Trouble in Turn2

Hot dogs, paperclips and grandfather clocks. In a word association game, most people would be clueless about the relationship. For a NASCAR fan, the response would be an emphatic ‘Martinsville’. The famous (infamous?) hot dogs, the tight paperclip-shaped track and the unique grandfather clock trophy, a race at Martinsville serves plenty of character to the NASCAR crowed.

The first Martinsville race took place in 1949 when the place was still a dirt track. Red Byron beat 14 other drivers to win. Byron and his Toyota Camry Oldsmobile beat second place Lee Petty by 3 laps. The purse was $3,800 which might cover the cost of gas today.

Martinsville might be the slowest track on the Cup circuit but it packs a lot of excitement. Maybe ISC should use that as a selling point. “Catch all the action at NASCAR’s slowest track!” It’s not quite as sexy as Atlanta touting the fastest track or Darlington being the track too tough to tame, but a claim is a claim, right? Slow isn’t a trait that marketers love, but in one sense it is a benefit. Slower speeds bring better racing. It’s a theory several people believe would translate to speedways too.

Numbers and Notes

• If Lowes Motorspeedway is Jimmie Johnson’s house, then Martinsville is like his vacation cabin in the woods. He has four career wins including three straight. In 12 starts he has 11 top tens and eight top 5’s with an average finish of 6.2.

• Dale Earnhardt Jr is the best driver never to win a grandfather clock. He has seven top fives in 16 starts but zero wins. Anyone questioning his driver talent should simply refer to his 2006 run when he finished 4th without the luxury of his front fenders or bumper. He has a great chance to break through this weekend.

• Since 1998, Kurt Busch is the only driver to win races at Bristol and Martinsville in the same season. In 2002 Busch won the spring Bristol race and the fall Martinsville event. While both are short tracks, the actual setups are worlds apart. Bristol relates closer to Dover while Martinsville is more similar to Loudon or Phoenix. That means recent history is against Jeff Burton, but it’s more coincidence than restricting success at both tracks.

• A quick glance at the entry list shows 47 cars entered, meaning only four will miss the race. Michael McDowell will make his Cup debut, stepping into the Robert Parrish (#00) car for Michael Waltrip Racing. Meanwhile teammate David Reutimann slides over to the #44 car. Aric Almirola continues in the #8 car after his strong top ten run at Bristol. Watch out for Ken Schrader in the #49 car. Although the sun is quickly setting on both BAM Racing and Schrader, Kenny can still compete at short tracks and Martinsville is probably his best track at this point.

  Teams needing to qualify on speed this week are #01 Regan Smith, #08 Tony Raines, #10 Patrick Carpentier, #21 Bill Elliott (past champion provisional is in effect), #22 Dave Blaney, #34 John Andretti, #40 Dario Franchitti, #45 Kyle Petty, #49 Ken Schrader, #78 Joe Nemechek and #84 Mike Skinner.

Champs, Chumps and Sleepers Picks

My Pick to Win

Tony Stewart is a very reasonable pick, he always runs well at Martinsville. It would also be easy to take Jimmie Johnson or Jeff Gordon. Instead I’ll take Dale Earnhardt Jr to finally get off the schnide (any idea what a schnide is or how Jr got on it in the first place?) and win his first points race in almost two years.