By the Numbers: Michigan

Three could be a magical number for Mark Martin this weekend in Saturday's running of the Carfax 250 at Michigan International Speedway (3 p.m. ET, ESPN2).

Martin's name appears in the Nationwide Series record book too many times to count -- career wins (48) and most poles (30) to name a couple -- and yet he has a chance to add it once more this weekend.

Already tied for the track record at Michigan with two wins, Martin could grab win No. 3 and own the record outright (Dale Earnhardt Jr., Todd Bodine and Ryan Newman are the other two-time winners -- none are entered this week). Interestingly, when Martin wins at a track, he doesn't keep it at just one too often.

Even though Martin doesn't race in the Nationwide Series very often -- this is only his third start this season -- don't count him out at Michigan. Not only does he qualify up front, he keeps his car in the top five.

A whopping 70 percent of the races Martin has run at Michigan have ended in top-five finishes. He has an average finish of 5.2 at the track and take out his 43rd starting position in 2004 due to rain washing out qualifying and he has an amazing 7.1 average start at the 2-mile track.

"[Michigan is] just my kind of racetrack. It's big and wide, and you can really pass there," Martin said. "If you have your car set up just right, you can have a whole lot of fun racing at Michigan. Hopefully, we'll have one of those types of days this weekend."

In two races this season, Martin has the seen the highs and the lows. At Las Vegas, he took the No. 5 Chevy from a 17th starting position to Victory Lane giving JR Motorsports its first win in the series. He followed that up at Darlington with another chance to win, sitting second with three laps to go. Unfortunately, he stalled on the restart, crashed and finished 23rd.

"I've been racing in the Nationwide Series for a long time now, and I've had a lot of fun racing in that series," Martin said. "I've had some great battles, I've driven some really good racecars, and we've had a lot of success. We've had some really strong runs in that No. 5 car, and I'm definitely looking forward to getting back in the car this weekend."