NEWS & NOTES
POINTS BATTLE: Mark Martin, driver of the No. 5 Kellogg’s/CARQUEST Chevrolet, will be the only driver with a shot at points leader Jimmie Johnson once the green flag waves Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Martin trails his Hendrick Motorsports teammate by 108 points. Should Martin lead the most laps and win the race, Johnson would have to finish 26th or worse for Martin to win his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.
MARTIN AT HOMESTEAD: Homestead-Miami Speedway is one of just four active tracks on the Sprint Cup circuit where Martin has not yet earned a win. In nine Cup starts at the 1.5-mile oval, Martin has posted four top-five finishes, including the runner-up spot in the 2005 Sprint Cup finale. In Martin’s last three races at Homestead, he has spent almost 70 percent of the time (558 of a possible 802 laps) inside the top 15.
LAST TIME AT HOMESTEAD: Martin, who ran part-time schedules in 2007 and 2008, did not compete in the final race of the 2008 Sprint Cup season at Homestead. In 2007, he drove his Chevrolet to a ninth-place finish, scoring his fifth top-10 result at the intermediate track.
OF THE CHASERS: Martin has the second-most top-five finishes (four) at Homestead-Miami Speedway and the fourth-best average finish (12th) of all drivers in the Chase.
LOOP STATISTICS: During the past four races at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Martin’s average running position of 12.6 is the third-best of the drivers inside the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. Martin has earned the fourth-best driver rating of 91.6 among all drivers inside the Chase during those same four races.
LAPS LED: Martin has led 805 laps in his first season with Hendrick Motorsports. He has not led this many laps in a single Sprint Cup season since 1998, when he paced 1,730 of them. Martin finished second in the Sprint Cup point standings that year to his now teammate Jeff Gordon.
THE NO. 5 AT HOMESTEAD: Since 2005 and under the leadership of crew chief Alan Gustafson, the Kellogg’s/CARQUEST team has earned one top-10 finish in four Homestead starts. The team started 12th and finished eighth in the 2008 Sprint Cup finale.
DOUBLE WINNING CHASSIS: Gustafson has chosen Chassis No. 5-527 for this weekend’s event at Homestead- Miami Speedway. This is the same chassis that Martin drove to Victory Lane at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway in May and Chicagoland Speedway in July.
HENDRICK AT HOMESTEAD: Homestead-Miami Speedway is the only racetrack on the current Sprint Cup schedule where Hendrick Motorsports has not won a race. The organization, which will wrap up its 25th anniversary season this weekend, has recorded eight top-five finishes and 16 top-10s in 10 Cup events (39 starts) there.
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