TO MARTINSVILLE

Week of Oct. 21, 2013

 

Both Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson finished outside the top 10 for the first time in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup™ at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday.

 

A chink in the armor?

 

Perhaps. Kyle Busch shaved 11 points – nearly a third – off a 37-point deficit in moving from fifth to third in the standings, 26 markers behind new leader Johnson. The math says it’s more than doable.

 

But perhaps not. Johnson, bidding for a sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship, has been Superman and then some at Martinsville Speedway, a .526-mile short track that hosts Sunday’s Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 Powered by Kroger (1:30 p.m. ET ESPN, MRN, SiriusXM Satellite Radio).

 

Johnson goes for a third consecutive victory at Martinsville – and ninth overall – after winning in April and last October. Johnson’s average Martinsville finish is 5.3. His only DNF came in his first of 23 races. Johnson has finished on the lead lap in his last 22 Martinsville starts.

 

The pressure definitely is on Kenseth, who trails Johnson by four points with four races remaining. Kenseth has never won at Martinsville – his worst track statistically speaking – but was competitive in April’s race, his first for Joe Gibbs Racing. He finished 14th and led 96 laps.

 

Talladega winner Johnny Sauter eyes a Martinsville Speedway season sweep in Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Kroger 200 (1:30 p.m. FOX SPORTS 1). Sauter and ThorSport Racing teammate Matt Crafton finished one-two in the track’s April event. Crafton extended his championship lead to 57 points over Ty Dillon with his 17th top-10 finish of the year at Talladega.

 

NASCAR Nationwide Series teams take another week off to prepare for the Nov. 2 O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway.