FEDEX RACING EXPRESS FACTS
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY

RACE INFO:
Event: Subway 500
Date/Time: October 21, 2007 / 1:30 p.m. E.T.
Length: .526 miles
Shape: Oval
Banking: 12 degrees
Distance: 500 laps/263 miles
2006 winner: Jimmie Johnson
2006 polesitter: Kurt Busch

EXPRESS NOTES:
Transmission Problems Spoil Charlotte Run: Denny Hamlin and the #11 FedEx Racing team looked poised to leave LMS with a top-five finish after methodically working their way to the front as the laps counted down on Saturday night. With Hamlin running fifth and with only 12 laps left, the transmission on the #11 FedEx Kinko’s failed, dropping Hamlin to the back of the pack and forcing him to finish the race with only fourth gear at his disposal. What should have been a top-five finish ended in a 20th-place finish on the night. Hamlin remains ninth in the Chase standings.

Hamlin at Martinsville: With the exception of being the site of Hamlin’s first Cup career DNF (April ’06), Martinsville has been one of his better tracks. Through four Cup starts at “the paperclip” Hamlin has scored a pole and two top-five finishes. Most recently, Hamlin led 125 laps and was leading the race before a pit road mishap dropped him from first to tenth just before the midway point. He battled back through the field before taking the checkered flag in third. Last fall, Hamlin had a memorable late-race battle with Jimmie Johnson before finishing second. In the spring of 2006, Hamlin started 41st and had worked his way up to ninth before a cut tire forced Hamlin into the turn four wall and ultimately out the race

Martinsville Chassis JGR 154 and JGR 162: The #11 FedEx team will unload Chevy Impala chassis JGR 154 for the fifth time this season. To date, this car has recorded two top-five finishes (Phoenix in April, Richmond in May) and led 269 laps this season. JGR 162, the pole winner at Martinsville in April and winner at Loudon in July, is on the truck in the back up role.

FedEx Express Fact: Denny Hamlin will make his 75th NASCAR NEXTEL Cup start this weekend at Martinsville. Through 74 races Hamlin has recorded three wins, five poles and has finished in the top-ten 39 times (52%).

Q&A with Denny Hamlin:
Martinsville is considered a home track of sorts for you. What is your experience at the track?: “My experience at Martinsville dates back to running Late Models there. Martinsville has a really big Late Model race each fall and I participated in that event from 2000 through 2004. I never won it but I did sit on the pole for that race in 2003 and that was a huge day for me. There were so many good drivers and good cars at Martinsville for those races so to win a pole was really cool. I do consider this a home track of sorts because I grew up in Virginia and spent so much time there. The folks that run the track and the fans have been always been really supportive. It would be great to win for them, and the clock isn’t bad either.”

Martinsville’s reputation precedes it. What makes it difficult?: “It’s really flat so you can’t rely on banking to help get you through the turns. You have to be able to slow the car down, roll through the center and get back on throttle as soon as possible. It sounds easy but you have do all of that for five hundred laps with 42 other cars around you, all while saving your brakes and trying not to hit anything. That’s what makes Martinsville a challenge. I think this is one of my better tracks because this is the kind of racing I know best from early on in my career and it’s still pretty fresh in my mind.”

You had a really good battle with Jimmie at the end of the race at Martinsville last fall. What do you remember about it?” “I had a shot at Jimmie right at the end of that race but it was a situation where to win I would have had to drive right through him. I made the decision to race him as hard as I could without crossing that line and I could really only get to his door off the turns. At that moment, I wanted to win of course, but I knew if I got in the back of him and moved him enough to get by, he would have returned the favor on the next corner. If I would have wrecked him, I know he would have repaid that down the road. It’s always hard to feel like you let one get away but in the end it was the right way to go. Hopefully he’ll repay it some day if we’re in the same situation but I am out front.”

You’re running in the truck series on Saturday, the only time you do that each year: “Yeah, this is the second year in a row I have done this race in the Truck Series and it’s something I look forward to. Racing in the truck series is a different experience but I really enjoy it, especially at Martinsville. Kyle and I are going to be teammates in the trucks this weekend – a little practice for next season at JGR.”