MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY (0.526-MILE OVAL)
LOCATION: RIDGEWAY, VIRGINIA
EVENT: NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES (RACE 6 OF 36)
TUNE IN: 1 P.M. ET, SUNDAY, APRIL 3 (FS1/MRN/SIRIUSXM)
No. 5 Great Clips Chevrolet SS / Kasey Kahne
Driver Kasey Kahne Hometown Enumclaw, Washington
Age 35 Resides Mooresville, North Carolina
2016 Season
18th in standings
5 starts
0 wins
0 pole positions
0 top-five finishes
1 top-10 finish
0 laps led
Career
437 starts
17 wins
27 pole positions
86 top-five finishes
157 top-10 finishes
4,607 laps led
Track Career
24 starts
0 wins
1 pole position
3 top-five finishes
5 top-10 finishes
60 laps led
HITTING THE TRACK: This weekend, Great Clips returns as primary sponsor of the No. 5 Chevrolet SS. Martinsville Speedway marks the third of 11 primary races this season for Great Clips. Kasey Kahne’s lone pole award at Martinsville came in April 2012. Last season’s fall event at the track saw Kahne race from the rear of the field in a backup Chevrolet SS all the way to a ninth-place finish.
MARTINSVILLE LOOP DATA: Kahne ranks fifth in average speed late in a run at Martinsville at 90.148 miles per hour. Average speed late in a run ranks each driver during the final 25 percent of laps run in a typical full green-flag segment. Kahne sits seventh among active drivers for fastest laps run at Martinsville with 269.
GOING HOME: Nos. 5 and 24 team manager Brian Whitesell returns to his home state of Virginia this weekend. The 51-year-old is a native of Stuarts Draft, which is located approximately two hours and 30 minutes northeast of Martinsville Speedway. Whitesell is a graduate of Virginia Tech with a degree in mechanical engineering.
RETURNING FROM THE OFF WEEKEND: After returning from the West Coast and completing his weekly Hendrick Motorsports duties, Kahne spent his weekend off with his dirt car team. He took home the win at Lincoln Speedway located in Abbottstown, Pennsylvania.
GREAT CLIPS WINE WEEKEND GIVEAWAY: Beginning Friday, April 1, Kahne fans can enter for a chance to win a wine tasting and dinner experience with the driver on June 25 at Ryan Hill Estates Winery. The Vineyard to Victory Lane experience also includes two tickets to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway on June 26. For more information on the promotion, visit greatclips.com.
No. 24 3M Chevrolet SS / Chase Elliott
Driver Chase Elliott Hometown Dawsonville, Georgia
Age 20 Resides Mooresville, North Carolina
2016 Season
16th in standings
5 starts
0 wins
1 pole position
0 top-five finishes
3 top-10 finishes
4 laps led
Career
10 starts
0 wins
1 pole position
0 top-five finishes
3 top-10 finishes
4 laps led
Track Career
1 start
0 wins
0 pole positions
0 top-five finishes
0 top-10 finishes
0 laps led
3M ON THE NO. 24 CHEVROLET SS: 3M will be the primary partner on board Rookie of the Year contender Chase Elliott’s No. 24 Chevrolet SS this weekend at Martinsville Speedway for the first time this season. 3M, which began its partnership with Hendrick Motorsports in 2015, will be the primary partner on the car for four additional races this year.
CUP SERIES DEBUT: In January 2015, it was announced that Elliott would join the Sprint Cup Series in 2016 driving the No. 24 Chevrolet. In preparation, Elliott drove in five points-paying Sprint Cup races for Hendrick Motorsports during the 2015 season with his series debut coming at Martinsville Speedway in a No. 25 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet SS. Elliott also has two NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts at Martinsville, including his NASCAR national series debut on April 6, 2013.
TOP-10 TRIO: Elliott is coming off of his third top-10 finish of the season heading into this weekend’s race at Martinsville Speedway. The driver earned Sunoco’s Rookie of the Race honors at Auto Club Speedway after capturing a career-best sixth-place finish. His first top-10 finish of 2016 was at his home track, Atlanta Motor Speedway, and he also earned a top-10 finish at Phoenix International Raceway.
NO. 24 CLOCKING IN: The No. 24 Chevrolet SS team has earned nine Martinsville grandfather clocks since 1993 with the most recent victory coming last year in Jeff Gordon’s last race at the paperclip, marking his final victory in the No. 24 Chevrolet before passing the wheel to Elliott.
