PRIME REAL ESTATE
CORNELIUS, N.C. — The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series travels to Martinsville Speedway this weekend. The circuit’s shortest track is notorious for its race-time drama with real estate at a premium with 43 cars jammed into the 0.526-mile oval.
Success is all about finding the space to race and Bowyer has done just that on the Virginia track. He has posted top-10 finishes in more than half of his 18 starts including the Spring race last year, leading three times in the 500-lap event on his way to a ninth-place finish. He followed that up with another top-10 finish in the Fall.
He’ll be looking for some more of that prime real estate this weekend and would love nothing more than to park his No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry in the “primest” of all real estate in NASCAR—victory lane.
What are the keys to getting around Martinsville?
“We show up and practice at Martinsville and then all of a sudden the race brings a completely different animal you haven’t fought all weekend long. All the while you are going through practice, you have to be thinking, alright I’ve got to be able to get into this corner, have stability getting in, make sure I’m not too free getting in during practice because that problem’s only going to get worse going through the race. The other problem is forward bite, if you can’t get off the corner, if you are border line struggling in practice, you’ve got to figure out how to get some more during practice because that will definitely be worse during the race as well. So keeping in the back of your mind what you need for the race is something we go through each and every weekend but it’s amplified 10 times as much when we go to a short track like Martinsville.”
CHASSIS
Chassis No. 806 serves as Bowyer’s primary chassis at Martinsville. Bowyer raced the chassis to top-10 finishes in both Martinsville races in 2014. He finished ninth in March and seventh in October. This weekend’s back-up chassis also served as the back-up at both Martinsville races in 2014.
NO. 15 CREW ROSTER
Brian Pattie
Crew Chief
Terry Spalding
Front Tire Changer
Allen Steele
Front Tire Carrier
Lee Cunningham
Rear Tire Changer
P.J. Briody
Rear Tire Carrier
Brian Chase
Jack Man
Evan Marchal
Gas Man
J.D. Frey
Car Chief
Brett Griffin
Spotter
Dax Gerringer
Race Engineer
Tim O’Brien
Race Engineer
Billy Curwood
Race Engineer
Adam Cooke
Shock Specialist
Travis Stock
Rear Mechanic
Chris Sherwood
Front Mechanic
Kyle Anderson
Interior Mechanic
James Davis
Tire Specialist
Gregg Huls
Engine Tuner
Ray Erwin
Truck Driver
Jeff Shano
Truck Driver
MARTINSVILLE STATS
· Four top-five and 12 top-10 finishes in 18 starts
· Completed 8,889 of 9,034 laps (98.4%) and led 356 laps
· One DNF (did not finish) – October 2010
· Average start 15.2 and average finish 12.1
