[media-credit name=”Barry Albert” align=”alignright” width=”217″]
[/media-credit]After two practice sessions on Friday at Martinsville Speedway, David Regan holds the fastest speed of the day at 96.268 mph (19.670 secs) with Jeff Gordon close behind at 96.219 mph. Both top speeds were run during the second practice session.
The 0.526-mile paper clip-shaped track has been Denny Hamlin (four time winner) and Jimmie Johnson (six time winner) land over the past few races. But both drivers struggled during the second practice session and posted slower times than the first session.
“We’ve been decent here the last couple of times. We need to be a little bit better to have a shot at winning and we’re looking forward to doing that.” Johnson said.
Kyle Busch may be able to do the Bristol sweep, but Martinsville is another challenge for Busch. Kyle Busch has never finished higher than fourth.
“Martinsville is a challenging track in itself already anyways. With the short track feel that we had a couple weeks ago at Bristol — that’s always fun for us. It seems to be a place we can really run well at — Same with Richmond. Just trying to hit the stride here at Martinsville.” Busch said.
Don’t count either of the Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) teammates, but hopefully there will not be anymore engine problems. Busch said and Martinsville that JGR officials have determined that its two engine issues last weekend were valve-related.
“I know there were some valve issues. I don’t want to elaborate too much on it.” Busch said.
Qualifying begins shortly after 12:00pm on Saturday.
Practice 1 Speeds:
http://www.speedwaymedia.com/Cup/practice.php?race=6&PS=1
Practice 2 Speeds:
