Joe Soriano
O.J. LewisNASCAR's Buschs will be tamed at Martinsville
March 27th 2009 03:05
Last week wasn't exactly a great week for our NASCAR preview as the five drivers we had to watch, well one didn't even finish the race, a couple probably shouldn't have and well....well, let's just focus on this week, where we don't think a Busch will win.
Martinsville is another short track, but has a different look from Bristol. It's a little bit shorter and has shorter straightaways. There's a lot of strategy in the turns here.
One guy who has seemed to figure out that strategy is Jeff Gordon. In 32 races at Martinsville, he has finished in the Top Five 20 times and 26 Top Tens. That's pretty impressive, as is his 6.9 average finish at the track. But this year, Gordon has yet to win a race yet still is the overall points leader.
The one guy who could keep him from winning this week is his own teammate, Jimmie Johnson, who has even better numbers at the track. Johnson had five wins and 10 Top Fives in only 14 races. He has 13 Top Tens here (his only finish outside the Top Ten was his first race here) with an average finish of 5.6.
Between the two of them, they have won nine of the last 12 races here. By contrast, the Busch brothers have only eight Top Tens in 25 races here and Kurt has the only win.
Denny Hamlin, who settled for second place last week while concentrating on holding off Johnson while Kyle Busch won the race, can make a good run this week too. His win here last year was his only win here in seven races, but has six Top Ten finishes and four Top Fives.
We also like the third Hendricks driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., to be in contention here. He has eight Top Fives.
And for a fifth drive, watch Jeff Burton. He won't won (he never seems to want to win nowadays, just happy to finish strong), but could make the top three.
Last year this race saw 18 cautions, and 17 drivers finished on the lead lap. We like only about 10 drivers on the lead lap this year, with about the same number of cautions (18). It should be a fun race.
Don't forget to check out the new blogsite prosportswrapup where myself and a lot of your favorite orble.com bloggers have begun bloging.
Martinsville is another short track, but has a different look from Bristol. It's a little bit shorter and has shorter straightaways. There's a lot of strategy in the turns here.
The one guy who could keep him from winning this week is his own teammate, Jimmie Johnson, who has even better numbers at the track. Johnson had five wins and 10 Top Fives in only 14 races. He has 13 Top Tens here (his only finish outside the Top Ten was his first race here) with an average finish of 5.6.
Between the two of them, they have won nine of the last 12 races here. By contrast, the Busch brothers have only eight Top Tens in 25 races here and Kurt has the only win.
Denny Hamlin, who settled for second place last week while concentrating on holding off Johnson while Kyle Busch won the race, can make a good run this week too. His win here last year was his only win here in seven races, but has six Top Ten finishes and four Top Fives.
We also like the third Hendricks driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., to be in contention here. He has eight Top Fives.
And for a fifth drive, watch Jeff Burton. He won't won (he never seems to want to win nowadays, just happy to finish strong), but could make the top three.
Last year this race saw 18 cautions, and 17 drivers finished on the lead lap. We like only about 10 drivers on the lead lap this year, with about the same number of cautions (18). It should be a fun race.
Don't forget to check out the new blogsite prosportswrapup where myself and a lot of your favorite orble.com bloggers have begun bloging.
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