PREVIEW: MARTIN TRUEX JR. (NO. 5 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET)
VENUE: BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY (.533-MILE OVAL)
CIRCUIT: NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES (RACE 5 OF 35)
DATE: MARCH 15, 2008 (300 LAPS, 159.9 MILES)

AT BRISTOL: Martin Truex Jr. will be making his sixth NASCAR Nationwide Series start at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway on Saturday. In five starts at the short track, Truex has recorded one win, one top-five finish and four top-10s. His average start is 6.6, and his average finish is 10.2.

CAREER FIGURES: Truex will be making his 95th career Nationwide Series start this weekend at Bristol. After eight seasons of racing in the Nationwide Series, Truex has two championships (2004 and 2005), 13 wins, 37 top-five finishes, 57 top-10s and 10 pole positions. His average start is 9.2, and his average finish is 10.9.

HAPPY RETURNS: Truex notched his only Bristol win in the Nationwide Series on March 27, 2004. He led 134 of the 250 laps en route to the victory.

POINTS BATTLE: The No. 5 Chevrolet finished 15th at Atlanta Motor Speedway and now sits third in the Nationwide Series owner standings, trailing the leader -- the No. 33 car owned by Delana Harvick -- by 26 points.

JRM STRENGTH: This weekend will mark the fourth time that Truex has driven a JR Motorsports entry. He scored a pair of top-10 finishes in three starts for JR Motorsports in 2006. That year he finished eighth at Daytona Beach, Fla., on June 30 and sixth at Watkins Glen, N.Y., on Aug. 12.

REPRESENT THE GUARD: The hood of the No. 5 National Guard Chevrolet will honor Tennessee's 194th Engineer Brigade this weekend. The unit, which specializes in engineering training and missions, was activated in November 1973. For 19 of the 21 National Guard-sponsored races in the No. 5 Chevy, a different Army National Guard unit will be honored on the car.

BRISTOL CHASSIS: Crew chief Lance McGrew will use JR Motorsports Chassis No. 346 this weekend at Bristol. Casey Mears used the same car last August in the Nationwide race at Bristol, when he started 24th and finished 19th.

UP NEXT FOR THE NO. 5: Rookie Landon Cassill will make his 2008 season debut in the No. 5 National Guard/128th Military Police Company Chevrolet at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway on March 22. Dale Earnhardt Jr. will pilot the No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet at Texas Motor Speedway on April 5, which will mark his fourth Nationwide Series race on the season.

*****

MARTIN TRUEX JR., DRIVER OF THE NO. 5 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET (ON DRIVING FOR DALE EARNHARDT JR.): "I'm really excited about driving Junior's Nationwide car at Bristol. We were talking on the Internet at the beginning of the year, and he said he was looking for someone to drive his car in a couple of Nationwide races. I told him I'd do it, and he said, 'Are you kidding?' I told him I was being serious, but we didn't talk about it again for a while, and I had kind of forgotten about it. He brought it up again a couple of weeks ago and asked me if I was still interested, and I told him I was. It just kind of went from there. I've got to thank Teresa Earnhardt, Max Siegel and everyone at Dale Earnhardt Inc. for working with me on this. It's going to be a lot of fun."

TRUEX (ON RUNNING AT BRISTOL.): "I've always enjoyed running at Bristol. It's a tight, fast race track, and you know there's going to be a lot of torn up sheet metal at the end of the race. It's an exciting race for me as a driver, and I know the fans love it."