At Martinsville Speedway:
History
· Opened in September 1947 by H. Clay Earles, Martinsville, originally a dirt track, is one of the oldest continuously-operating race tracks in the United States.
· The first NASCAR-sanctioned race at Martinsville was on July 4, 1948.
· The first NASCAR Sprint Cup race was Sept. 25, 1949.
· The track was paved in 1955.
· The first 500-lap event at Martinsville was in 1956.
· Concrete corners were added atop asphalt in 1976.
Notebook
· There
have been 128 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Martinsville Speedway,
one in the inaugural year and two races per year since 1950.
· 589 drivers have competed in at least one NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Martinsville; 372 in more than one.
· NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty has the all-time most NASCAR Sprint Cup starts at Martinsville with 67 starts; Terry Labonte has the most among active drivers with 53.
· Curtis Turner won the inaugural Coors Light pole at Martinsville Speedway in 1949.
· 57 drivers have Coors Light poles at Martinsville, led by NASCAR Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip with eight; Jeff Gordon leads all active drivers with seven.
· 11
drivers have won two or more consecutive Coors Light poles at
Martinsville Speedway. Four of the 11 have won 3 consecutive poles at
Martinsville: Glen Wood (Fall of 1959 and 1960 sweep); Darrell Waltrip (1979 sweep and spring 1980); Mark Martin (fall of 1990 and 1991 sweep); Jeff Gordon (2003 sweep and spring 2004).
· Youngest Martinsville pole winner: Ricky Rudd (4/26/1981 – 24 years, 7 months, 14 days).
· Oldest Martinsville pole winner: Morgan Shepherd (4/26/1987 – 45 years, 6 months, 14 days).
· 47 different drivers have won at Martinsville Speedway, led by Richard Petty (15); Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson lead the series among active drivers with seven wins each.
· 23 drivers have multiple wins at Martinsville Speedway only five active drivers have multiple wins: Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson (seven); Denny Hamlin (four); Tony Stewart (three) and Mark Martin (two).
· Hendrick Motorsports and Petty Enterprises are tied for the lead in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for the most wins at Martinsville Speedway with 19 each.
· 20
of 128 races at Martinsville Speedway have been won from the Coors
Light pole; six of those 20 wins came from active drivers: Tony Stewart (2000), Jeff Gordon (2003 twice), Jimmie Johnson (2008, 2012) and Denny Hamlin (2010).
· The
Coors Light pole is the most proficient starting spot in the field at
Martinsville producing more wins than any other starting position in the
field.
· 35 NASCAR Sprint Cup races at Martinsville Speedway have been won from the front row: 20 from the pole and 15 from second-place.
· 93 of the 128 NASCAR Sprint Cup races at Martinsville Speedway have been won from a top-10 starting position.
· Five
of the 128 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Martinsville Speedway have
been won from a starting position outside the top 20.
· The deepest in the field that a race winner has started was 36th, by Kurt Busch in the fall of 2002.
· Youngest Martinsville winner: Richard Petty (04/10/1960 – 22 years, 9 months, 8 days).
· Oldest Martinsville winner: Harry Gant (09/22/1991 – 51 years, 8 months, 12 days).
· NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt leads the series in runner-up finishes at Martinsville Speedway with seven; Jeff Gordon leads all active drivers with four, followed by his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson with three.
· Richard Petty leads the series in top-five finishes at Martinsville Speedway with 30; Jeff Gordon leads all active drivers with 25, followed by Jimmie Johnson with 15.
· Richard Petty leads the series in top-10 finishes at Martinsville Speedway with 37; Jeff Gordon leads all active drivers with 32, followed by Terry Labonte (27) and Mark Martin (25).
· Jeff Gordon leads active drivers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in average starting position at Martinsville Speedway with a 7.225. Ryan Newman is the only other active driver with an average starting position at Martinsville in the top 10 (9.045).
· Three active drivers have a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series average finish in the top at Martinsville: Jimmie Johnson (5.545), Jeff Gordon (7.075) and Denny Hamlin (8.200).
· There
have been five NSCS green-white-checkered finishes at Martinsville
Speedway: fall 2007 (500/506), fall 2008 (500/504), fall 2009 (500/501),
spring 2010 (500/508), and spring 2012 (500/515).
· Qualifying
has been cancelled due to weather conditions eight times in the NASCAR
Sprint Cup Series at Martinsville Speedway; the most recent was the fall
race of 2011.
· Jeff Gordon has participated in the most NASCAR Sprint Cup races at Martinsville Speedway without a DNF (40).
· Tony Stewart (4/18/1999) and Scott Riggs (4/10/2005) won their first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coors Light poles at Martinsville Speedway.
· Mike Bliss (09/27/1998), Travis Kvapil (10/24/2004), Michael McDowell (3/30/2008) and Scott Speed (10/19/2008) made their first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career starts at Martinsville Speedway.
· 11 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers have posted consecutive wins at Martinsville Speedway. Fred Lorenzen won four NSCS races straight (the most) from the fall of 1963 through the spring of 1965.
· All
10 active NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers who have won at Martinsville
Speedway participated in at least two or more races before visiting
Victory Lane. Tony Stewart won at Martinsville with the fewest previous appearances (three).
