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Martinsville Drivers Win in Many Brands

Nine of the last eleven races at the paperclip shaped track in Martinsville, Virginia have been won by drivers sporting the Chevrolet brand.

Chevy hasn’t always been the dominate nameplate.  Martinsville started holding NASCAR Cup level races in 1949.  In the 119 Cup races held there have been eleven different brands seeing victory circle.  Even the Fabulous Hudson Hornet tasted victory there twice in 1952.  Mercury also got a pair of wins; one in 1968 with Cale Yarborough and the other in 1973 with David Pearson.

Toyota picked up its lone win with Kyle Busch at the Spring race this year.  Chrysler and Buick own three wins each.  Chrysler’s came early on in the Fifties while the Eighties were kind to the Buicks.  The General Motors brands of Pontiac and Oldsmobile were the cars to beat four and eight times respectively,

Dodge and Plymouth have combined for 26 wins over the years with twelve of those at the hands of Richard Petty.  Petty had two wins in a Ford in 1969 while feuding with Chrysler.  The Blue Oval boys have 24 other victories as well.  The first coming with Fast Freddy Lorenzen behind the wheel in 1961 and the most recent by Kurt Busch in 2002.

Once again Chevrolet drivers have had the upper hand at a race track.  Thirty-eight percent of all wins at the half miler have been with Chevy sheet metal.  A total of forty-five wins greatly out numbers its nearest rival.  Buck Baker was the first to taste victory and started a string of four consecutive wins beginning in 1957.  Jimmy Johnson is the most recent winner, capping off seven straight Chevy wins that he began in the Fall of 2004.

So once again the numbers favor a win coming from Jimmy Johnson.  This race and the championship seem to be his to lose.  He has wins at the paperclip and he drives the right car.

photo credit:  Jason Smith/Getty Images

Drivers Looks for Chase Brakes at Martinsville

Martinsville Speedway celebrated its 60th consecutive year of operation in 2007.

The racetrack that is so very hard on bracks has been a NASCAR track longer than any other track on the Sprint Cup circuit.  NASCAR began operation in 1948, a year after Martinsville Speedway opened.  The shortest track on the circuit ran its first NASCAR race on July 4th of that year.

It’s 800-foot straights, turns banked at only 12 degrees has led to the racetrack being called “two drag strips with a turnaround on each end.” The demanding layout consistently produces some of the wildest fender scrubbing, push and shove racing on the tour.

Martinsville Speedway opened in 1947 as dirt track with 750 seats and has grown continuously over the years.  Other than being paved in 1955, the track configuration has not changed since Red Byron won the inaugural event. Martinsville Speedway, is the only original NASCAR-sanctioned track still running Sprint Cup events.

Richard Petty remains the track’s leading winner with 15 victories.

The speedway’s founder, the late H. Clay Earles and track President W. Clay Campbell have always insisted on beautification, excellent concessions and attended rest rooms at the track.  Since he first built the track, Earles’ promoting philosophy was simple and effective - take good care of the fans and the competitors.

Campbell became track President in 1988 and, since that time, the speedway has more than doubled its seating capacity. The track has constructed 25 corporate suites, a chalet village for hospitality entertainment, high-rise grandstands, and doubled its free parking. Recently a new entrance for race day traffic has been added.

All pits are now on one pit road.  Prior to 1999 there were two separate pit roads.  Teams put extra effort into qualifying specifically to avoid having to pit on the backstretch pits.  An overhead walkway from the grandstand to the parking area, an infield media center, infield tunnel, competitors’ garage are all new in the past few years.

There are not many tracks on the circuit that can boast a Hudson Hornet as a past winnig car model.  The 1952 season saw a sweep by the defunct auto maker.  Dick Rathman and Herb Thomas piloted the whale-like cars to victory.

Jimmy Johnson has shown his prowess at the paperclip shaped short track. Johnson has won half of the last eight races.  Other than a couple of wins for Joe Gibbs Racing drivers, Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin and a lone win by Rusty Wallace for Roger Penske Racing, Rick Hendrick Motorsports drivers have won all of the last eleven races.

As has been the theme so far this year in the Chase, look to a Hendrick car to pull off a victory.

photo credit: Icon Sports Media

Ford and Chevy Wins Evenly Split at Dover

Over the last eleven races, Ford leads in manufacturer wins at Dover.

Dating back through the 2003 season, the Fords out of the Jack Roush stable have won four times.  One win each for Mark Martin (2004), Greg Biffle (2005), Matt Kenseth (2006) and Carl Edwards (2007) would lead one to believe that a win in 2008 must loom on the horizon.  Carl Edward’s season to this point would lead you to believe that he is the most likely to gain a win at the Monster Mile.

However, last week’s win at New Hampshire by Biffle, could make him the favorite to pull off back to back wins.  Biffle’s strong outing came at the amazment of many who never saw his strong performance as possible.

Over the same four and a half year period both Dodge and Chevrolet account for three wins each.  Martin Truex Jr. was the most recent winner at Dover in a Chevy for Dale Earnhardt Inc., doing so in the Spring of 2007.  Richard Childress Racing’s Jeff Burton took home the victory in the Fall of 2006 and Hendrick Motorsports’ Jimmy Johnson was the winner in the Fall of 2005.

Ryan Newman holds all the wins for Dodge; sweeping the races there in 2003 and getting a third win at the fall race in 2004.  The Penske Dodges were strong early in this six year sampling, but have shown nothing of late.

Looking further back into the manufacturers history at Dover, Ford and Chevrolet have won 21 and 27 times respectively.  If you add in seven Mercury wins for Ford Motor Company, the two manufacturers are on an even standing.  Several years in the early seventies Ford only raced under the Mercury banner, so its not too far fetched to combine the two makes.  Whereas General Motors has run cars under several banners for most of their racing careers.

Pontiac has accounted for six wins,  Oldsmobile two and Buick brought home three in addition to the twenty-seven for Chevrolet.  Add four Richard petty wins in Plymouths and Dodges from the early seventies to the three Newman wins and you can see that Mopars haven’t been much of a factor in the history of The Monster Mile.

This years saw the first victory for Toyota at Dover with non other than Kyle Busch behind the wheel.  While Busch and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chasers of Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin could be a factor on Sunday, look for Jimmy Johnson’s Chevy or Carl Edwards’ Ford to come home first.

photo credit: Icon Sports Media

Heading for the (Irish) Hills

As Steve, Charlie and I prepare for our quest to MIS tommorrow and I was planning my picture taking agenda, I recalled some unforseeable events from last year that made the experience exceptional. My photo op with Richard Petty comes to mind (he wanted to be shot in profile), turning around to almost be run down by Mark Martin heading… somewhere…and who can forget Steve’s ‘Little Tiff’ with Jeff Gordon (I know he never will). Can’t wait to see what tommorrow will bring.

Photo: Beth Anne Heisler On Pit Row

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