Catchfence

RACE TO THE CHASE: Heading into the final race of the Sprint Cup Series regular season, Mark Martin and the No. 5 Kellogg’s/CARQUEST team sit 10th in the standings, 69 points ahead of 13th. If Martin can finish 12th or better this Saturday at Richmond International Raceway, he will qualify for the 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup no matter how his competition fares.

CHASERS AT RICHMOND: Of the drivers ranked seventh through 14th in the Sprint Cup standings, Martin has the third-best average finish — 11.9 — at Richmond, which is the final track in the cutoff for the Chase.

MARTIN AT RICHMOND: Martin has earned one victory — on Feb. 25, 1990 — in 47 Cup starts at Richmond. He has earned 16 top-five finishes and 26 top-10s during that same span. His 11.9 average finish is his fourth-best for any oval track on the circuit.

LAST TIME AT RICHMOND: After starting seventh in the May Sprint Cup race at Richmond, Martin raced inside the top five all evening. A Lap 313 accident, however, dropped the Chevy to 24th place. In the race’s final 80 laps, Martin gained 19 positions to secure a fifth-place finish.

LOOP STATISTICS: Martin holds the seventh-highest driver rating (93.6) going into Saturday evening’s Chevy Rock and Roll 400. In the last nine Richmond races, Martin has advanced 38 positions in the final 10 percent of the race, making him the strongest closer in the Sprint Cup field.

NO. 5 AT RICHMOND: Under the leadership of crew chief Alan Gustafson, the No. 5 Kellogg’s/CARQUEST team has earned six top-five finishes in nine starts at Richmond. Gustafson earned five straight top-fives in his first five starts at the Virginia short track as crew chief. The team also earned runner-up honors in both the September 2006 and May 2007 Sprint Cup events there.

NO. 5 IN THE CHASE: Gustafson coached the No. 5 team with driver Kyle Busch into the Chase for the Sprint Cup in both 2006 and 2007, finishing 10th and fifth, respectively. If Martin makes the field of 12, the 34-year-old Gustafson could become only the second crew chief to qualify two different drivers for the Chase. Pat Tryson is the only crew chief to do that so far, and he has led both Martin and Kurt Busch to title runs.

WINNING CHASSIS: Gustafson has chosen Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 5-538 for Saturday’s Chevy Rock and Roll 400. This is the same chassis that Martin drove to the team’s first victory of the season at Phoenix International Raceway in April.

SINCE LAST TIME: In the 14 Sprint Cup races since Martin last raced at Richmond, he and the Kellogg’s/CARQUEST team have earned three victories, five top-five finishes — including two runner-up spots — and six top-10s. The team has advanced five positions in the point standings to 10th.

HENDRICK AT RICHMOND: Hendrick Motorsports, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, has 10 wins, 43 top-five finishes and 76 top-10s in 50 Cup events (154 starts) at Richmond International Raceway.

HENDRICK BESTS: Richmond is one of two tracks where Hendrick Motorsports has scored a team-best 14 pole positions. Hendrick matches that total only at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. Geoff Bodine earned the team’s first pole position in the No. 5 Chevy at Richmond in September 1985, while Jimmie Johnson captured the most recent pole at the track in September 2007.

POSSIBLE POINTS LEADER: Should Martin qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup on Saturday, he has the potential to open NASCAR’s playoffs as the points leader. Martin has been the Sprint Cup points leader 23 times in his career, with the latest coming in March 2007 before taking a weekend off in his first of two part-time seasons.

OLDEST CHASE MEMBER: Should Martin, 50, qualify for the 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup, he will set the bar as the oldest driver to qualify for the Chase. If he is able to win his first Sprint Cup championship, he will become the oldest champion in Sprint Cup history.

JOINING THE CLUB: Should Martin win another Sprint Cup race this year, he will become one of only three full-time drivers to have 40-plus victories in NASCAR’s elite series. Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson are the others.

POLE MAN: Martin has earned five poles this season, the most he’s earned in one year since 1991. Martin’s 46 career poles tie him with Junior Johnson for ninth on the Sprint Cup all-time pole winner’s list. Martin is the only driver older than 50 to have earned the top spot in a Cup event.

ANOTHER MILESTONE: At Dover (Del.) International Speedway on Sept. 27, Martin will make his 750th career Sprint Cup start. Martin will become only the ninth driver to reach this mark in Sprint Cup’s 61-year history. In his 747 Cup starts, he has earned 39 victories, 251 top-five finishes and 409 top-10s. He has driven 274,181.4 miles during his 27-year career. Martin was honored during pre-race ceremonies at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway for making his 1,000th career NASCAR start.

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MARK MARTIN, DRIVER, NO. 5 KELLOGG’S/CARQUEST CHEVROLET (ON POSSIBLY MAKING THE CHASE THIS WEEKEND.): “This is definitely a long week for me, personally. I wish that we had secured our position weeks ago and Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) and the guys could all go into this weekend with a little less stress. But that’s not the way it happened. It’s going to be a long night for sure. There are a lot of good cars battling for those last few spots, and we’re one of them. It’s a tough situation. But this is a strong team. I think we are worthy of being in the Chase. And barring any unforeseen circumstances, I think we will be there. We should be there. But that’s not always how it works.”