· Ryan Newman competed
at Martinsville Speedway 20 times before winning in the spring of 2012;
the longest span of any the 10 active NASCAR Sprint Cup Series winners.
· Four drivers have made 10 or more attempts before their first win at Martinsville Speedway: Mark Martin (12); Bobby Labonte (18), Kevin Harvick (19) and Ryan Newman (20).
· Terry Labonte leads the series with the most NASCAR Sprint Cup starts at Martinsville Speedway without visiting Victory Lane at 53.
· Since the advent of electronic scoring the closest margin of victory at Martinsville Speedway was the April 1, 2007 race won by Jimmie Johnson with a MOV of 0.065 second.
· This weekend will be Danica Patrick’s first
attempt at Martinsville Speedway. If she makes the event, she will
become the first female driver to compete at Martinsville in the NASCAR
Sprint Cup.
· Seven car numbers have produced five or more Martinsville Speedway NSCS wins:
Car Number – Drivers – (Years)
o No. 43 – Richard Petty (1960, ’62, ’63, ’67 sweep, ’68, ’69 sweep, ’70, ’71, ’72 sweep, ’73, ’75 and ’79); John Andretti (1999)
o No. 11 –
Cale Yarborough (1974, ’76, ’77 sweep, ‘78); Darrell Waltrip (1981,
’82, ’83, ’84); Geoff Bodine (1990 sweep); Denny Hamlin (2008, ’09, ’10
sweep)
o No. 28 – Fred Lorenzen (1961, ’63, ’64 sweep, ‘65 and ‘66); Buddy Baker (1979); Ernie Irvan (1993).
o No. 2 – Dale Earnhardt (1980); Rusty Wallace (1993, ‘94 sweep, ’95, ’96 and ‘04)
o No. 24 – Jeff Gordon (1996, ’97, ’99, ’03 sweep and ’05 sweep)
o No. 48 – Jimmie Johnson (2004, ’06, ’07 sweep, ’08, ’09, ’12)
o No. 3 – Ricky Rudd (1983); Dale Earnhardt (1985, ’87, ’88, ’91, ’95)
Martinsville Speedway Data
Season Race #: 6 of 36 (4-07-13)
Track Size: 0.526-mile
Banking/Turns 1 & 2: 12 degrees
Banking/Turns 3 & 4: 12 degrees
Banking/Frontstretch: 0 degrees
Banking/Backstretch: 0 degrees
Frontstretch Length: 800 feet
Backstretch Length: 800 feet
Race Length: 500 laps / 263 miles
Top 12 Driver Rating at Martinsville
Jimmie Johnson....................... 122.3
Jeff Gordon.............................. 120.9
Denny Hamlin.......................... 111.6
Dale Earnhardt Jr....................... 99.8
Tony Stewart............................. 99.7
Kyle Busch............................... 95.3
Kevin Harvick............................ 92.3
Clint Bowyer............................. 90.8
Ryan Newman.......................... 89.5
Jeff Burton................................ 87.5
Mark Martin.............................. 87.0
Brad Keselowski....................... 84.5
Note: Driver Ratings compiled from 2005-2012 races (16 total) among active drivers at Martinsville Speedway
Qualifying/Race Data
2012 pole winner: Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 97.128 mph, 19.496 secs. 3-30-12
2012 race winner: Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 78.823 mph, (3:26:12), 4-01-12
Track qualifying record: Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 98.083 mph, 19.306 secs. 10-21-05
Track race record: Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 82.223 mph, (3:11:55), 9-22-96
NASCAR in Virginia
· There have been 278 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in Virginia.
|
Track Name
|
City
|
NSCS
|
|
Martinsville Speedway
|
Martinsville
|
128
|
|
Richmond International Raceway
|
Richmond
|
113
|
|
South Boston Speedway
|
South Boston
|
10
|
|
Langley Field Speedway
|
Hampton
|
9
|
|
Old Dominion Speedway
|
Manassas
|
7
|
|
Southside Speedway
|
Richmond
|
4
|
|
Starkey Speedway
|
Roanoke
|
4
|
|
Norfolk Speedway
|
Norfolk
|
2
|
|
Princess Anne Speedway
|
Norfolk
|
1
|
· 167 drivers in NASCAR national series history have their home state recorded as Virginia.
· 18
drivers from Virginia have won at least one race in NASCAR’s three
national series. 11 of the 18 Virginia native NASCAR winners have won in
the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
|
Driver
|
NSCS
|
NNS
|
NCWTS
|
|
Joe Weatherly
|
25
|
0
|
0
|
|
Ricky Rudd
|
23
|
1
|
0
|
|
Denny Hamlin
|
22
|
11
|
2
|
|
Jeff Burton
|
21
|
27
|
0
|
|
Curtis Turner
|
17
|
0
|
0
|
|
Ward Burton
|
5
|
4
|
0
|
|
Glen Wood
|
4
|
0
|
0
|
|
Elliott Sadler
|
3
|
9
|
1
|
|
Emanuel Zervakis
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
|
Lennie Pond
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
|
Wendell Scott
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
|
Tommy Ellis
|
0
|
22
|
0
|
|
Jimmy Hensley
|
0
|
9
|
2
|
|
Rick Mast
|
0
|
9
|
0
|
|
Hermie Sadler
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
|
Elton Sawyer
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
|
Stacy Compton
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
|
Jon Wood
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
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