This past Sunday at Bristol, Tony Stewart had the field licked. If not for a broken fuel pump at the midway point of the Food City 500, Stewart looked as if he would lock up his first victory of 2007.
It was the true-to-life form of “one of those racing deals” – the unlucky happenstances that make NASCAR unpredictable. What the Loop Data does is add some control to the chaos of those “racing deals. ” And if the Loop Data holds true this weekend, Stewart will get what’s owed to him.
With a win and three top fives in the past three years, Stewart has collected an array of impressive stats at Martinsville.
Stewart has the top average Driver Rating over the past four races at 129.4 and registered a near-perfect 147.5 (a perfect rating is 150.0) in his win at Martinsville in this race last year.
And last year Stewart ran into the buzz saw that was Johnson, who was in the middle of five consecutive top-two finishes. Johnson won the October Martinsville race last season and has the third-best average Driver Rating of 116.0 and the third-best Average Running Position of 8.439.
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