Inside Motorsports | Martinsville 500

DAVID POOLE, dpoole@charlotteobserver.com

Wednesday, Mar. 28, 2007

Elevators

UP: Jeff Burton
Gave it everything he had to win at Bristol but stopped short of wrecking Kyle Busch to do it. That’s precisely the way it’s supposed to happen.

DOWN: Toyota
Despite getting a season’s best five cars in the race at Bristol, no Toyota team is in the top 35 in owner points. Only Dale Jarrett, who has two more former champion’s provisionals to use, has a safety net at Martinsville.

UP: Jeff Green
Sixth-place finish at Bristol was the best finish ever for his Haas CNC Racing team.

SIDEWAYS: Bristol revisions
New surface to have compound banking in hopes of making the racing better? How much better could Bristol actually be?

Observations

•  When you get a late-race caution drivers who’ve earned their way to the front, particularly race leaders, sometimes get put in a no-win situation. If they pit, cars behind them stay out and they lose track position. If they stay out, cars behind them pit and get fresh tires. Either way, the leader or leaders are put in a position where they just about can’t win. How about a rule that says if you pit under a caution in the final 25 laps you go to the back of the lead-lap cars for restart? Would that add to the element of strategy?
•  Leaks in exhaust systems led to some melting of the energy absorbing foam inserted between frame rails and the cockpit on the driver’s side of a couple of the cars of tomorrow that ran at Bristol. NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp said that no problems were found in cars where the exhaust system worked properly. Tharp said NASCAR will monitor the situation but doesn’t expect it to be an ongoing issue.

By the numbers

48 – Total number of races in the history of NASCAR’s top series that have been won by drivers before turning 25. Kyle Busch’s win at Bristol was his fourth. His brother, Kurt, had seven. That’s tied for the second most with Richard Petty. Jeff Gordon had 15.

20 – Percentage of races (one of five) won from a top-10 starting position so far this year. In all races held at tracks currently used in Nextel Cup, the all-time percentage of winners that started in the top 10 is 82.8 – but it’s only 57.2 percent since 1999.

10 – Consecutive Nextel Cup races at Martinsville that have been won by drivers who now have at least one championship. (That includes two victories scored by Jimmie Johnson before he won last year’s title).

Briefly

•  Bobby East will run at least 10 Busch Series races and three to five Automobile Racing Club of America events for Brewco Motorsports Inc. this year. East is a Ford Racing development driver who won the 2004 U.S. Auto Club’s national midget series title. East drove in the Craftsman Truck Series for Wood Brothers/JTG Racing in 2006.

Short-track roundup

•  Hickory Motor Speedway kicked off its 57th season of racing on Saturday with Andy Loden winning the late model stocks feature. Chrissy Wallace, the daughter of NASCAR driver Mike Wallace, finished second. Jarit Johnson, the younger brother of 2006 Nextel Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, got the victory in the limited late model race while 16-year-old Cole Miktuk won the super truck feature. Randy Freeze won in pro fours and Gary Ledbetter won in street stocks. Hickory has another full weekly series card this Saturday.
•  Jeff Melton of Concord got his first late model stock victory in Saturday’s 75-lap feature at Concord Motorsport Park. Terry Hoggard of Concord won the limited late model feature with Chad Allmon of Mount Pleasant winning in pure stock, Adam Morgan of Mount Pleasant winning in fast and furious fours and Rob Hall of Asheville taking the thunder roadster feature. Concord hosts the UARA series this Saturday night.
•  Tri-County Motor Speedway in Hudson started its season Friday with Mark Setzer winning the 75-lap late model feature. Monty Cox won in super stocks, Kevin Eby in street stocks, Nikki Long in fast and furious, Brandon Cox in limiteds and Doug Setzer in mini stocks.
•  L.W. Miller won the first race of the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour season at Caraway Speedway in Asheboro, leading the final 79 laps to hold off runner-up Burt Myers.

THIS WEEK:
Goody’s Cool Orange 500, 2 p.m. Sunday at Martinsville Speedway

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