This Week in Auto Racing October 23 - 25

This Week in Auto Racing October 23 - 25

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - All three of NASCAR's national touring divisions will be in action this weekend. The Sprint Cup Series runs their only short-track race in the "Chase for the Sprint Cup" championship at Martinsville Speedway. The Camping World Series joins Sprint Cup at Martinsville, while the Nationwide Series heads to Memphis Motorsports Park.

Sprint Cup Series

Tums Fast Relief 500 - Martinsville Speedway - Martinsville, VA

The 2009 championship Chase reached the halfway point last Saturday with Jimmie Johnson winning in convincing style at Lowe's Motor Speedway and stretching his lead to 90 points over Mark Martin and 135 ahead of Jeff Gordon. Hendrick Motorsports currently holds the top-three spots in the Chase standings.

Johnson is coming off a "perfect weekend" at Lowe's where he captured the pole, led the way in practices and won the 500-mile event -- his third victory in the first five Chase races.

This week, the Sprint Cup Series heads up the road two hours north of Charlotte to Martinsville for 500-laps of beating and banging. Johnson also returns to the track where he has been dominant throughout his Cup career.

Since finishing 35th in his first start at Martinsville in April 2002, Johnson has recorded 14 straight top-10 finishes there, including victories in five of the last six races.

Johnson is looking forward to Martinsville this time, with double-file restarts being used for the first time at the flat 0.526-mile track.

"I think that double-file restarts are going to make it more intense and more exciting; a lot of the same stuff we've been seeing," Johnson said. "I think at the start of a race, you might see some guys forcing their way to the bottom and maybe taking some unneeded risks to get down to the bottom lane. But I think at the end of the race, you'll see guys stuck door-to-door for a long, long time and not able to clear the other guy and take that position."

NASCAR's rule change for restarts went into effect in June at Pocono, with lead-lap cars lining up side-by-side just before the green flag waves.

Johnson's teammate, Gordon, equally is impressive at Martinsville. Gordon has scored 13 straight top-10 finishes there. He also leads all active drivers with seven wins at Martinsville.

Gordon and Johnson combined have won 10 of the last 13 races there.

Virginia-native Denny Hamlin is another notable driver at Martinsville. Hamlin has finished no worse than sixth in the last six races there. He won at Martinsville in March 2008 and finished second to Johnson there earlier this year.

"We've performed really well at that racetrack," Hamlin said. "The best we've ever run there actually was this spring, so I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully we get an opportunity to race for the win again at Martinsville."

Hamlin has tumbled in the Chase the last two weekends. After finishing 37th at California and 42nd at Lowe's, he has dropped from sixth to 11th in the rankings. His 372-point deficit has pretty much eliminated him as a championship contender.

Martinsville is not only the shortest track on the current Sprint Cup schedule, but it's the oldest facility on the series. The track held the first NASCAR sanctioned race on July 4, 1948. Martinsville will host its 122nd Cup race there on Sunday.

"I like the racetrack right now the way it is since it has been reworked," said Martin, who has won at Martinsville twice. "It's a lot better for racing, and it's easier to race on. It used to be a very difficult racetrack. But it's still incredibly challenging with these cars on a racetrack that small."

In March, Martin finished seventh at Martinsville, his first start there since the 2006 fall race. He skipped Martinsville as part of his limited Cup schedule the 2007 and '08 seasons.

Forty-four teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Tums Fast Relief 500.

Camping World Truck Series

Kroger 200 - Martinsville Speedway - Martinsville, VA

After taking the last three weekends off, the Camping World Truck Series season resumes at Martinsville. When the series last raced on September 26 at Las Vegas, Matt Crafton finished second and trimmed 20 points off of Ron Hornaday Jr.'s lead. Hornaday, who finished sixth, left Las Vegas 197 points in front of Crafton with five races to go in the season.

Johnny Sauter captured his first career truck victory at Las Vegas. Sauter, a rookie in the series this year, passed Crafton for the lead with 17 laps remaining and then held off his ThorSport Racing teammate for the win. He became the first rookie on the circuit to win a race since Carl Edwards did it in 2003 at Nashville.

Hornaday has been the driver to beat this season with six victories, including a record five straight wins during the summer. The three-time series champion has yet to win at Martinsville. His best finish in 14 starts there is second, which came in March.

"I've been coming here for a while now and for some reason, we just can't seem to break through," Hornaday said. "It would mean a lot to win at Martinsville. It's one of those tracks we've been coming to since the truck series started in 1995, and to finally add my name to the list of legends who have won there would mean a lot to me."

Crafton finished third at Martinsville in April 2006 for his best run in 15 starts there.

Mike Skinner, currently third in points (-255), will celebrate a career milestone at Martinsville with his 200th series start. Skinner and Dennis Setzer lead all drivers with three wins each at Martinsville.

"I love Martinsville," Skinner said. "It's very unique and just an awesome place. I love the fans up there and the whole setting."

Skinner won both races at Martinsville in 2007.

Thirty-seven teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Kroger 200.

Denny Hamlin is scheduled to drive the No.51 Billy Ballew Motorsports Toyota this week. Kyle Busch has driven the No.51 truck into Victory Lane five this season, but Busch's Nationwide Series obligations at Memphis prevent him from competing in the truck race at Martinsville.

Kevin Harvick also will compete in Saturday's race at Martinsville. Harvick won the spring race there.

Nationwide Series

Kroger on Track for the Cure 250 - Memphis Motorsports Park - Memphis, TN

Kyle Busch gave his championship hopes in the Nationwide Series a big boost by winning last Friday's race at Lowe's. Busch led 137 of 200 laps and easily held off Mike Bliss at the finish to end an 11-race winless streak in the series.

Busch padded his lead to 195 points over Carl Edwards with just four races remaining. Busch admits he hasn't wrapped up the title just yet, with one of Edwards' best tracks -- Memphis -- the next stop on the schedule.

"There's still a few to go," said Busch, who leads the series with seven wins this season. "It's not over, and it's definitely any man's race right now as far as Carl or myself or even [Brad Keselowski]."

Keselowski is a long shot for this year's title, as he currently trails Busch by 272 points.

Edwards won last year's race at Memphis. Busch has competed there only twice, finishing 14th in 2004 and 16th in '03.

Busch and Edwards, along with fellow Sprint Cup competitors Matt Kenseth and David Reutimann, will do the Martinsville-Memphis combo this weekend. Memphis is the final stand-alone race in Nationwide for the season.

Reutimann won his first career Nationwide race at Memphis in 2007 and then finished second there last year.

Memphis also marks the fourth and final "Dash 4 Cash" event this year. A $25,000 bonus will be awarded to the winner of the race, provided he is a full-time series regular or a part-time/limited series-only competitor. In July, Keselowski became the first driver to win the bonus from series title sponsor Nationwide Insurance when he won at Iowa. Keselowski collected $75,000 since the amount rolled over after Joey Logano won Nashville and Kentucky earlier in the year. Logano, a Sprint Cup rookie this year, was ineligible for the bonus.

Fifty-one teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Kroger on Track for the Cure 250.