Are There Any Takers At Martinsville?

Statistically, the Jimmie Johnson-Jeff Gordon, Hendrick Motorsports tandem is the clear favorite to outperform most others this weekend at Martinsville Speedway.

But statistically, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mark Martin – are no slouches at the Virginia short track either.

Of the two, Earnhardt has scored top-10 finishes in three of the last four races there, and since the inception of Loop Data, ranks high in a number of key statistics.

Earnhardt has the 4th best Driver Rating of 102.4, and an Average Running Position of 10.4, which is also 4th on the list. But I'm not too worried about him this week. NBaP doesn't think he's got it together to conquer this track. At least not from the way things are looking lately.

Though Earnhardt has never won here, Martin has two Martinsville wins, but has finished out of the top 10 in his last three Martinsville races, with his last top five finish coming in the spring race of 2005.

Since 2005, he has a Driver Rating of 78.2, an Average Running Position of 17.0.

Stats say look out for Tony Stewart though.

Stewart has a Driver Rating of 113.7, and an Average Running Position of 7.4.

Stewart won in 2006, breaking up the win streek that Gordon and Johnson were buliding.

Actually, Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Rusty Wallace are the only other drivers to win since 2003.

Tony Stewart Chatting At Preseason Thunder

Excerpts from Tony Stewart's NASCAR interview:

In his new team of Stewart Haas Racing, driving No. 14 Chevrolet with Old Spice/Office Depot sponsorship, Tony Stewart says it's different for sure, as an owner and a driver but something that he's looking forward to. (Until the insanity sets in!) We're had a great off season. For Tony, it's been the most exciting off season he's ever had because of the anticipation.

As far as driver development under Stewart Haas Racing, he says right now he just wants to keep his job as a driver right now. For now, they're focused on him and Ryan and getting the two teams they have competitive.

In case you haven't heard, NASCAR ADDED A WILD CARD RULE for the SHOOTOUT that allows a manufacturer to add a wildcard driver. For Tony that means he now can run the Shootout and has that extra track time and he's excited about that. Not to mention that it was a nice cover / fix by NASCAR on their own oversight of some of the drivers while they were letting newbies into the Shootout... oops... but nice cover. It's nice to be able to make your own rules as you go. (Anyone remember Calvin-Ball from Calvin and Hobbs)

He felt his timing was most fortunate in being able to sign Ryan Newman on board and getting their sponsors before the bottom fell out of the economy.

With the advent of picking up the Office Depot sponsorship, someone asked if we'll be seeing back flips when he wins. LOL. He said only if he wants to go to the hospital and be in traction for two or three months.

In regards to the economy and all of motorsports, including Indy racing, he said it was a fortunate amount of timing for his team since other teams were letting people go and it created a kind of buffet of available talent.

The down side to team ownership was that he never realized there was a 6:00 a.m. until this year, now that he has to actually get up that early. Poor guy.

As far as personal driver goals, he doesn't have a set date for when he's going to stop driving and he's really focused on winning the Daytona 500 in addition to winning at Darlington and Vegas and California where they haven't won yet.

Source: NASCAR Press Release