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TURNING LEFT: NASCAR in Martinsville
By Charlie O. Mallonee October 22, 2009 |
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This Track Will Eat You Alive! This Sunday NASCAR returns to the short track in Martinsville, Virginia. The .526-mile track will provide some real bumping and banging between the drivers on their way to victory lane. Track position is everything at this speedway. There is one true racing groove at Martinsville and passing can be very difficult. This will make qualifying very important because the last car in the racing pack will be able to see the leaders coming off Turn 4 as they enter Turn 1. The race set up for Martinsville is very difficult because of the track surface. The straight-aways are asphalt and the turns are concrete. If a car drifts up to the second groove (the high side) and gets stuck there, the driver will loose up to 20 positions. Brakes are also a problem on this raceway. The drivers will be hitting the brakes hard coming off the straight-aways. They will also be using the brakes often as the traffic jams up in front of them. The entire race will look the freeway coming home from work on Friday afternoon – fast and furious. Every car will finish the race with dents, dings and duct tape holding everything together. This race will not have one big crash. It will have lots mini-crashes with three to five cars involved. Pit selection will also be important at Martinsville. The pit lane goes almost around the track. No driver wants to be at the end of the pit lane. The potential exist to have a major shake up in the Chase for the Sprint Cup standings. Staying out of the carnage will be the key to success and finishing in the Top-10. Don’t Count Mark Martin Out Just Yet After Jimmie Johnson’s win last Saturday at Lowe’s, there have been a number of fans and reporters who have anointed the No.48 driver as the Champion of the Chase. Fans need to remember that Martin has four championship trophies and would love to make it five on his shelf. Martin is only 90 points behind Johnson. Because Martinsville is “bumper car” track being wrecked and finishing in the pits is a very strong possibility for any driver. The Chase standings could look very different by Sunday night. Unless there are team orders to not race teammates to hard, there could three Hendrick cars bumping and clawing their way to the finish at Martinsville Next Race IS No Picnic Next week it’s on to Talladega for a restrictor plate race. Restrictor plate races tend to feature side-by-side racing at high speeds. The track is 2.66-miles around the big tri-oval which features 33° banking on the turns. There will be least one big crash that will take out some of the Chase leaders and change the leader board. Wild Thing to F1? Per USA Today, US F1 would like to put Kyle Busch in the driver’s seat of one of their cars. Busch is known for his avid following of the progress US F1 team is making each day. US F1 knows that it needs well known American drivers to get the U.S. fans behind their Formula One efforts. Obtaining the services of a driver like Busch would be a coup d’ętre for the team which planning to join F1 in 2011. We will keep you informed on their progress. |
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