 |  | | Mark Martin would like to look back on his career with Roush Racing and see a title. Credit: Autostock |
By Josh Pate, NASCAR.COM
October 26, 2006
09:56 AM EDT (13:56 GMT)
Let the debate begin over who could be the man when the checkered flag falls on Sunday's race at Atlanta. Jimmie Johnson won this race two years ago and has the hot hand after making up 105 points in the title hunt last weekend alone. Carl Edwards, although not in the Chase, won both Atlanta races last season and has not finished worse than 12th in the last five races heading into this weekend. Kasey Kahne is the spring winner there and has owned the intermediate tracks this season with a series-high six victories. And he's got Atlanta's best average finish (9.8). Greg Biffle, another non-Chaser, has been the best driver at Atlanta in the past two years (see below). But it's Biffle's teammate that has been the most consistent and may hold the gavel to end the argument. Mark Martin, according to NASCAR's Loop Data, may be the man to beat not only this weekend but for the championship, too. Martin's 7.3 average finish at the four remaining tracks is by far the best among Chasers and the only driver with an average inside the top 10. Martin, who sits 96 points out in eighth position, has also scored more points on average (151.8), has the best driver rating (105.6), has led more laps (5.6 percent) and has the best average running position (8.301). Sure, he's been racing at those tracks -- Atlanta, Texas, Phoenix and Homestead -- longer than anybody else in the Chase. But his success is recent. What you didn't know
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4 -- Worst finish for Mark Martin in the last four Atlanta races. He has scored 685 points in that span for an average of 171.25 points per race. |
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Driver Rating: Bass Pro Shops 500
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122.4 -- Greg Biffle, No. 16 Roush Racing Ford. Biffle has 284 laps in the last three Atlanta races and has clocked the fastest lap 161 times in that span, 50 more laps than anybody else. |
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NASCAR's driver rating combines the following categories: wins, finishes, top-15s, average lead-lap running position, average speed under green, fastest lap, led most laps and lead-lap finish. Statistics based on current and past year at track. Maximum rating: 150 points. Numerology Sunday's Bass Pro Shops 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC) will be the 95th race held at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The track has hosted two events each year since it held its first race in 1960, won by Fireball Roberts. Bobby Johns won the fall race. Three races were held there in 1961. Since then there have been six season sweeps, the most recent by Carl Edwards last year. There have been eight different winners in the last nine Atlanta races, with Edwards being the only repeat winner.
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1.8 -- Average starting position for Ryan Newman in nine career starts at Atlanta, the best among any driver ever to compete at the track. His worst starting spot was sixth. He has started on the front row the rest of the time, including a string of seven consecutive front-row starts and six consecutive poles that was broken in the spring. His average finish is 15.1. |
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3 -- Chase drivers finished 25th or worse in the spring race at Atlanta: Jeff Burton (25th), Denny Hamlin (31st) and Kevin Harvick (39th). |
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4 -- Drivers with an average running position inside the top 10 in the last three Atlanta races: Greg Biffle (4.173), Mark Martin (5.949), Jimmie Johnson (7.284) and Tony Stewart (9.793). |
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5 -- Chase drivers posted top-10 finishes in the spring race at Atlanta: Kasey Kahne (first), Mark Martin (second), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (third), Jeff Gordon (fourth) and Jimmie Johnson (sixth). |
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7.71 -- Average starting position for Atlanta winners. Seventy-four of 94 races have been won from a top-10 starting spot, including 14 races that have been won from the pole position. |
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8 -- Winners in the last nine Atlanta races have started in the top 10, including Kasey Kahne's spring victory from the pole. |
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8.784 -- Average running position for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the six Chase races, the best among the top 10. Kyle Busch's 18.15 average is the worst among Chasers. |
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9 -- Consecutive finishes of 19th or worse for Kevin Harvick at Atlanta. After winning there in his third start in the No. 29 car and then finishing third in the fall of 2001, he has led laps in just one race and collected three DNFs. |
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9 -- Top-10 finishes for Tony Stewart in his last 10 Atlanta races. He has a victory there in 2002 and an overall average finish of 12.9 in 15 races. |
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9.8 -- Average finish for Kasey Kahne in his five Atlanta races, the best among full-time drivers. Denny Hamlin has the worst average among Chase drivers at 25.0 in two races. |
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12 -- Points separate second-place Kevin Harvick and fifth-place Jeff Burton in the Nextel Cup standings. The top eight drivers are within 99 points of each other. |
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19.33 -- Average starting position for Bobby Labonte in his six Atlanta victories, including the two worst spots by a winner (37th and 39th). Labonte leads all full-time drivers in wins at the track. |
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22.6 -- Percent of passes made on the frontstretch, the most popular place to pass. Turn 4 sees 20.52 percent of passes, meaning 43.12 percent of passes are made heading to the start/finish line. |
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28.259 -- Average running position for Kevin Harvick in the last three Atlanta races, the worst among Chase drivers and 39th among all drivers who have competed in those races. |
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177.504 -- Green-flag speed of Mark Martin in the last three Atlanta races, the fastest among full-time drivers. Roush drivers own four of the top 11 speeds. |
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207 -- Green-flag passes for Casey Mears in the last three Atlanta races, more than any other driver. Mears' average start in that span is 21.0 with an average finish of 20.3. |
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286 -- Laps led by Greg Biffle at Atlanta, the most among full-time drivers who have not won there. Jeff Gordon's 976 laps led is the most among full-time drivers. |
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607 -- Laps this season in which Kasey Kahne had the fastest car, more than any other full-time driver. |
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• Kyle Busch and Mike Bliss are expected to make their 75th career start on Sunday Nine of the 10 Chase positions changed after Martinsville, making this weekend the tightest points margin after six Chase events. Margin between top 10 after six races
2006: 171
2005: 216
2004: 364 Margin between top five after six races
2006: 48
2005: 149
2004: 224 The one driver who did not change positions: Atlanta's spring winner Kasey Kahne. Kahne sits eighth, 99 points behind leader Matt Kenseth. Jeff Gordon is now ninth, 141 back. Because the maximum amount of points one driver can gain on another is 156, any of the top nine drivers can mathematically leave Atlanta with the points lead.
| Chase Watch |
| Atlanta Motor Speedway statistics for Chase drivers |
| Rank |
Driver |
Wins |
Top-5s |
Top-10s |
Avg. Finish |
| 1. |
Matt Kenseth |
0 |
3 |
6 |
17.5 |
| 2. |
Kevin Harvick |
1 |
2 |
2 |
24.6 |
| 3. |
Jimmie Johnson |
1 |
5 |
6 |
11.8 |
| 4. |
Denny Hamlin |
0 |
0 |
0 |
25.0 |
| 5. |
Jeff Burton |
0 |
5 |
10 |
18.0 |
| 6. |
Dale Earnhardt Jr. |
1 |
6 |
8 |
11.9 |
| 7. |
Mark Martin |
2 |
13 |
21 |
15.7 |
| 8. |
Kasey Kahne |
1 |
4 |
4 |
9.8 |
| 9. |
Jeff Gordon |
4 |
12 |
17 |
13.6 |
| 10. |
Kyle Busch |
0 |
0 |
0 |
19.8 |
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