Others I expect to have top-10 cars on Sunday are Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth. Busch has a win at Martinsville (Oct. 2002) and also two top-fives and four top-10s. Hamlin, who sat on the pole for this event last year and led 125 laps before finishing third, has come home out of the top 10 only once in five Martinsville Cup starts. Junior has yet to win at Martinsville in 16 Cup races, but he does have seven top-five finishes. And despite not liking racing at Martinsville, Kenseth is looking for his third straight top-10 finish at the half mile oval.

My darkhorse is Martin Truex Jr., who loves racing at Martinsville despite never having finished higher than 19th in four Cup races at the venue. He’s still learning this short track, but on Sunday – inexperience aside --he might just be flying around this paperclip-shaped track.

Keys to success at Martinsville
Martinsville Speedway is a short, tight track so driver patience will be a key factor in deciding which car gets to Victory Lane.

This is the smallest track on the Cup circuit, and it's probably as hard on equipment as any track run by NASCAR's top series, especially brakes and rearend gears. The brakes take an especially tough beating because of the short turns off the long straightaways, forcing constant accelerating and braking. Drivers will have to make concerted efforts to save on their brakes.

Pit road is so narrow we will likely see some cars banging into each other when entering and exiting the pits. It's so tight on pit road there just isn't room for 43 cars to pit at the same time. Look for more pit issues this Sunday than in most if not all other Cup races.

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It's a driver's mentality to be aggressive coming off a pit stop to try and beat other cars back onto the track, but with the tight conditions at Martinsville being too aggressive out of the pits is simply courting disaster.

The bottom is the line to run since the outside groove went away after repairs were made to the track following the spring 2004 race.

Besides having equipment hold up, getting good luck, and running a smart and patient race are what's needed most to win at Martinsville.

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