Kahne, Busch face tough test at Martinsville

Posted on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 2:54 PM EDT.

The ‘paper clip-shaped’ Martinsville, Va., Speedway hosts this weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event, the Tums Fast Relief 500—it’s the sixth of 10 races in the 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup.

One of the country’s oldest racing facilities, the .526-mile track hosted events during NASCAR’s debut season of 1949 and still poses problems for today’s drivers. Hairpin turns, a flat surface and the unique combination of concrete and asphalt make Martinsville a tough venue in any era.

Contact is a given and with the priority given to keeping one’s car clean, the ever troublesome double-file restarts will certainly play a major factor in determining the outcome of Sunday’s event. The 500-lap event is tough on brakes and tougher on driver patience.

Dodge is seeking its 11th Sprint Cup Series win at Martinsville Speedway and fourth of the 2009 season. Kurt Busch is currently fifth in the Chase standings, 177 points behind the leader while Kasey Kahne is ninth, and 331 back.

Busch (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) jumped one spot to fifth in the Chase standings with his fourth top-10 finish in the first five events that make up the 10-race playoff for the season championship. Through five Chase races, the Penske Racing veteran has an incredible average finish of 8.0, yet trails Cup series leader Jimmie Johnson by 177 points. In 11 starts at Martinsville, Busch has one win, two top-five and four top-10 finishes.
 
“Short and sweet, you don’t want to get caught up on the outside lane,” Busch, the 2004 NASCAR Sprint Series champion, said. “As bad as it’s been in the past, with the lapped cars in one lane and the lead lappers in the other, this will be the insane end of impossible. With all the lead lap cars going at it double–file on the restarts there, the outside lane will be a no-man’s land and you’ll do whatever you can to get the preferred inside groove.”
 
Kahne (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger) flexed the muscle of his Budweiser Dodge last weekend, scoring a third-place finish at Lowe’s Motor Speedway—his highest finish in five 2009 Chase events. Kahne’s finish vaulted the Richard Petty Motorsports driver up two positions in the Chase standings to ninth. Kahne has posted top-15 starts in the last four races at Martinsville including three in the top six. 
 
“Since the Chase started, we’ve had two finishes in the 30s, where we would have been fifth or sixth in both of those races, and we’d be third or fourth in points,” Kahne said. “It’s disappointing but that’s racing.  Moving forward, we just need to continue doing what we’ve been doing and getting as many points as possible each race and gain a few more positions before this is all over.”
 
All seven Dodge teams are entered in the Tums Fast Relief 500 and assured starting berths in the event (top 35 in owner point standings).
 
Other notes

• Sam Hornish Jr. (No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger) has three top-10 finishes in short-track competition this season.
• Elliott Sadler (No. 19 Best Buy Dodge Charger) finished fifth at Martinsville in 2003, a career-best at the .526-mile track.
• Penske Racing has made 75 starts at Martinsville Speedway in NASCAR Cup Series competition with six wins, 19 top-five and 31 top-10 finishes along with five poles.
 
What you need to know
The Race: Tums Fast Relief 500
The Place: Martinsville (Va.) Speedway (.526-mile oval)
The Date: Sunday, Oct. 25
The Time: 1:30 p.m. EDT
Distance: 500 laps/263 miles
TV: ABC, 1:00 p.m. EDT 

NASCAR Chase standings
(After five of 10 races)
1. Jimmie Johnson, 5,923
2. Mark Martin, -90
3. Jeff Gordon, -135
4. Tony Stewart, -155
5. Kurt Busch (Dodge), -177
6. Juan P. Montoya, -195
7. Greg Biffle, -268
8. Ryan Newman, -288
9. Kasey Kahne (Dodge), -331
10. Carl Edwards, -341
11. Denny Hamlin, -372
12. Brian Vickers, -485

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 2:54 PM EDT and is filed under Motorsports. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comments are currently closed.