It was Martinsville that ruined Burton's '06 title run

At the halfway point of the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup, two-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson has a seemingly insurmountable 69-point lead over second place Jeff Burton.

But as Burton will never forget, there's a reason why Chase challengers quake at the evil things that can sometimes happen on what appears at first glance to be an innocuous little paperclip-shaped .526 flat oval called Martinsville Speedway.

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Most drivers will tell you that there are two races in the 10-race Chase that will have the biggest bearing on the final standings: Talladega and Martinsville. And those two tracks couldn't be any more different.

A primal fear of Talladega seems to make some sense, since restrictor-plate racing at 190 mph creates massive drafts and the ensuing multi-car crashes. But what is it about Martinsville, which produces the slowest lap speeds on the circuit, that makes those same drivers cringe?

With 43 cars fighting over one racing groove, it's like a shopping center parking lot during Christmas. And one mistake, especially if it's by someone else, can ruin a good car and make for a long, exasperating day.

Consider the 2006 Subway 500, where fortunes changed dramatically for two drivers -- just as they might for those same two this weekend.

Coming off a third-place run at Charlotte, Burton had a 49-point lead on second place Matt Kenseth and 89 ahead of Kevin Harvick in third. Johnson was a distant seventh, 146 points behind.

With a win at Dover and four solid top-10 finishes, Burton appeared to have the inside track at earning his first Cup championship. However, Martinsville would prove to lead to Burton's eventual undoing.

Things went wrong right away. Starting 28th, Burton ran into the back of Joe Nemechek's Chevrolet while trying to avoid an accident on Lap 4. It damaged the hood pins on the No. 31 Chevy sufficiently enough for it to flap at speed, and Burton pitted under caution 60 laps later to have the team tape the hood in place (watch video).

At the tail end of the field on the ensuing restart, Burton couldn't work his way back through traffic in time to keep from being lapped by leader Jeff Gordon. For the next 100 laps, Burton tried in vain to get back on the lead lap, but things went from bad to worse following a restart on Lap 210.

The motor immediately went sour, and seven laps later, it became terminal (watch video). Burton parked the car in the garage with a 42nd-place finish, effectively wiping out his points advantage in one fell swoop. By the time the day was over, Burton stood fifth in the standings, 48 points behind Kenseth.

"We're a team," Burton said. "We fight together. We die together. We do everything together, and that's what it's all about.

"By no means do I think we are out of this thing. We won't lay down. We'll go to Atlanta feeling like we have as good a shot as anybody."

While Burton's day was a bust, Johnson's was anything but. He led nearly half of the race, including the final 55 laps to hold off Denny Hamlin and Bobby Labonte for the victory. Pretty much written off after his last-lap wreck with Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Talladega, suddenly Johnson was back in the championship hunt.

"It's anybody's championship," Johnson said. "Any team is still capable of winning the championship, the points are really close right now, so there can be a lot of moving and shaking and I don't think anybody is going to sleep well these next four races."

Kenseth made a salient point following the race. It's not as much about being the best every week, he said, as much as trying to avoid being the worst.

"Everyone thinks it's the most competitive one, but I kind of look at it the other way it's the sloppiest Chase we've had so far. The least competitive one," he said. "Nobody has been able to run in the top 10 every week. No one is putting up staggering numbers, or that dominating streak we saw the first two years.

"With no trouble, Jeff Burton is probably the runaway winner of this thing. But, what we're seeing this year, is none of us are immune from trouble."

With second-place finishes in each of the next three races, Johnson would overtake Kenseth and win his first title. Johnson also used a Martinsville win as an exclamation point to his 2007 championship.

But with the roles reversed heading into Sunday's TUMS QuikPak 500, will it be Burton who gets back into Martinsville's good graces?

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer