NEWS & NOTES
ONE OF SIX: In eight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Chicagoland Speedway, Mark Martin has earned three top-10 finishes. He has finished outside of the top 20 just once in those eight starts and has completed 99 percent of all the laps he’s attempted at the track (2,136 of 2,139 total). Chicagoland is one of just six remaining active tracks where Martin has yet to reach Victory Lane.
INTERIM REPORT: At the midway point of the season, Martin owns the eighth-highest driver rating of all Sprint Cup competitors. The driver rating is based on a formula combining the following categories: wins, finishes, top-15 finishes, average running position while on the lead lap, average speed under green, fastest lap, laps led and lead-lap finish.
LAP STATS: Martin has spent 73.8 percent of the green-flag laps this season running in the top 15 (3,831 laps of 5,194 total). That ranks Martin sixth among his Cup competitors. He also has led 219 laps, which is the eighth-best. This season, Martin has maintained the ninth-best average running position (14.962).
FAST CHEVY: The CARQUEST/Kellogg’s Chevrolet ranks inside the top-10 in four categories based on the car’s speed. The No. 5 Chevy is the second only to points leader Tony Stewart among the fastest cars late in green-flag runs. It is also the third-fastest car in traffic and the fourth-fastest overall during green flags. Martin has scored 234 of the fastest laps run so far this season, which places him sixth overall in the Sprint Cup Series.
IF HISTORY REPEATS: After 18 races this season, Martin has earned three wins, three pole positions, four top-five finishes and eight top-10s. In the three seasons that Martin qualified for the Chase—2004, 2005 and 2006—Martin had not earned this many wins or poles by the season’s midway point. Only in 2005 did he have more top-five finishes (five) and more top-10s (nine) than he does at this point in the season. In 2005, he finished fourth in the Sprint Cup standings.
THE NO. 5 TEAM: Crew chief Alan Gustafson has guided the No. 5 team in four Sprint Cup races at Chicagoland Speedway. The team earned a best finish of third in July 2006 with Gustafson at the helm.
APPROACHING MILESTONE: On Aug. 22 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, Martin will make his 1,000th career NASCAR start. That date will mark his 746th Sprint Cup start. Martin also will have competed in 231 Nationwide Series and 23 Camping World Truck Series events. He will become the third driver to achieve this mark, behind only Richard Petty and Michael Waltrip. Over all three series, Martin has won 93 points-paying events.
NOTHING BUT A NUMBER: Four drivers have earned Sprint Cup victories over the age of 50, however, only two have earned multiples. Martin’s three wins rank second only to Harry Gant, who earned eight victories after his 50th birthday.
CHASE RACE: Martin and the No. 5 team are currently 13th in the Sprint Cup standings, 65 points behind 12th.
WINNING CHASSIS: Gustafson has chosen Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 5-527 for Saturday’s race at Chicagoland. Martin has driven this car twice already this season, notably reaching Victory Lane at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway in May. He also raced Chassis No. 5-527 at Auto Club Speedway in February.
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