Martinsville Betting Preview: 2017 First Data 500

Kyle Busch bows last spring at Martinsville.

The goal for the eight drivers still alive in NASCAR's Playoffs is the get out the gate fast in the Round of 8 with a win at Martinsville Speedway and earn that automatic berth into the Championship 4 at Homestead next month. The three races in this round instantly make a couple drivers like Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch favored to be advancing to the Championship Race.

“I look forward to the next round – we’ve got Martinsville, we’ve got Texas and we’ve got Phoenix,' said Kyle Busch who sits second in points behind Truex. "Those are all three really strong tracks for us. Texas is a bit of a wild card with the repave, but there’s no reason why we can’t run well there.

"Honestly, I don’t know that there are tracks on the schedule that are weak points for us unless, obviously, there are crapshoot-type races like Talladega or Daytona. We lived through Kansas last weekend, so we get to move on.”

Any playoff driver that wins any of the next three races gets an automatic berth into the Championship Race at Homestead. And of the eight drivers, a couple of them are really good at Martinville's flat half-mile layout such as Jimmie Johnson, and a couple aren't so accomplished there such as Truex.

Seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson has won on the flat half-mile layout nine times to lead all active drivers, In 31 career starts he's averaged a 7.5 finish and led an incredible 2,839 laps. This is probably Johnson's best chance to advance to the Championship because his car has been kind of junky on 1.5-mile tracks or at least light years behind in performance compared to the likes of Truex and Busch.

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