| By Mark Spoor, NASCAR.COM
March 30, 2006
04:32 PM EST (21:32 GMT)
As weeks go, the past seven days have been pretty tough for Jeff Gordon. He had a strong run negated at Bristol and was fined $10,000 by NASCAR on Tuesday for shoving Matt Kenseth in a post-race confrontation.  | | |
| Inside the Numbers |
| Jeff Gordon at Martinsville |
| Starts |
24 |
| Wins |
7 |
| Top-5s |
14 |
| Top-10s |
20 |
| Laps Led |
2,041 |
| Avg. Start |
7.3 |
| Avg. Finish |
7.8 |
|
 |
But things are looking up for the pilot of the No. 24 Chevrolet. He heads to Martinsville this weekend, where he has seven wins, including the past two and four of the past six races held at the Cup Series' shortest track. You can expect plenty of talk about him on FOX's telecast (1:30 p.m. ET Sunday). "Well, it's like any other track that you go to that you have a lot of success at, or anybody has success at," Gordon said. "It's a combination from the team putting together a great racecar, the communication between the driver and the crew and crew chief of putting the right adjustments into the car throughout the weekend, having good luck or putting yourself in a position to have good luck, and then the driver just having a knack for that racetrack." Can fans expect Gordon to have a knack for getting into more confrontations Sunday on another short track. Yes and no. "I'm not a robot; I have a personality and I have emotions and I have a humorous side to me and an angry side to me," Gordon said. However ... "You know, the way that I operate is I recognize that I'm going to be racing with the rest of these guys all year long and for the next several years. I'm not trying to make any enemies, and I don't expect them all to be my best friends, either," Gordon said. "We're competitors and we've got to race week-to-week and I want to put everything behind me, what happened in Bristol." Also on tap Sunday: • A behind-the-scenes look at Carl Edwards' upcoming apperarance on 24
• A proflie of Clint Bowyer, who leads the rookie point standings
• Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Hammond take a ride around Martinsville |  | | Carl Edwards is getting plenty of TV time this season. Credit: Autostock |
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The overnight ratings news was not good for FOX last weekend at Bristol. The Food City 500 tallied a 5.3/11 overnight rating, down a little more than 5 percent from last year. In this week's "Ask the Producer" question, several fans wanted to know if they can expect to see more of the CableCam that FOX utilized last weekend at Bristol. "We are planning on using it at upcoming events," NASCAR on FOX producer Neil Goldberg said. "Director Artie Kempner and the DLP CableCam people are quickly coming up to speed. "Racing is a new venture for CableCam in this configuration. Each time we use it we discover new things, and each track is uniquely different. The system can be rigged several ways. "In Bristol it was mounted point-to-point from either side of the racetrack. It ran across the track from Turn 3 to Turn 1. "At larger tracks such as Texas, we put up towers mounting the cables to four different points. This allows additional cables to be run which allows the DLP CableCam to run north, south, east and west or as we like to say, the X,Yand Z axis. "The system is operated by two people, a cameraman and a driver. The cameraman and driver work hand-in-hand with remote controls to move the camerahead and frame the action at the same time." Each week, we'll ask a NASCAR on FOX producer a fan's question. Have something that bugs you about the broadcast? Click the link to the right. Now on to this weekend's schedule. Nextel Cup Series: DirecTV 500 Track: Martinsville Speedway • .526-mile oval
• 12-degree banking in turns
• No banking on straights
• Length of frontstretch: 800 feet
• Length of backstretch: 800 feet Race length: 500 laps/263 miles TV schedule (All times ET) • NASCAR Live: 2:30 p.m. Fri., SPEED
• Bud Pole Qualifying: 3:30 p.m. Fri., SPEED
• Trackside: 7 p.m. Fri, SPEED
• NASCAR Raceday: 11 a.m. Sun., SPEED
• Pre-race: 1:30 p.m. Sun., FOX
• Race: 2 p.m. Sun., FOX One year ago, Gordon came from four laps down early on to win his sixth NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Martinsville Speedway. The most recent checkered flag went to Kurt Busch, who pushed Matt Kenseth out of the way to snag his fifth Bristol win in Sunday's Food City 500. Keep an eye on Jimmie Johnson. Johnson has seven consecutive top-10 finishes at Martinsville. Craftsman Truck Series: Kroger 250 Track: Martinsville Speedway • .526-mile oval
• 12-degree banking in turns
• No banking on straights
• Length of frontstretch: 800 feet
• Length of backstretch: 800 feet Race length: 250 laps/131.5 miles TV schedule (All times ET) • Race: 3 p.m. Sat., SPEED One year ago, Bobby Labonte became just the 12th driver to win in all three of NASCAR's major series when he won the Kroger 250. The most recent checkered flag went to Todd Bodine, who finished second to Mark Martin twice earlier this season, but held off Martin's challenge to win at Atlanta. Keep an eye on Justin Martz. Martz, the son of former Montana governor Judy Martz, will attempt to make his first series start this weekend. | 
