Martinsville puts the squeeze on drivers

MARTINSVILLE

It makes a nice picture when the cars are bunched together two-wide before a restart, but drivers are doing more than cruising before the green flag unfurls.

There are games being played, plans being formulated. Restarts could determine who wins today's Goody's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville Speedway and who leaves with a wrecked car.

With an average of 17.4 cautions in the past five Sprint Cup races at Martinsville, drivers will face several opportunities to make a move. Restarts are as good a chance to gain a position or two.

"This is one of the toughest tracks to find your own space because there are so many cars and somebody is always on top of you," said Kurt Busch, a former Martinsville winner who starts 20th today.

Drivers behind the leader often try to lag a car length back to get a jump on the car ahead. The key is not to fall too far back that NASCAR orders you to move closer. Of course, the leader starts to slow if he sees others lagging and NASCAR officials doing nothing. That slows the pace of the restart. Too slow a restart and those in the back could run into the back of each other and cause a crash once the race resumes.

For the leader, the question is when to accelerate on a restart. NASCAR paints a pair of red lines on the outside wall to mark about where the leader can pick up speed. Drivers are given some flexibility accelerating before or after those lines.

"That keeps (competitors) from being able to anticipate when you're going to get on the gas," said Tony Stewart, a former winner here who starts ninth.

"If you change it up on each restart, they don't know when you're going to pick up the gas. Sometimes they pick it up too early and catch you and it blows their trick and you've pulled a trick of your own on them."

No matter who does what, the key for the leader is how big a lead he can get entering turn 1 when the green flag waves.

"You want to get a car length out from the guy behind you so you're out of the area they can come in and put a bumper to you," says Jimmie Johnson, whose mastery of restarts has helped him win the past three races at this track. " Once you get that past that point, you can start driving your line."

It sounds easy, but rarely is. Johnson, who starts 10th today, calls restarts "a big fight."

He says that because the double-file restarts put the cars on the lead lap on the outside line and those a lap or more down on the inside. On a narrow track such as Martinsville, there's little room to squeeze through. That can make entering turn 1 tricky.

"When you head down into turn 1 with a fresh set tires, your car doesn't grip as good as it does at most places," Busch said. "You're sliding around - grabbing gears on a restart.

"That's what makes short-track racing fun. The cars are never hooked up into the track like at the big tracks. You have to wheel it. Sometimes you're sideways, sometimes you're leaning on a guy."