Mark Martin is the only Chase for the championship driver with a victory at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
Does that give him any advantage over his rivals in today’s race? Absolutely not.
“I am going to go out there and do the best I can. That’s all,” Martin said Saturday. “I can control the effort – our effort, my effort. I can’t even come close to controlling the outcome of it. If we take our hit tomorrow, then that’s what it is.”
Talladega is the wild card of NASCAR’s 10-race title hunt, the one place where anything can happen and the points standings can shuffle dramatically. It’s the only track in the Chase that requires carburetor restrictor plates, which sap horsepower and keep cars under 200 mph.
The plates prevent cars from breaking away, creating huge packs of side-by-side racing. One bump or bobble can trigger a huge accident, collecting cars at random. It happened to Jeremy Mayfield last year, when he was taken out in a four-car accident and finished 38th. It ended Mayfield’s shot at winning the Nextel Cup title.
“These restrictor-plate races are really intense,” said Carl Edwards, eighth in the Chase. “This place, you can’t be too careful.”
Points leader Jimmie Johnson has failed to finish the fall Talladega race the past three seasons, and was victim to an overheating engine last year that dented his title hopes.
Elliott Sadler and Dale Jarrett, neither involved in the Chase, start on the front row for the UAW-Ford 500. Jarrett originally was third but moved up a spot when Kevin Harvick was disqualified because his car failed inspection.
NASCAR ordered crew chief Todd Berrier from the grounds Saturday and suspended him for the race. Harvick will now start 42nd.
NHRA: Top fuel points leader Tony Schumacher successfully backed up the 4.437-second quarter-mile pass he posted Friday night with a 4.473-second jaunt that validates his previous run as a potential national record at the Ameriquest Mortgage NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill.
The feat is worth 20 bonus points should no one else surpass the number at this event, which seems unlikely as the rest of the action will take place during the heat of the day.
Schumacher’s awesome string of four 4.4-second runs down Route 66 Raceway made him the No. 1 qualifier for the sixth event in a row. Joining him on the low qualifier podium was funny car pro Cruz Pedregon (4.680) and pro stock conqueror Greg Anderson (6.646), who both top the quickest fields ever assembled in their respective categories.
Kraig Kinser overcame an early mistake and won the Food World 300 in only his second start in the ARCA stock car series.
The 20-year-old son of 19-time World of Outlaws sprint car champion Steve Kinser, started from the pole and led all but two of the first 51 laps before he was sent to the rear of the lead lap for crossing the blend line coming out of his first pit stop. That dropped him back to 17th.
The youngster, who led 83 of 113 laps at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Ala., charged back, regaining the top spot on lap 80 and staying out front to the end.
He beat Hendrick Motorsports development driver Kyle Krisiloff to the finish line by 0.169-seconds, about two car-lengths.
Motocross: German’s Jurgen Kunzel rallied from a big deficit and won the AMA Supermoto Championship in front of an estimated crowd of 50,000 fans who lined the downtown streets of Reno, Nev.
