take away a lot of notes and information from that test to use this weekend. Allmendinger has been pretty racy the last few races and we think he has a shot at a top 15 on Sunday.

We're giving Marcos Ambrose another short-track look this week. Last week, he was looking at a possible top 5 but finished the race in a "modified" after getting tangled up in a 13-car wreck. His first ever start in NASCAR was in 2006 in a Martinsville truck race. He said at the time: "I qualified decent, but during the race I hit everything including the pit wall." He's come a long way since then. He finished 14th here in this race last year. On lap 8 of the October 2009 race, Matt Kenseth ran out of room and got into the side of an unsuspecting Marcos Ambrose, ruining his chances at another top 15. If Ambrose can stay out of other driver's problems, we expect him up near the front on Sunday.

Here's a bonus pick this week. He's outside of the top-15 and not considered a track favorite (but should be) so we could have picked him. Mark Martin finished 7th and 8th last year at Martinsville. He has 2 W's, 3 poles and an average finish of 13. 2 in 44 Cup starts.