NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 500 Qualifying Update

Martinsville Speedway -- 10/19/08

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Saturday Oct 18 2008 7:05pm

Last week, pundits were referring to Lowe's Motor Speedway as `the House that Jimmie Johnson's built.`

This week, Johnson is being referred to as `Mr. Martinsville.`

I guess when you've won two straight Sprint Cup championships and are leading the points with five races to go towards a third, you tend to pick up a lot of complimentary nicknames.

But it's hard to argue with the handle being hung on Johnson (+305) this weekend when you consider facts like these, courtesy of NASCAR Statistical Services: `Jimmie Johnson has won three of the last four races at Martinsville. Johnson finished 35th in his first Martinsville appearance (April 2002), his only DNF there. Since then, he has posted 12 straight top-10 finishes, including four victories. Johnson has finished fourth or better in his last six Martinsville races and has led 1,006 of the 6,506 laps raced in the 13 races he has competed in at Martinsville. He has completed all but 54 laps in his 13 appearances, with all his incomplete laps coming in that first appearance.`

Perhaps Johnson understands as well as any driver the secret to success on the Virginia paperclip, which Darrell Waltrip, winner of 11 races here in 52 starts, explains as follows: `I always tell people it's like driving with an egg under the accelerator.`

In other words, Martinsville is a finesse track requiring patience and control. It takes just the right combination of throttle and brake to get the car to roll through the corner efficiently, to stay off your competitor's bumper, and to keep him off yours. Late race pit strategy also plays a role.

Just for good measure, it should be noted that Johnson led Saturday's first practice with a 94.808 mile-per-hour lap and was second-fastest in Happy Hour.

In addition, rain cancelled qualifying this weekend for the ninth time this season, giving Johnson the pole at Martinsville. Though this is a clear advantage for pit selection, Johnson actually sees it as a disadvantage in terms of placing all the Chase competitors in the top 12 on the starting grid - as some of them would have started much further back if qualifying had actually taken place.

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 119), though the last time that happened was back in 2003. Statistically, anywhere in the top four is favored for a win, but Kurt Busch (+3000) won the 2002 fall race from a 36th-place start.

The driver who ran second to Johnson in first practice and led Happy Hour with a speed of 94.671 was none other than his teammate, seven-time Martinsville winner Jeff Gordon (+365).

Gordon's seven victories here place him third on the all-time career win list at Martinsville behind Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip.

The top 10 in Happy Hour consisted of Gordon, Johnson, Clint Bowyer (+2050), Dale Earnhardt (+965), Jamie McMurray (+2550), Carl Edwards (+1185), Denny Hamlin (+805), Juan Pablo Montoya, Martin Truex Jr., and AJ Allmendinger.

David Ragan (+3250), who had posted the third-fastest lap in the early practice Saturday, hit the wall and will be going to a back-up.

The qualifying rainout kept Sterling Marlin and Derrike Cope from their shot at making field. Bill Elliott is in on a past champion's provisional in the No. 21 car.

Otherwise, drivers will line up by owner's points, with the first five rows looking like this:

Row 1: Jimmie Johnson - Jeff Burton
Row 2: Greg Biffle - Carl Edwards
Row 3: Clint Bowyer - Kevin Harvick
Row 4: Tony Stewart - Jeff Gordon
Row 5: Kyle Busch - Dale Earnhardt Jr.

A few other betting nascar odds of note:

Tony Stewart +815
Kyle Busch +1015
Kevin Harvick +1185
Jeff Burton +1800
Greg Biffle +2350

Biffle is bringing the same car to Martinsville that he drove to victory at Loudon to start the Chase.