Preview of the Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville
The Wildcard Talladega race, as the drivers in the Chase for the Sprint cup call it, is over and it certainly was. Now there are no excuses, the Chase drivers must get it done over the next four weeks and it starts atMartinsville.
The Martinsville Speedway is a ½ mile track, .526 miles to be exact. Many people refer to it as the paper clip track because if you look at it from above it looks exactly like a paper clip. There is 11 degrees of banking in the turns and the straights are flat. Since it is a short track the race is 500 laps not miles.
This track is another one where track position is very important because it will be very hard to pass. Pit stops and pit strategy will be key to getting and keeping track position. This also makes qualifying very important. Oh by the way, if the cautions fall right this race might be won by a driver stretching his fuel to the end. Denny Hamlin won this race last year.
Last week none of the top Chase contenders had top 10 finishes so this has mixed it up a little at the top. Although mathematically no one has been eliminated, realistically, only the top 5 drivers are in it. At a minimum, all of these drivers need to have top 10 finishes the rest of the races. The driver that does that and perhaps wins a race or gets all top 5s will win the Chase.
This Chase is the closest one ever with only 26 points separating first and fifth. To further illustrate how close it is, let’s say current leader Carl Edwards finishes 10th and Kevin Harvick who is in 5th place wins the race. If this happens then there will only be 16 points between them and Kevin Harvick would probably be 2nd in points. If anyone has an engine failure or has a wreak, they could easily lose 35 points so every race will be crucial.
The race is this Sunday at 1:30 PM ET. If you can’t get to the track it will be on ESPN. Follow me during the race on Twitter @brian_jr1.
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