Goody's Fast Relief 500
Martinsville Speedway
By Richard Tix
Behind the Wall Rant:
Points racing. This one statement of two words joined together seems to cause pure chaos in the racing community. Why? Well, it's something that stumps me year after year.
From the start of a point system way back in the "good ole days" racing has always been part points racing. As long as the standings have some type of points system in place drivers will be points racing.
The biggest misconception fans took from the new Chase Era was that more emphasis was on winning. That's what NASCAR said and what fans believed. Oh, and you should believe that. We do have a bigger emphasis on winning then we did before, but NASCAR never said winning will be everything and points mean nothing.
Points are there for a reason folks, for guys to accumulate and used to advance in an upwards position in the standings. Regular season drivers will use points to get into the Chase if they don't have a win, or assure a spot after one win.
In the playoffs points are used in the first two rounds to safely move on. Again, the safest way to advance is winning (hence a bigger emphasis), but if you can't win, points racing will work. Now, each round it gets tougher and tougher to points race because a win can assure your competitor will advance before you (or win the Championship if its Miami), but it can still be done (see Newman in 2014).
Points racing isn't the first option (winning always will be for a driver), but certain situations will lead to a driver focusing on points and not winning if they're not in a good spot for it.
So, just be aware, "points racing" isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Unless the standings only include wins, teams will be focused on racking up points each round just in case they can't get a win.
Race Preview:
Now, lets move onto Martinsville and some short track racing. Nothing's better then short track racing in NASCAR. I posed a question on twitter this week which was, "If you had to try and sell NASCAR fandom to someone who has never watch before, how would you do it?"
It's not an easy answer as NASCAR is a tough sell in 2016, however a few things came up in most responses. "Take them to a race." Seems right, seeing it in person can really real someone in. "Bring a scanner that easily identifies the driver.team." I could not agree more, scanners are a must at tracks. I will admit I feel like we heard more on the radios 5-10 years ago, but they're still key. "Know the person who you're taking and cater to their likes.dislikes." Genius, not everyone likes the sport for the same things.
The one that came up more then not, "take them to a short track race for there first race." Ding, ding, ding, its Martinsville week, which means I will harp the idea NASCAR needs to get back to some more short tracks and in turn drop a few 1.5 tracks that get two stops.
So, if you know someone who isn't a fan yet, but is willing to go to a race, get them to a short track, bring a scanner, and try and find out what will hook them. Maybe it is our job to help NASCAR retain some fans while they struggle through the new school vs old school fan dilemma.
**This section is just a quick look at some of Cup drivers latest finishes. This is not a tool for fantasy purposes and NBTW only is looking at end results. No deep statistic's are involved, but rather it is just a quick way to get ready for the race and get caught up on who has finished well at each track**
The Good
- Jeff Gordon- Not a full time driver in 2016, but I feel like writing about him again. He will be in the No. 88 this weekend for Junior and what a better place to see him run. For his career he has 9 wins, 29 top 5's, 37 top 10's in 46 races at Martinsville.
- Jimmie Johnson- Trailing Gordon by one win, JJ has eight and might have to fight off Gordon from gaining another on him. You can almost lock in a top 10 for JJ at Martinsville.
- Denny Hamlin- Next in line behind Gordon and JJ for Martinsville Master? Well, that would be Hamlin with 5 career wins already in just 21 career starts here.
The Middle
- Matt Kenseth- 15.1 average finish here at Martinsville, yet he has hasn't won and only has five top 5's and twelve top 10's in 33 races. That means he is crazy consistent, but just might not be a front runner on Sunday.
The Bad
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr- Only nine starts here but he has a average finish of 31st so far. That's. Not. Good. His two best finishes are a 15th in 2014 and 25th in 2013.
- Kurt Busch- Kurt famously won this race a few years ago with a beat up car after getting into it with BK, but past that he hasn't had a ton of success. Two wins, three top 5's, and five top 10's in 32 career starts.
- Greg Biffle- In 27 tries the Biff has yet to pick up a top 5 and only has five top 10's. Add on top RFR just hasn't been great lately and you can see where this might end up.
About the Track: Martinsville
Track Stats
- 8 straight Chevy wins here at Martinsville before Denny Hamlin won in 2015. 9 of the last 11 have been Chevy.
- Other then Denny Hamlin (Toyota) and Kyle Busch (Toyota) Chevy has won 18 straight races. That's 18 of the past 24 races. If you add in Rusty Wallace's win in 2004 (Dodge) its 20 of the past 27.
- The race has been won from the Pole 4 times in the last 16 races. 0 times in the last 6 races.
- Most cautions was 21 in 2007 for 127 laps.
- The farthest back a winner has started from was 36th (Kurt Busch) in 2002 (10/20/2002). Kurt won in 2014 after starting 22nd (3/30/2014) and Dale Jr won after starting 23 (10/26/14)
- Since 2003 Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, or Denny Hamlin have won 19 of 27 races.
- Richard Petty has the most career Martinsville wins: 15 to go along with 30 top 5's and 37 top 10's.
- Darrell Waltrip has the most career pole awards at Martinsville with 8.
Track Info
- Surface
- Asphalt/Concrete
- Length- 0.526 miles
- Banking
- Turns- 12 degrees
- Straights- 0 degrees
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