GOING HOME: No. 24 NAPA AUTO PARTS transporter driver Dean Mozingo will head to his NASCAR home track this weekend. Mozingo grew up in High Point, North Carolina, approximately one hour from Martinsville Speedway.
No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS / Jimmie Johnson
Driver Jimmie Johnson Hometown El Cajon, California
Age 40 Resides Charlotte, North Carolina
2016 Season
2nd in standings
5 starts
2 wins
0 pole positions
3 top-five finishes
3 top-10 finishes
171 laps led
Career
512 starts
77 wins
34 pole positions
210 top-five finishes
317 top-10 finishes
17,880 laps led
Track Career
28 starts
8 wins
3 pole positions
18 top-five finishes
22 top-10 finishes
2,746 laps led
ICYMI 77: Jimmie Johnson captured his 77th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win at Auto Club Speedway two weeks ago, which gave him sole possession of seventh on the all-time wins list. The six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver now trails sixth-place Cale Yarbrough (83 wins) by six wins and fourth-place Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip (84) by seven wins.
STRONG START: Johnson and the No. 48 Lowe’s team have had a strong start to the season. After five races, Johnson has two wins, three top-five finishes and three top-10s. He has led 171 laps so far, including a race-high 76 at Las Vegas, and is currently second in the series standings.
MASTERING THE PAPERCLIP: Forty-eight different Sprint Cup drivers have won at Martinsville Speedway, led by Richard Petty with 15 victories. Johnson leads the series among active drivers with eight wins. He is also the most recent driver to win consecutive races (Fall 2012/Spring 2013) at Martinsville.
SERIES BEST: Johnson has many series-best accolades at Martinsville Speedway according to NASCAR’s loop data. Among active drivers, he has the series-best average finish of 6.909, the best driver rating of 118.4 and the series-fastest green-flag speed of 91.629 mph. He also leads all active drivers with 9,425 laps in the top-15 during that span.
HELMET OF HOPE: The Jimmie Johnson Foundation is accepting nominations for the Blue Bunny Helmet of Hope program until Thursday, April 14. Non-profit organizations that support K-12 public education in the United States, including parent/teacher organizations, are eligible to be nominated. In all, five charities will be selected to receive a $25,000 cash grant, a Blue Bunny ice cream party and have their logo featured on six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Johnson’s helmet during the race on August 7, 2016, at Watkins Glen International. Visit www.helmetofhope.org to nominate a charity. Click here to read about how the Helmet of Hope has helped charitable organizations in the past.
JIMMIE JOHNSON WELLNESS CHALLENGE RETURNS: Registration is open for the 2016 Jimmie Johnson Foundation Wellness Challenge. Register now for early-bird pricing and register for all three events to receive a reduced rate. The first event is May 22, the Jimmie Johnson Foundation 5K in Huntersville, North Carolina. Log on to www.jjfwellnesschallenge.org for more details.
No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet SS / Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hometown Kannapolis, North Carolina
Age 41 Resides Mooresville, North Carolina
2016 Season
8th in standings
5 starts
0 wins
0 pole positions
2 top-five finishes
3 top-10 finishes
49 laps led
Career
582 starts
26 wins
13 pole positions
145 top-five finishes
249 top-10 finishes
8,183 laps led
Track Career
32 starts
1 win
0 pole positions
13 top-five finishes
18 top-10 finishes
972 laps led
Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet SS, will be available to members of the media on Friday, April 1, at 1:15 p.m. local time in the Martinsville Speedway media center.
ANOTHER CLOCK: Dale Earnhardt Jr. earned his first victory at the historic half-mile Martinsville Speedway on Oct. 26, 2014. He held off former teammate and nine-time Martinsville winner Gordon to score the win, taking home the iconic grandfather clock that the speedway gives as its trophy. In the last 10 races at the paper clip-shaped oval, Earnhardt has earned five top-five and seven top-10 finishes.
DRIVEN TO GIVE: The Dale Jr. Foundation’s successful Driven to Give Gloves program will focus on four Patient Champions from Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) for its 2016 initiative. Earnhardt’s race-worn gloves will be auctioned off to raise funds for the hospital’s clinical and research programs. Nationwide Children’s is America’s largest pediatric hospital and research center with all care provided regardless of a family’s ability to pay. Driven to Give Gloves kicks off in April with Earnhardt wearing gloves accented in blue, representing autism.
