Goody's Cool Orange 500 Qualifying Update

Martinsville Speedway -- 03/30/08

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Saturday Mar 29 2008 11:37pm

If you want to know the secret of getting around Martinsville, you arguably can't ask a better expert than Darrell Waltrip, who won 11 races on the paperclip-shaped short track in 52 starts - that's a winning percentage of 21% in all the Martinsville Cup races he ran.

D.W. said, "You have to be good on the gas, but also good on the brakes. You've got to be really smooth on the wheel. You can't juke a car at that place. I always tell people it's like driving with an egg under the accelerator."

In other words, Martinsville is a finesse track. It takes just the right combination of throttle and brake to get the car to roll through the corner efficiently to turn the fastest laps.

It also takes patience. With passing at a premium and so many cars compressed into so compact a space, drivers who understand the importance of give and take - especially early on - will have a clear advantage. "I always felt that at Martinsville, you get what you give," said Waltrip. "If you weren't willing to compromise, give and take, well, you were going to get stuffed in one of those walls over there. Trust me, it's pretty easy to do. I always tried to remember that."

Among today's drivers, the one who seems to have the best combination of skills here is Jeff Gordon (+335). His seven victories place him third on the career win list at Martinsville, tied with Rusty Wallace and behind Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip.

Gordon, who had somewhat of an epiphany regarding the best line at Martinsville years ago, parlayed his knowledge and experience into a pole run on Friday. Gordon turned a 19.66 sec., 96.29 mph lap for his sixth Martinsville pole (D.W. has eight).

Despite Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson's (+425) recent success at Martinsville, it's hard not to consider Gordon the nascar odds-on favorite for the win. He has an amazing 10 straight top-10 finishes including four wins during that stretch, sweeping the track in both 2003 and 2005. Though he hasn't won here recently, he finished second and fifth in 2006, and second and third in 2007.

And here's a bit of trivia for you: more races have been won from the pole position at Martinsville than any other starting spot (17 of 118).

Gordon also looked spot-on in all three practice sessions, running fourth and third in Friday's practices and leading Happy Hour with a 19.84. Some pundits voiced concerns about how weather changes - it is expected to be almost 30 degrees cooler on Sunday than it was Friday - might alter the competition, but Gordon dismissed any such worries. "When it is concrete, it just doesn't change the characteristics and the balance of the cars as much as usual. It will take a little bit longer to get heat in the tires. We can run a little bit more tape … for us inside the car, we like it cool. The cooler the better."

Meanwhile, as the winner of the past three Martinsville races, Jimmie Johnson is hoping this will be the race that kick starts his 2008 season. Johnson's average finish over the first five races this season is 17.8, almost nine spots behind his 9.0 average finish after five races last year. The 48 team has been working furiously behind the scenes since Bristol and Johnson looks good for Sunday, qualifying 10th and running second, first, and third in the three practices.

Joining Jeff Gordon on the front row is Denny Hamlin (+625), who also led the first practice, though he ran 15th in Happy Hour. Hamlin has four top-10 finishes in five starts at Martinsville, with a DNF in 2006.

A few qualifiers in the top 10 could be termed unexpected, including Aric Almirola, who qualified third, David Ragan, fourth, and Ken Schrader, seventh - the best starting spot for each of them this year. Ragan ran 10th in the first two practices and fourth in Happy Hour, though his best Martinsville finish in three starts was a 15th.

Jamie McMurray (+1650), who needed to time his way in due to his 36th-place spot in the standings, qualified fifth and ran second to Jeff Gordon in Saturday's final practice. McMurray had the fastest time among the go-or-go home cars in time trials.

All three Joe Gibbs Racing teammates will be starting the race in the top 10. Along with Hamlin at P2, Kyle Busch (+915) qualified 8th and Tony Stewart (+685) qualified 9th. Surprisingly, Busch leads all drivers statistically on short tracks, with an average finish of 11.3 in 19 short-track starts; Hamlin is second at 11.8 in 14 starts and Jeff Gordon third at 12.0 in 67 starts.

Stewart, who ran 10th in Happy Hour, has two career Cup wins at Martinsville and four top 10s in his last five races here. The superstitious among you may wish to consider that Stewart cut his hair this week for the first time since before the season started. The hair on his back, however, which was waxed after Bristol for a fundraising event, has already started to grow in. "It's like a Chia pet," said Stewart.

The top 5 cars in Happy Hour, in order, were Gordon, McMurray, Johnson, Ragan, and Carl Edwards (+1385), while the slowest were Michael McDowell (debuting this week in the No. 00 car) and Regan Smith in the No. 01.

Drivers failing to qualify were Kyle Petty, John Andretti, Joe Nemechek, and Tony Raines.

If Jeff Gordon's enthusiasm Friday is any indication, the 24 team, which will also benefit from first pit selection, will be hard to beat Sunday: "We have been on poles here before, we have been close to poles here before, and in those runs you will hit one end of the race track or one section of the race track really good. But it is rare that you ever can put the whole lap together at both ends."

He did so in qualifying, but can he do it for 500 lapsΔ