Thursday, October 25, 2012

Driver Chassis Selections for Martinsville

Gordon has seven Martinsville win, Hamlin four (Getty)
#1-Jamie McMurray: Crew Chief Kevin "Bono" Manion and the No. 1 McDonald's team will bring Chassis #1222 to Martinsville Speedway this weekend. This chassis will make its race debut this weekend at Martinsville Speedway.
#2-Brad Keselowski: The #2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger team will race chassis PRS-831 during Sunday's Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway. This is a brand-new chassis to the No. 2 fleet.
#5-Kasey Kahne: crew chief Kenny Francis has selected Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 5-651. Kahne raced this car at Martinsville earlier this year, capturing the pole position and running inside the top five before encountering an engine issue.
#14-Tony Stewart: Chassis No. 14-710: This car debuted in April in the Capital City 400 at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway, where it qualified 22nd and led four times for 118 laps before a late-race caution canceled Stewart's two-and-a-half second lead and forced him to settle for a third-place finish. It was then tested June 6-7 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway and again during a Goodyear Tire Test June 12-13 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. The Lenox Industrial Tools 301 in July at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon marked Chassis No. 14-710's second career start. There, a new tire compound from Goodyear confounded Stewart and crew chief Steve Addington, and they labored to a 12th-place finish. The car returned to Richmond in September for its third career start via the Federated Auto Parts 400, where it rallied from its 28th-place starting spot to lead 15 laps before finishing fourth. Sunday's race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway will mark the car's fourth career start.
#15-Clint Bowyer: Primary chassis No. 743 is a new chassis that has never been raced. Backup chassis No. 712 finished 30th at Phoenix and seventh at Richmond in the spring.
#16-Greg Biffle: Primary: RK-822 Last ran New Hampshire - finished 18th; Backup: RK-777 Last ran Pocono - finished 24th
#17-Matt Kenseth: Primary: RK-806 (Last ran at Loudon)
#22-Sam Hornish, Jr.: and his Todd Gordon-led Penske Racing No. 22 Team will be utilizing the "PRS-828" Shell-Pennzoil Dodge Charger in this weekend's TUMS Fast Relief 400 at Martinsville Speedway. Hornish and team last raced this chassis in the September 2 Advocare 500 at Atlanta, where they started 15th and finished 11th. It was a new car for the Atlanta race and has not been utilized since. The "PRS-807" will serve as the backup Shell-Pennzoil Dodge. It was in the 22 team transporter serving as the backup at Phoenix, both Bristol races, the first Martinsville race, the second Richmond race and the second Charlotte race. It has never seen any track time to date.
#27-Paul Menard: will pilot Chassis No. 349 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable in this weekend's Tums Fast Relief 500. This Chevrolet was last raced at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in September, where Menard started seventh and finished 12th, his career-best result at the one-mile race track. This chassis was also utilized this season at Martinsville Speedway (April - started 11th/finished 26th) and at New Hampshire in July (started 13th/ finished 17th).
#29-Kevin Harvick: will pilot Chassis No.400 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable in the TUMS Fast Relief 500. The No. 29 team utilized this Chevrolet at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in September and brought home an 11th-place finish after starting 16th.
#31-Jeff Burton: will race Chassis No. 329 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable this weekend. This No. 31 Chevrolet, originally built in 2010, has seen significant track time over the last two seasons including Texas Motor Speedway in November 2010 (started-16th, finished-36th), Bristol Motor Speedway in August 2011 (started-21st, finished-15th) and New Hampshire Motor Speedway in September 2011 (started-18th, finished-13th). Burton also tallied a top-five finish at Phoenix International Raceway last November, finishing fourth after starting 14th and finished 22nd at Martinsville Speedway in April after suffering electrical issues near the halfway point of the event.
#39-Ryan Newman: Chassis No. 39-691: This weekend, Newman will pilot Chassis No. 39-691, which has four starts and three top-10 finishes to its credit. Its most recent top-10 came last month at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway, where Newman led 13 laps and finished eighth. Prior to that, at Phoenix International Raceway in March, the chassis looked to be a lock for its third consecutive top-10 finish but, 56 laps shy of the checkered flag, Newman was sent spinning into the turn-four wall after contact with another car while racing side-by-side for fifth place. The incident relegated Newman to a 21st-place finish. Last season, the chassis competed at Richmond in September and Phoenix in November. At Richmond, Newman started 18th and fought his way into the top-10 near lap 100 and stayed in that relative position for the remainder of the 400-lap event, finishing eighth. Newman finished fifth at Phoenix in November.
#42-Juan Pablo Montoya: Crew Chief Chris "Shine" Heroy and the No. 42 Target team will bring Chassis #1110 to Martinsville Speedway this weekend. This chassis has seen several tests and raced once this season at Loudon, finishing 22nd.
#48-Jimmie Johnson:: Chassis No. 749 is a new chassis and serves as the primary for Johnson at Martinsville. Chassis No. 689 serves as the backup.
#88-Dale Earnhardt, Jr.: Crew chief Steve Letarte will unload Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 88-654 for this weekend's race at Martinsville Speedway. This will be the fourth time Earnhardt has raced this chassis, and each time, he has driven it at Martinsville to record an average fourth-place finish. He drove this chassis during the 2011 season to a second-place finish at Martinsville in April and a seventh-place finish in October. In April 2012, he drove it to a third-place finish at the Virginia short track.
#99-Carl Edwards: RK-815 Last ran Loudon, finished 19th.

- FROM JAYSKI.COM

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