Martinsville Speedway - The Tums Fast Relief 500 (News & Notes)

[HacheMan]

The Tums Fast Relief 500
The NASCAR Sprint Cup series moves to Martinsville Speedway for the 32nd race of the 2010 season, the Tums Fast 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, October 24, 2010; 1:13 p.m./et.


Weather: Partly cloudy with a high around 75; wind out of the WSW at 9 mph. There is a 10 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 12 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:

48 cars will attempt to qualify for 43 spots. Cars not in the top 35 in the 2010 owner point standings will have to qualify based on speed. Starting positions 1-43 will be determined by qualifying on Friday, October 22 at 3:10 pm/et.


Fantasy Cheat Sheet:

Top 5

No. 11 Denny Hamlin: Hamlin has nine top 10 finishes in 11 career starts at Martinsville. He won the past two races at the track and should battle J.J. for the win.
No. 48 Jimmie Johnson: Johnson has won five of the past eight races at Martinsville. We expect the No. 48 team could be headed back to Victory Lane to claim yet another Martinsville Grandfather Clock.
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. 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. 18 Kyle Busch: Busch has had past success at short-tracks, but his lack of patience makes him the riskiest pick in our top five.


6 to 10

No. 29 Kevin Harvick: Harvick has managed to avoid trouble at Martinsville during his career. He should continue to avoid the frequent accidents and crack the top 10.
No. 5 Mark Martin: Martin has 23 top 10 finishes at M'ville during his career. He should make it 24 on Sunday.
No. 33 Clint Bowyer: Bowyer has cracked the top 11 in six of his last seven starts at Martinsville. He will be fast.
No. 42 Juan Pablo Montoya: Montoya has finished inside the top 16 in six of his seven career starts at Martinsville. He is a good pick.
No. 99 Carl Edwards: Edwards cracked the top 10 in three of the last four races at Martinsville. He should be the top Roush-Fenway driver this weekend.


11 to 20

No. 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Junior has finished in the top six in nine of his 21 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 17 Cup starts at Martinsville. His strong qualifying skills will help Newman start in the front and stay there.
No. 1 Jamie McMurray: McMurray has finished in the top 10 in nine of his 15 career
Martinsville starts. This is the weekend to use the No. 1 car.
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. 20 Joey Logano: Logano has been awesome at M'ville during his career. He is worth using in most leagues.
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 21 Cup starts at Martinsville. He isn't a great option this weekend.
No. 16 Greg Biffle: Biffle has just two top 10 finishes in 15 career starts at Martinsville. There are far better weekends to use The Biff.
No. 47 Marcos Ambrose: Ambrose has been great on short-tracks during his career. This is a good opportunity to use the Terrific Tasmanian.
No. 83 Aric Almirola: Almirola has had past success at Martinsville. He is a great sleeper pick in the No. 83 car.


21 to 30

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. 12 Brad Keselowski: Keselowski drove a great race at Martinsville this spring. We like his chances this trip to Virginia.
No. 9 Kasey Kahne: Kahne has led just 18 laps in 12 career starts at Martinsville and he has had terrible cars lately. He isn't a great choice.
No. 98 Paul Menard: Menard has averaged a 22nd place finish at Martinsville during his career. He is worth using in deep leagues.
No. 56 Martin Truex Jr.: Truex Jr. ran well at Martinsville this spring, but that was one of his only good runs at the track. There are better weekends to use him.
No. 43 A.J. Allmendinger: Allmendinger has had just two top 30 finishes in six career starts at Martinsville. This isn't the best weekend 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. 13 Casey Mears: Mears has averaged a 19th place finish at Martinsville during his career. We love him as a sleeper this week.
No. 82 Scott Speed: Speed has never had much success at Martinsville, but he has the talent to change that this weekend.
No. 19 Elliott Sadler: Sadler has just three top 10 finishes in 23 career starts at Martinsville. There are far better options this weekend.


31 to 35

No. 78 Regan Smith: Smith is a bit of a short-track stallion. He could surprise with a top 25 finish this weekend.
No. 77 Sam Hornish Jr.: Hornish Jr. ran a fast race at M'ville this spring. He is someone to keep an eye on this weekend.
No. 07 Robby Gordon: Gordon hasn't cracked the top 30 at Martinsville in the past 10 races. He isn't guaranteed a spot in the race, but he should make it.
No. 09 Bobby Labonte: Labonte has been terrible in five of the last seven races at Martinsville. He isn't a great pick.
No. 7 Kevin Conway: Conway had a good run this spring. He could crack the top 35.


Field Fillers

No. 71 Hermie Sadler
No. 26 Ken Schrader
No. 34 Tony Raines
No. 37 David Gilliland
No. 87 Joe Nemechek
No. 36 Dave Blaney
No. 38 Travis Kvapil
No. 81 J.J. Yeley
No. 46 Michael McDowell
No. 55 Terry Cook
No. 66 Johnny Sauter
No. 92 Dennis Setzer
No. 64 Landon Cassill

Brownie's Picks

Top Four:

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

Sleepers:

1. Aric Almirola
2. Casey Mears

Bust of the Week:

Kasey Kahne

 

[HacheMan]

Tum's Fast 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.

September 25, 1949: Curtis Turner, in his No. 41 Frank Christian-owned 1949 Oldsmobile, led a field of 15 cars to the green flag of the 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.

October 25, 2009: Ryan Newman earned his third career pole at Martinsville to start up front for the 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 48 cars on the preliminary entry list for this weekend's Cup race. Here are our picks for Sunday's TUMS Fast Relief 500 in Martinsville, Virginia.

Mid-Pack picks

Racing at Martinsville Speedway is unpredictable to say the least. Picking track favorites is tough enough but picking mid-packers should be done with a dart board and a blindfold. That being said, here are our best guesses for this weekend.

Joey Logano has to be considered one of the Chase 'spoilers' this week. In the March race at Martinsville, he spent 95% of the time (483 laps) in the top 15. He averaged an 11th place running position for the event and finished 2nd to teammate Hamlin. In three Cup starts here, he has a 15.3 average finish. NASCAR Statistics ranks him 1st in their 'Quality Passes' (passing while running in the top 15) category. Logano made 95 QP's in those three races. Give 'Sliced Bread' a look for your roster this week.

Up until the March race, Juan Pablo Montoya was the only driver who finished all of his Martinsville races (6 starts) and almost all on the lead lap. He finished down one lap in this race in 2008. It looked like he was going to continue that streak in March's Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500. He started 22nd but, after running 41 of the fastest laps of the race, by lap 100 he was up to 13th. Then he hit the wall, broke some suspension parts, came back 100 laps down only to have a tire go down. He still finished the race in 36th, continuing his string of finished races, but was 108 laps down to the leaders. Montoya has scored the 8th-most driver points of all contenders over the last four Cup races at the tricky speedway.

Okay, some of us haven't given up on Dale Earnhardt Jr. yet. In 21 Martinsville starts, he has a 14.1 average finish. Since joining Hendrick Motorsports in 2008, he had finishes of 6th, 2nd, 8th, 29th and 15th. The 29th place finish in the 2009 fall race was due to a blown tire putting him down a couple of laps. He was running 7th or 8th at the time. In the March 2010 race, Dale Jr. ran as high as 3rd, spent 488 laps (96% of the race) in the top 15, had an 11th place average running position and finished 15th. Consider using the No. 88 as a fourth or fifth driver this week.

Marcos Ambrose has three previous Cup starts at Martinsville. He's not very good at qualifying (starts of 24th, 34th and 31st) but he handles himself well in the race. He finished 14th in the March 2009 race. On lap 8 of the October 2009 race, Matt Kenseth ran out of room and got into the side of an unsuspecting Ambrose, ruining the Aussie's chance at another top 15 (finished 27th). In the March 2010 race, he got a lot of TV time due to 'contact' with other cars. On lap 104, with Sam Hornish Jr.; lap 162, Greg Biffle; lap 315, David Ragan got into him and cut down Ambrose's tire and on lap 421, Kevin Conway. Finally, Ambrose, Paul Menard and Kyle Busch were 3-wide racing on lap 499 with Busch ending up in the wall. Busch finished 22nd, Menard 14th and Ambrose came away with an 11th place. Give Ambrose a shot on your roster for another top 15 at Martinsville.