News & Notes
AT MARTINSVILLE: In 22 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has scored eight top-five finishes, 11 top-10s and led 848 laps. He recorded a career-best runner-up finish at the Virginia short track behind the wheel of the No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet in October 2008.
PERSONAL BESTS: Earnhardt’s 848 laps led at Martinsville are his personal best at a track. He has tallied 236 of those laps driving the No. 88 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. His eight top-five finishes at Martinsville also match his personal best at a track. He has eight top-five results at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Richmond (Va.) International Raceway and Atlanta Motor Speedway.
POINTS REPORT: Earnhardt, driver of the No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet, currently ranks 12th in the Sprint Cup Series championship standings. He trails leader Carl Edwards by 31 points.
SHORT TRACK STATS: In 68 Cup starts on short tracks, Earnhardt has recorded four wins, 23 top-five finishes and 33 top-10s. He has a 16.9 average starting position and an average finishing position of 13.1 on these racetracks.
DRIVER RATING: According to NASCAR’s loop data statistics, Earnhardt is ranked fifth in the driver rating category at Martinsville with a score of 98.7. The driver rating is a formula that combines wins, top-15 finishes, average running position while on the lead lap, average speed under green, fastest lap, most laps led and lead-lap finishes. The maximum a driver can earn in each race is 150 points. The driver rating number is used pre-race as a prediction tool and post-race as a performance evaluator.
CHASSIS CHOICE: Crew chief Steve Letarte will unload Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 88-654 for this weekend’s 500-lap event at Martinsville Speedway. This is a brand new chassis that has not been raced.
CREW MEMBER UPDATE: This weekend at Martinsville, Cam Waugh will fill in for Joe Slingerland as the No. 88 team’s rear-tire changer. Slingerland suffered a hamstring injury during last weekend’s race at Auto Club Speedway, and the team will continue to evaluate his condition. Waugh, of Billings, Mont., was a wide receiver at Central College in Pella, Iowa, where he was a teammate of Matt Ver Meer, the rear-tire carrier for the No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet.
HENDRICK AT MARTINSVILLE: Hendrick Motorsports has won 18 of the last 54 races at Martinsville Speedway to achieve a team-best in victories there and lead all other Cup teams during that timeframe. Hendrick also has scored its team-best results there in top-five finishes (58), top-10s (94) and laps led (6,787) at Martinsville. The short track also happens to be the place the organization scored its first Cup victory. It was the eighth race of the 1984 season when Geoff Bodine drove the No. 5 Chevrolet to Victory Lane for the fledgling team. Hendrick Motorsports also has 14 pole positions at the Virginia short track, which ranks second as a career-best for the team.
HENDRICK LATELY: Teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon have found Victory Lane in 10 of the last 16 races held at the short track. Johnson most recently took the checkered flag in March 2009.
APPROACHING 200: With Gordon’s win in February at Phoenix International Raceway, Hendrick Motorsports now has earned 195 Sprint Cup victories. The organization ranks first in NASCAR’s modern era for wins and second all-time behind Petty Enterprises, which has 268 victories.
Quotes
DALE EARNHARDT JR., DRIVER, NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET (ON MARTINSVILLE.):
“I like Martinsville a lot. There’s something about trying to get around the corner of that place that’s a lot of fun, and it’s just an interesting racetrack. Martinsville is a good short track, and there is a little bit of roughness to it.”
STEVE LETARTE, CREW CHIEF, NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET (ON QUALIFYING AT MARTINSVILLE.):
“Martinsville qualifying is going to be very difficult because they are going to go with the Phoenix schedule for the first time. Normally we would go to Martinsville on Friday in qualifying trim, with a car that’s extremely light-weight and ready to go. We can’t do that this time. This time we have two practices on Friday, and then we qualify on Saturday. It’s going to be a moving target. I believe that a good car is a good car. Qualifying well makes your life a whole lot easier on Sunday. It doesn’t guarantee anything, though. We are going to be focused on qualifying, but I think our No. 1 goal at Martinsville will be speed. Dale is very fast there, but he never seems to have speed in the last 100 laps. I think that is a product of not qualifying as well as he wants, and he has to run harder than he needs early in the race. Hopefully, I can do my job on the pit box and keep him a little more reserved the first 350 laps so we have a little more at the end.”
LETARTE (ON STAYING COMPETITIVE AT THE END OF THE RACE AT MARTINSVILLE.):
“You qualify well and you don’t panic when you aren’t in the front. There’s a lot of pit strategy that goes into Martinsville—you can take two tires, four tires or stay out. There are a lot of options there. The driver has to have a lot of trust in his crew chief and what he is telling him. It’s a hard track; it’s bumper to bumper all the way around. It’s hard for a driver to realize if he is on pace or where the leaders are. It is very important for Dale to trust me and what I’m asking of him. If he has confidence to do that then hopefully we can have something at the end.”
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