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Last Short-Track Race For NASCAR Season Sunday At Martinsvilleby Capt. Herb Emory ~ October 19th, 2007. Filed under: Captain's Corner. |
Get ready for the most exciting races left in the NASCAR championship playoffs. The battle ground is at Martinsville, Virginal Sunday and here in Atlanta next weekend. The three events following the Martinsville and Atlanta events normally seem like Sunday afternoon runs at Dullsville Raceway.
I guess weather is behind the scheduling of Texas, Phoenix and Miami as the final three rounds of the championship playoffs, but the race fan in me says give me an exciting track for the grand finale of the season. Dale Jr.’s wins and the water leak in the track are the only highlights I remember at Texas.
Kurt Busch’s reckless driving arrest sticks in my memory bank for Phoenix and I really can’t think of a single thing that has managed to be saved in my mind from the races at Homestead-Miami.
There just haven’t been any great dramas at Homestead to match the many historic moments created during those last-race-of-a-season runs that we had at Atlanta Motor Speedway until 2001.
Atlanta stopped hosting the season finale following the 2000 season. The New York attack in 2001 resulted in the New Hampshire race being rescheduled as the last race that year and NASCAR started scheduling the Homestead-Miami Speedway as the last race of the season the following year.
The next two stock car battles in Virginia and Georgia will probably produce the most memorable moments for the last-half of the Chase. It is NASCAR’s shortest track (Martinsville) this weekend and the fastest track (Atlanta) next weekend. I suspect when the haulers leave Atlanta the majority of the championship contenders will be eliminated from a chance to win the big trophy.
It is already beginning to look like a four-team race for top honors headed into Martinsville. Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer and Tony Stewart are still within striking distance of the championship.
The other eight drivers have all fallen more than 200 points behind the leader and it looks as though the only chance those guys have is for both Gordon and Johnson to have poor finishes in at least two of the five races left. Matt Kenseth is in the deepest hole. Kenseth, the 2003 champion, is 442 points behind Gordon and it seems like that will be an impossible deficit to erase in just five events.
Gordon and Johnson have great scorecards at Martinsville. Gordon has seven wins there (the most of any active driver) and Johnson has won the last two events there.
Gordon has collected seven of the Grandfather clocks the track awards to winners since 1996. The No. 24 has won four of the last nine races at Martinsville and he finished second there in April.
Jimmy Johnson scored his third win at Martinsville in April. Johnson had previous wins at the speedway in 2006 and 2004. He has the best average finish ranking of any active driver at the track.
Ricky Rudd has also accumulated three wins at Martinsville. He made the trip trips to Victory Lane in 1998, 1986 and 1983. This weekend will be Rudd’s 55th race at the Martinsville track.
Tony Stewart and Mark Martin have collected two wins each at the Virginia track. Stewart’s Martinsville wins were last year and in 2000. Martin’s victories there were in 1992 and 2000.
The one-time winners at Martinsville include Kurt Busch (2002), Bobby Labonte (2002), Dale Jarrett (2001) and Jeff Burton (1997).
The top-five finishers of the April race at Martinsville were Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Seven of the 12 championship playoff drivers registered top-ten finishes in that event.
Nine drivers traded the lead 15 times during the race. Dale Jr. collected the bonus points for leading the most laps. The No. 8 was out in front for 137 of the 500 laps.
The other drivers leading more than one lap were Denny Hamlin (125), Jimmie Johnson (113), Jeff Gordon (92), Tony Stewart (11), Kyle Busch (10) and Elliott Sadler (10).
There were 13 caution-flag incidents and drivers spent 93 laps driving under the yellow flag. The 500 laps took just under three hours and 45 minutes to complete.
Denny Hamlin was the pole winner for the event. He turned a 95.103-miles-an-hour lap around the half-mile track during time trials.
Georgia Boys: The trip to Charlotte was rough on all of the Georgia drivers. Reed Sorenson had the best finish among the bunch and that was 30th. The Peachtree City driver is ranked 23rd in the Nextel Cup standings. Reed started 15th and finished 25th in the Busch Series race at Charlotte.
David Ragan scored another top-ten in the Busch Series race at Charlotte, but his Nextel Cup run ran into trouble early. The Saturday night main event saw Ragan’s No. 6 in the wall on the 22nd lap. The Unadilla driver spent over a hundred laps in the garage for repairs and left North Carolina with 40th-place pay. Ragan is listed 21st on the Nextel Cup point chart.
His efforts in the Friday night Busch Series race were more successful. Ragan finished sixth in the race and is still ranked fifth in the Busch points.
Bill Elliott was back in the No. 21 Ford for the Charlotte race. Elliott started and finished 35th in his 15th Nextel Cup race of the season.
Lawrenceville’s Richard Johns was the only other Georgia driver competing in Charlotte. He finished 27th in the Busch Series race there.
High Speed TV:
Thursday October 18
6:00 p.m. NASCAR Now—ESPN2
8:00 p.m. The Chase Is On—Speed
8:30 p.m. Survival of the Fastest—Speed
Friday October 19
11:00 a.m. NASCAR Live—Speed
2:30 p.m. NASCAR Live—Speed
3:00 p.m. Go or Go Home—Speed
3:30 p.m. Martinsville Nextel Cup Qualifying—ESPN2
5:30 p.m. NASCAR Now—ESPN2
6:00 p.m. NASCAR Live—Speed
7:00 p.m. Trackside at Martinsville—Speed
8:00 p.m. California All-Star Showdown—Speed
Saturday October 20
10:30 a.m. NASCAR Live—Speed
11:00 a.m. Martinsville Craftsman Truck Qualifying—Speed
3:00 p.m. Martinsville Craftsman Truck 250—Speed
7:00 p.m. Martinsville Happy Hour Practice—ESPN2 (Tape Delayed)
Sunday October 21
8:00 a.m. NASCAR Performance—Speed
9:30 a.m. NASCAR Raceday—Speed
10:00 a.m. NASCAR Now—ESPN2
1:00 p.m. Martinsville Pre-Race Coverage—ABC (ch.2)
2:00 p.m. Martinsville Nextel Cup 500—ABC (ch.2)
7:00 p.m. The Speed Report—Speed
8:00 p.m. NASCAR Victory Lane—Speed
9:00 p.m. Wind Tunnel—Speed Channel
Saturday’s WSB 120 racing program will air from 2:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. on Newstalk 750 WSB Radio and www.wsbradio.com. For more race information visit our Fastcar Newsdesk at www.captainherb.net.
