Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup – Week 6 at Martinsville Speedway
THE RACE: Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway (Martinsville, Va.)
WHEN: Sunday, Oct. 21, 1:30 p.m.
TV: ABC
RADIO: MRN, Sirius Satellite Radio
DRIVERS QUALIFIED FOR THE CHASE: Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer.
DEFENDING SERIES CHAMPION: Jimmie Johnson
DEFENDING SUBWAY 500 CHAMPION: Jimmie Johnson
CHASE FACTS:
The last 10 races of the 36-race NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series season
12 drivers in the Chase field.
The top 12 drivers in the standings after the season’s 26th race (at Richmond on Sept. 8) qualified for the Chase. Those 12 had their point totals reset at 5,000; they then got 10 bonus points for each race victory prior to the Chase. The bonus points created the Chase “seedings.”
Jimmie Johnson started the Chase as the top seed with 5,060 points, via his six pre-Chase wins. Clint Bowyer, winless starting the Chase, was the 12th and final seed.
SOME STORYLINES:
Five races down, five races to go in the 2007 Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup – and four-time series champion Jeff Gordon, coming off consecutive wins at Talladega and Lowe’s Motor Speedway, leads the Chase standings by 68 points over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson. Clint Bowyer is third, 78 points behind Gordon.
Gordon and Johnson, 1-2 in the Chase standings, have reason for optimism going into Martinsville. Gordon has five top-five finishes in a row at the track; Johnson has four consecutive top fives at Martinsville, including two consecutive wins. They return to the scene of an epic spring duel at Martinsville, a fender-rubbing finish won by Johnson.
Some people call 2.66-mile Talladega the Chase “wild card” race because of its unpredictability. Thing is, the same claim can be made about the .526-mile paperclip-shaped oval at Martinsville, where the off-track action during the race is as crucial as what’s transpiring on-track. Martinsville’s pits are tight and tricky, as they wind around Turn 1.
THE CHASE SCHEDULE (track sizes in parentheses)
Sept. 16—New Hampshire (1.058 miles); Sept. 23—Dover (1 mile); Sept. 30—Kansas (1.5 miles);
Oct. 7—Talladega (2.66 miles); Oct. 13—Charlotte (1.5 miles); Oct. 21—Martinsville (.526 mile); Oct. 28—Atlanta (1.54 miles); Nov. 4—Texas (1.5 miles); Nov. 11—Phoenix (1 mile); Nov. 18—Homestead (1.5 miles).