MARTIN (ON HOW MUCH HE WILL WATCH HIS COMPETITORS DURING SATURDAY’S RACE.): “I don’t pay a lot of attention to the guys around us in points. They’re in the back of my mind, but truly I’m worried about where we are, what we’re doing, how we can be better. The key to this is to win. If we win, then it doesn’t matter where anyone else finished, you know? So that’s the ultimate goal, and I think that’s been our goal all year. We worry about us and let everything else just fall into place. There were a couple of times during Atlanta last week that Alan (Gustafson) filled me in on what was going on with the other guys, but in the end they all bounced back. They all ended up in or close to the top 10 so worrying about them isn’t really going to do anything. If there’s something I need to know, I know Alan will tell me. Other than that, we race our own race and let it all work out.”

MARTIN (ON POSSIBLY NOT MAKING THE CHASE THIS YEAR.): “Yes, it will be disappointing. I want this team to make it. Not so much for me, but for Alan and Rick (Hendrick, team owner) and all the guys at Hendrick Motorsports. Look, they have given me a season that was beyond my wildest dreams. I hoped I would win a race. One race. And I have gotten four of them. When I took this ride I wanted to be in a car that could win each weekend. I wanted to be in a car that the other teams knew they had to keep their eye on. And we have achieved that. I am in a car capable of winning every weekend, and that makes me incredibly satisfied. But I know my guys want to be in this Chase. I know they want to compete for the championship. And I want them to have everything they want this year, too. So, yes, if we don’t make it I will be very disappointed for them.”

MARTIN (ON POSSIBLY BEING THE POINTS LEADER WHEN THE CHASE BEGINS.): “Well, we’re getting ahead of ourselves a little bit. I don’t even know if I’m in the Chase, and I have people talking about us being the leader. First we have to get in there. That’s what my concern is, and that’s the concern of everyone on the team. Now, if we do and we’re the points leader, that’s cool. But it will be a lot cooler to be the points leader after Miami, you know? It’s not how you start the Chase, it’s how you finish it. We just have to go in every weekend on top of our game, ready to fight and ready to win races.”

ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF, NO. 5 KELLOGG’S/CARQUEST CHEVROLET (ON THE PRESSURE OF MAKING THE CHASE COMING DOWN TO RICHMOND.): “Obviously, the team is trying to run as well as it can, which it does every race weekend. In this situation, we’ll try to stay a little more abreast of where the competition is in relationship to you and where the point spread is. If something does arise where we have to go into defense or protect mode, we have to be prepared to do that and know how far you can fall back. That helps you make decisions. Besides all that, it’s not much different than normal. You just really have a lot more time invested in what the competition is doing and what implications that could have on your team.”

GUSTAFSON (ON IF THE TEAM HAS EMPLOYED A “CHASE” STRATEGY ALL SEASON.): “No, we really haven’t had a Chase strategy in mind. I think that we didn’t have the luxury of having a strategy this year. We got in a deep hole after the first four races and had no choice but to fight our way out. To do that we knew we had to perform at a very high level. We just continued to do that. We were under the pressure of the points since the fourth race of the season. At week four I was probably less optimistic than I am now. We were 35th in points and had four bad weeks in a row and you wonder if that’s ever going to turn around. Now we have a little bit of a cushion and a team operating on a high level. I feel real good.”

GUSTAFSON (ON HOW HE FELT LEAVING THE FOURTH RACE AND IF HE THOUGHT THE TEAM HAD A SHOT AT THE CHASE.): “I always thought we would make the Chase. There were times I was less confident than others. Atlanta in March was really tough. The first four races were tough with two engine failures and then at Atlanta everything seemed to fall into place. We had a great race and then three-quarters into the race we had that tire failure. That was a really tough situation. I have learned, however, a positive lesson in how strong our team was at that point in time, because when everyone was really backed into a corner, that was when we were our best. That was one of the first signs that I knew we had a special team and knew we were in a special situation.”

GUSTAFSON (ON WHAT IT WOULD MEAN TO HIM TO MAKE THE CHASE.): “The Chase isn’t what I’m excited about. It’s not being one of 12 that I feel like is an accomplishment. What I’m excited about is the opportunity to race for a championship. I’m not going to go home after Richmond if we make it and say, ‘All right, good job.’ I’m going to go home after Richmond and say, ‘All right, it’s on.’ That’s what I’m looking forward to. I’m looking forward to winning it, not just being in it.”

GUSTAFSON (ON IF THIS YEAR FEELS ANY DIFFERENT THAN HIS OTHER TWO YEARS IN THE CHASE.): “The only difference this year is that I feel like this is the best opportunity we have had to win the championship. That’s probably the biggest difference or biggest change in my outlook. I felt like in 2007 we had a really good shot. Finishing fifth with two wrecks shows the strength of our team at that time. And I know we’re better now than we were then. So, it’s really, really exciting this year.”

GUSTAFSON (ON POSSIBLY NOT MAKING THE CHASE.): “This year won’t be a write-off. Either way there will be a lot of hard work, and a lot of effort and a year of people’s lives invested in this season. I will, however, be extremely disappointed. And I’ll feel like we didn’t take advantage of our opportunities. What does that mean? How does that affect us? Do I worry about it until I die? I don’t know. I’ll have to go through it to see. It’s obviously not a positive thing, but I can guarantee you that I’ll go to Loudon trying to win the race, regardless. If we don’t make it, we just try to stack some more trophies up. It’s not a write-off. It’s not a loss. But I will feel like we fell short.”

- Hendrick Motorsports, Press Release