News & Notes
QUAKER STATE 400: Quaker State returns to the hood of the No. 5 Chevrolet for Saturday’s Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway. Mark Martin last drove the green-and-yellow Quaker State colors to a 10th-place finish at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in April. The Quaker State 400 will be the first race at a new track on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule since 2001, when Chicagoland Speedway was added.
QUAKER STATE TECHNOLOGY: The current Quaker State-Hendrick relationship has grown during its 15-year history into a championship-winning technical team. Since 1996, Quaker State engineers have worked diligently with Hendrick Motorsports throughout the season to analyze and adjust the motor oil formulations in order to maximize on-track success.
PARTNERSHIP SUCCESS: Quaker State racing oil has enjoyed an unprecedented level of success under the hood of Hendrick Motorsports cars. With more than 7 million on-track miles, Quaker State’s technical relationship with Hendrick Motorsports has resulted in an unparalleled number of racing triumphs, including 149 Sprint Cup wins and nine Sprint Cup championships.
KENTUCKY TIRE TEST: Martin, who has made 811 career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts, never has competed in a race at Kentucky Speedway, but did participate in the June 1 Goodyear tire test at the track with the No. 5 team.
SOMETHING NEW: The last time Martin lined up for an inaugural race was 2001 at Chicagoland Speedway. Martin started 18th in the race and led 20 laps en route to a sixth-place finish.
FIRST-TIME WINNER: Martin has one win in an inaugural NASCAR race under his belt during his 29-year career. When Las Vegas Motor Speedway held its first Sprint Cup race in 1998, Martin led 82 laps and took home the checkered flag.
FIRST FOR MARTIN: Martin will make his first race laps on Kentucky Speedway in Friday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series event. Martin will pilot the No. 32 Turner Motorsports Chevrolet. He has competed in the car three times this year, scoring one win and three top-10 finishes.
50TH POLE: Martin earned his 50th career Sprint Cup pole last Friday at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. This placed him eighth on the all-time pole winner’s list. This weekend will mark his first qualifying attempt at Kentucky Speedway.
CHASSIS CHOICE: Crew chief Lance McGrew has chosen Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 5-672 for Saturday’s inaugural race at Kentucky Speedway. This is the same chassis that Martin drove to a ninth-place finish at Michigan International Speedway last month. The team also tested this chassis at Kentucky during the Goodyear tire test on June 1.
POINTS: Martin and the No. 5 team now rank 18th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings and trail 10th-place Ryan Newman by 43 points.
HENDRICK AT KENTUCKY: This will be Hendrick Motorsports first Sprint Cup trip to Kentucky’s 1.5-mile tri-oval. In six previous Nationwide Series starts, the organization recorded one win, one top-five finish and two top-10s. When it comes to 1.5-mile racetracks, Hendrick Motorsports has totaled 29 wins, 122 top-five finishes, 191 top-10s and 29 pole positions at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Kansas Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway.
APPROACHING 200: With Jeff Gordon’s win at Pocono Raceway last month, Hendrick Motorsports has earned 197 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
MARK MARTIN, DRIVER, NO. 5 QUAKER STATE/GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET (ON HOW PARTICIPATING IN THE JUNE TIRE TEST WILL HELP THE TEAM THIS WEEKEND.):
“Anytime you get on the track, it’s a big help. I’ve tested at Kentucky before. This team has tested there before. But testing there and knowing you’re going to race on that specific track is different. It will be a help to us. A good starting point. But, really when you throw in all of the testing time that all of the teams will get on Thursday, it will even out a little. That’s a lot of time on the track for everyone, and I think that will prove to be the most valuable.
“With the amount of testing time we get on Thursday, we’re all going to be able to figure our own cars out. I don’t think we’re going to be as dependent on past information or knowledge due to that testing period.”
MARTIN (ON HIS FINAL NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES RACE OF THE 2011 SEASON.):
“I honestly wish I had more of them. It’s hard to believe my four races are up already. I’ve had a blast working with Turner Motorsports and everyone on the No. 32 Chevy. I wish I could get a few more out there, but I can’t forget that I have two more (Camping World) Truck Series races coming up, too. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve been in a truck, so I’m looking forward to that opportunity, too.”
LANCE McGREW, CREW CHIEF, NO 5. QUAKER STATE/GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET (ON HOW MUCH THE JUNE TIRE TEST AT KENTUCKY WILL HELP THE TEAM.):
“Anytime that you get some laps on the actual racetrack, it’s a good thing. We learned about the track surface and also some about the tires we will use this weekend. No one had tested at Kentucky in years, so it was nice to have that current, up-to-date data to look at.”
McGREW (WILL MARTIN’S PARTICIPATION IN THE NATIONWIDE RACE FRIDAY HELP THE TEAM?)
“Mark racing Friday night is definitely going to help us for Saturday. He’ll have the opportunity to move around on the racetrack and really see what driving lines work for him. With that extra time on the track, under race conditions, he’ll also have a better idea of how the track will rubber up and how wide the racing groove will be for Saturday night. We’ll definitely talk Friday night and take some of what he learned and apply it to the Cup car.”
McGREW (ON WHAT HE FORESEES FOR THE SECOND HALF OF THE 2011 SEASON FOR THE NO. 5 TEAM):
“As a team, we need to continue the momentum we felt we had and left with at Michigan in June. We made some really big gains before that race; big gains on our mile-and-a-half program. We struggled at Sonoma, then had an awesome race going for us at Daytona (Fla.) before that green-white-checkered melee. This is our chance to get back to that program we were building and try to get that momentum back.”
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