NASCAR Cup Series

This Week’s Monster Energy Chevrolet Silverado … Ricky Carmichael will pilot chassis TMS-018 from the Turner Motorsports NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) stable in Saturday’s Kroger 200 at Martinsville Speedway.

McMurray at Martinsville: During McMurray’s Sprint Cup Series career, he has made 17 starts at the paperclip known as Martinsville Speedway. In those races, he has scored one top-five, 10 top-10s and has started on the front row four times, including his first pole at the track back in April of this season.

Johnson has made 19 Sprint Cup Series starts at Martinsville Speedway, where he has six wins, 13 top-five and 17 top-10 finishes.

In 23 Cup starts at Martinsville, Kenseth has completed 11,409 of 11,519 laps (99.0 percent) and led for 68 laps

Biffle on Martinsville: “We ran well at Martinsville in the spring but just got caught a lap down after a green-flag pit stop. That track has always been the most challenging for me of all the tracks on the circuit.

With four races remaining in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet, is ranked fifth in the driver point standings, 26 points behind the leader.

This was Bowyer’s fifth win in 213 Cup races and his first victory in 2011. Bowyer, who seems to have mastered racing at Talladega, scored his second victory and sixth top-10 finish in twelve races at the Superspeedway.

With the Chase as close as it has been through five races and especially with the new point system, it’s hard for a driver to extend their point lead. It’s even harder to do so after a race at Talladega Superspeedway but Carl Edwards did so on Sunday afternoon.

Clint Bowyer claimed the victory at Talladega and Richard Childress Racing captured its 100th Sprint Cup win. The real drama of the race, however, was provided by Trevor Bayne and Jeff Gordon.

The nationally-acclaimed North Carolina A&T marching band will perform in prerace prior to Sunday's TUMS Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway and perform a traditional version of the National Anthem.