NCH PATIENT CHAMPION: The Driven to Give Gloves Patient Champion for April is 7-year-old Aiden VanWagner. Aiden was diagnosed with autism at an early age but under the care of Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders, Aiden has received individualized and comprehensive interventions and is enjoying school in a mainstream classroom. Researchers at Nationwide Children’s have many active research projects underway to determine causes and effective new treatments for autism.
MAKING PASSES: Earnhardt is one of the best drivers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Martinsville, ranking first among active drivers in the last 10 years in the green-flag passes (1,334) and quality passes (800) categories. The driver of the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet SS ranks third among all active competitors with an average driver rating of 99.4 during that span. The driver rating is a formula that combines wins, top-15 finishes, average running position while on the lead lap, average speed under green, fastest lap, most laps led and lead-lap finishes. The maximum a driver can earn in each race is 150 points. Earnhardt is second only to teammate Johnson in laps in the top 15 and ranks third in several categories, including laps led, fastest laps run, average speed during a run and green-flag speed.
Hendrick Motorsports
HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS AT MARTINSVILLE: At Martinsville, Hendrick Motorsports has team records for wins (23), top-five finishes (76), top-10s (118) and laps led (8,982) at a track. The organization has earned at least one win there in each of the past four years.
ORGANIZATION STATS: To date, Hendrick Motorsports has totals of 242 victories, 207 pole positions, 985 top-five finishes and 1,647 top-10 finishes in Sprint Cup competition. Its teams have led 65,241 laps since 1984.
QUOTABLE /
“Martinsville is a cool track because it is so different from every other track we go to. There is a lot of braking there. It’s (No. 5 team crew chief) Keith Rodden’s favorite track. He grew up going there, so it would be really nice to get a good result because it means so much to him. I felt a lot of extra pressure at Martinsville when I first started with Hendrick Motorsports because the team has been so dominant there.”
Kasey Kahne on racing at Martinsville
“The 24 guys had a great fall race at Martinsville. The only thing that I have to go off of is the spring race and it wasn’t very good for me. I’m just trying to look back on that and fix some of the mistakes I made and improve upon that. That’s all I can ask for.”
Chase Elliott on last year’s races at Martinsville
“The grandfather clock is one of the coolest trophies you can earn in racing, period. There are a lot of guys that have a bunch of them and some guys who have been doing this for a long time and are still trying to get one. It’s a neat place and such a cool trophy and it would be very special to earn one someday.”
Elliott on the Martinsville trophy
“(No. 24 team crew chief) Alan (Gustafson) has been great to work with – really this entire group has welcomed me with open arms since day one. It makes my job a lot easier as I’m transitioning into this new role to know that you feel at home and that these guys have your back each week. They’ve done such a good job – bringing phenomenal race cars to Daytona all the way through to this week. It’s been great to work with them and we’re just looking forward to improving.”
Elliott on No. 24 team crew chief Alan Gustafson
“If it was up to me, we would race at Martinsville five times a year. I love that place. It’s special to me and the Lowe’s team. I’ve had a great weekend off, and I’m ready to get back into the race car.”
Jimmie Johnson on racing at Martinsville
“I think NASCAR took a little bit of the gear away at Martinsville. That concerns me a little bit because you don’t have the throttle response and the gear to drive out of the corner and to gain on a guy that can’t get in the gas, but it also doesn’t allow the engine to do any of the engine braking on deceleration. When you have less engine braking going into the corner, you have to use more physical braking to slow the car down. Anyhow, we’ll just have to put more cooling on the brakes and the beads and all that, and try to remember when we’re in traffic not to really use the brakes all that much or get too aggressive. When you’re running alone or you have some room between you and the guys behind you, you need to start lifting around the flag stand and brake very lightly to take care of your brakes.
“I don’t think the low downforce package is going to be a big difference at Martinsville — maybe we’ll be a little looser into the corner, but we’re always kind of loose on entry there. I don’t want us to use more brakes, so we’ll maybe have to lift a little earlier, but it won’t be a huge difference in drive off because you’re not really going fast enough to get the aero as part of the handling equation. I’m looking forward to getting back to racing. Hope everyone had a great Easter break.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. on racing at Martinsville
