The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
THREE THINGS TOWATCH
1. Glaring gaps
Martin Truex Jr. has two glaring gaps on his NASCAR Cup Series resume: He has never won at a short track (Martinsville, Bristol, Richmond) and never triumphed in a restrictor-plate race (Daytona, Talladega). Of
his 16 career wins, he has
won twice on road-course
venues (Sonoma, Watkins
Glen) and 14 other times
on so-called intermediate
tracks.
2. SHR, oops
After seeing his four cars
all score top-10 finishes at
Phoenix, Tony Stewart had
nothing to cheer about at
Fontana, California. None of
his drivers graced the top
10. Noticeably missing was
Kevin Harvick, who crashed
early and limped home
35th. SHR’s top effort was
posted by Clint Bowyer, one
lap down to Truex. “We got
really lucky to finish this
race,” Bowyer said. “I had a
tire coming apart.” Will SHR
rebound and get back in
gear this week?
3. Divided by 6
There are 36 Cup Series
races, a number which
is easy to break down
into certain segments.
When competitors race at
Martinsville this weekend,
it will end the first six
race segment and take us
halfway through the first
12-race segment (one-third
of the season), and from
there only six more races
until the halfway point of
the season. Got all that?
Martinsville will show us
who has a strong short
track program.