This weekend at Martinsville Speedway should be an interesting case study of in-season momentum vs. track-history momentum.
Johnny Sauter (No. 13 Fun Sand/Rodney Atkins/Curb Records Chevrolet) will be the test subject.
Sauter comes into Martinsville as one of the hottest drivers in the series, winning his first series race, at Las Vegas, and finishing in the top five in each of the last five races. Over that that span, he has an Average Running Position of 6.4, a Driver Rating of 112.3, 97 Fastest Laps Run and a Laps in the Top 15 percentage of 96.9%.
Those numbers lie on the complete opposite side of the statistical spectrum as Sauter’s numbers at Martinsville.
Martinsville, in terms of Driver Rating, is Sauter’s worst track. He has a rating of just 51.0, and has yet to crack the top 20 in any of his three previous Martinsville starts in the series.
In Sauter’s three starts there (2006, 2008 and in March of this season), Sauter has an average finish of 24.0, an Average Running Position of 28.8 and has run only one lap in the top 15. Auto Racing Daily
CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR 0 Tim Bainey Jr. Chevrolet Aaron's Dream Machine 4 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Bounty 5 Mike Skinner Toyota PC*Miler Navigator 6 Colin Braun Ford Con-way Freight 7 Burt Myers Chevrolet Wyatt Winstead Foundation 8 Dennis Setzer Chevrolet Malcolmson Construction 8 Tim Brown Chevrolet SS Green Light Racing 9 Max Papis Toyota GEICO 10 James Buescher* Ford International Maxx Force Diesel 11 T.J. Bell Toyota Red Horse Racing 13 Johnny Sauter* Chevrolet Fun Sand / Rodney Atkins / Curb Records 14 Rick Crawford Ford Circle Bar Truck Corral / International 15 Aric Almirola Toyota Graceway Pharmaceuticals 16 Brian Scott Toyota Toyota Tundra 17 Peyton Sellers Toyota Premier Racing 23 Jason White Dodge GunBroker.com 24 David Starr Toyota Zachry 25 Terry Cook Toyota Harris Trucking / Cajun Industries 30 Todd Bodine Toyota Lumber Liquidators 33 Ron Hornaday Chevrolet VFW 47 Brandon Knupp Chevrolet FT-11 Multi-Purpose Degreaser 51 Denny Hamlin Toyota Miccosukee Resort / Graceway Pharmaceuticals 60 Stacy Compton Toyota SafeAuto Insurance Company 81 Tayler Malsam* Toyota One Eighty 85 Brent Raymer* Ford EMI 88 Matt Crafton Chevrolet Menards 117 Timothy Peters Toyota Strutmasters.com / Red Horse Racing 119 Marc Davis Chevrolet Howard University Radio WHUR 96.3 121 Nick Tucker Dodge GunBroker.com 148 Hermie Sadler Chevrolet Virginia Lottery 157 Norm Benning Chevrolet Norm Benning Racing 171 Rob Fuller Chevrolet Draco Springs 184 Chris Fontaine Chevrolet Glenden Enterprises 187 Chris Jones* Chevrolet Copy Wizard 189 Chris Lafferty Chevrolet Lafferty Performance 199 Brett Butler Chevrolet Loanmax Title Loans 212 Derek White Chevrolet DGM Racing
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