Wednesday
Mark Martin, 2010 NSCS Sunoco Red Cross Pennyslvania 500 Race Preview
Press Release
HELMET GIVEAWAY: Hendrickcars.com is giving away a No. 5 Hendrickcars.com replica helmet signed by Mark Martin. Race fans can register to win the helmet at www.Hendrickcars.com through Aug. 4.
POINTS: With his 11th-place finish at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last Sunday, Martin advanced to 13th in the Sprint Cup standings. He trails 12th-place Clint Bowyer by 62 points with six races remaining till the cutoff for the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
EVERYTHING BUT A WIN: In 47 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Pocono Raceway, Martin has scored 19 top-five finishes, 32 top-10s and three pole positions. Pocono is one of only four tracks where Martin has yet to visit Victory Lane. He also has yet to win at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway.
AT POCONO: Martin, who has taken runner-up honors at the tricky triangle six times, has an average start of 8.8 and average finish of 11.1 at Pocono’s tricky triangle. He has scored a top-10 finish in five of the last seven events there
MORE POCONO BESTS: Martin’s 32 top-10 finishes and 38 lead-lap finishes at Pocono are the most for the NASCAR veteran at any racetrack on the Sprint Cup circuit and lead all active drivers at the 2.5-mile raceway. For perspective, Martin’s teammate Jeff Gordon owns the second-most top-10 finishes at Pocono with 24. Meanwhile Martin’s 19 top-five finishes rank second for him — just behind the 22 he has recorded at Dover.
MOST RECENTLY AT POCONO: In June, Martin started 14th and raced into the top-10 at Pocono before being involved in a last-lap multi-car accident. Martin was scored with a 29th-place finish.
LOOP STATISTICS: In the last 11 Sprint Cup races at Pocono, Martin holds the fourth-best average running position of 11.337. He also has raced the third-most laps – 1,589 — inside the top-15.
POLE SITTER: Martin’s next Sprint Cup Series pole position will be the 50th of his career and will place him eighth on the all-time pole winner’s list. He has earned three pole positions at Pocono, which leads all active, full-time drivers.
THE NO. 5 TEAM: Under the direction of crew chief Alan Gustafson, the No. 5 team has competed in 11 races at the triangular track, earning one top-five finish and three top-10s. In the team’s first Pocono outing with Gustafson at the helm in 2005, it rebounded from a 38th starting spot to finish fourth — the team’s best finish to date with Gustafson.
HENDRICK AT POCONO: In 53 races (169 starts) at Pocono, Hendrick has 11 wins, 49 top-five finishes, 85 top-10s and has led 2,542 laps at the triangular-shaped track. Gordon most recently won at the racetrack on June 10, 2007.
CHASSIS CHOICE: Gustafson has chosen Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 5-550 for Sunday’s race at Pocono. This is the same chassis that Martin drove to an 11th-place finish at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last week.
COMMERCIAL CONTEST: GoDaddy.com recently launched its second commercial contest this year. The prizes are bigger this time around with $250,000 going to the winning commercial. Thirty-second original commercials featuring the Go Daddy end tag can be submitted online at www.GoDaddy.com. Contest ends on Sept. 30.
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MARK MARTIN, DRIVER, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM/GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET (ON TAKING THE SAME CAR FROM INDIANAPOLIS TO POCONO.): “That’s one of the best cars we’ve had for awhile. The guys have been working very, very hard on every detail to get our cars to the place we want them to be. I think that we showed improvement at Indianapolis. We qualified well. We ran up front. We just faded a bit at the end. I’m glad we’re bringing this car back this weekend. I think the team has a lot of confidence in it, and I think it’s one of many steps in the right direction.”
MARTIN (ON HIS MOST RECENT RACE AT POCONO.): “We really struggled with the handling of our car all day. The car would be nearly perfect on fresh tires, but as those tires wore out, we lost all grip on the track and just couldn’t hold our speed. I think we would have had a decent 10th- or 12th-place finish there at the end, but, as everyone saw, the competition just got crazy on the green-white-checkered restart. When that many cars are on the lead lap, and you’ve got two laps to duke it out, we’re all going to run over one another. That’s what happened. It ruined our race and really hurt us in points, but it happens. We just have to take what we learned from that race and apply it this weekend and hopefully gain some of those points back.”
- Hendrick Motorsports, Press Release
Article Tags: "The Tricky Triangle", Chevy Impala SS, Hendrick Motorsports, Long Pond, Mark Martin, NASCAR, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, No. 5 Hendrickcars.com/GoDaddy.com Chevrolet Impala SS, NSCS, Pennsylvania 500, Pocono, Pocono Raceway, Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500, Team Chevy
