NASCAR Cup

Kansas: Mark Martin preview

Martin Rolls into Kansas in The Chase Martin survived Talladega with a 15th-place finish and moved up one spot to fourth in the Nextel Cup point standings. The team travels to Kansas this weekend, where Martin hopes to get back to his style of ...

Published: Oct 6, 2004, 8:08 PM

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Martin Rolls into Kansas in The Chase

Martin survived Talladega with a 15th-place finish and moved up one spot to fourth in the Nextel Cup point standings. The team travels to Kansas this weekend, where Martin hopes to get back to his style of racing. They will run their favorite car there, RK-231, which has posted the bulk of Martin's impressive runs down the stretch in 2004, including a second-place finish at Dover two weeks ago.

Chassis Number: (RK-231) - The team will run RK-231at Kansas. RK-231 is considered the fasest car in the stable. It ran to a second-place finish two weeks ago at Dover and boasts top-five runs at California, Michigan and Las Vegas, as well as strong runs at Pocono, Indy and Chicago.

Worthy Note: Martin has eight top-15 finishes in the last eight races.

Martin survived Talladega with a 15th-place finish and moved up one spot to fourth in the Nextel Cup point standings. The team travels to Kansas this weekend, where Martin hopes to get back to his style of racing. They will run their favorite car there, RK-231, which has posted the bulk of Martin's impressive runs down the stretch, including a second-place finish at Dover two weeks ago.

THE CHASE FOR THE NEXTEL CUP - MOVIN' ON UP, MARTIN UP TO FOURTH PLACE

Martin's 15th-place run at Talladega moved him into fourth place in the point standings. Martin has moved from 15th to fourth in the last eight races, after starting the year in 43rd place after Daytona. He is currently 50 points out of third place and 98 points behind first place.

BREAKING DOWN THE CHASE

Martin has won on seven of the 10 tracks that will decide the winner of the Nextel Cup. In fact Martin has multiple wins at four of the seven tracks remaining, but no wins at Kansas. Martin has combined for 10 wins, 59 top-fives, 94 top-10's and eight poles in 174 starts at the remaining seven tracks. Martin has finished in the top 10 in 55 percent of his starts at those tracks.

MARTIN AT KANSAS

This will be Martin and NASCAR Cup Series' third race at Kansas Speedway, where Martin finished sixth in the inaugural event in 2001. Martin has a 17th-place average finish at Kansas, but the stat is misleading with engine problems and an accident altering the finishes there in 2002 and 2003.

STRONG DOWN THE STRETCH

The Viagra Team has been strong when it counts, having finished in the top-15 in the last eight races. Furthermore, Martin has posted top-five runs in six of the last 10 and five of the last eight races. In fact, Martin has scored nine of his 13 top-10 and all but one of his eight top-five finishes in 2004 after June 6.

QUOTING MARK AND PAT ON KANSAS

"We are really looking forward to going to Kansas, especially after 500 miles at Talladega. Kansas is more of what I would consider 'real' racing and a chance to get back to what we do week in and week out. We are taking my favorite car and it's the type of track that really suits my driving style. We've been strong on those tracks down the stretch and we are looking for another strong run this weekend in Kansas and hopefully we can start moving towards making a run for the championship.

"I love racing in Kansas and that area. I've been racing there for years and I have a large fan base there from back when I was racing in that area long before I ever got into NASCAR. It's a great area, with a great track and I'm excited about going there this weekend. Hopefully we'll give them something to really cheer about."

PAT TRYSON

"I for one am ready to get to Kansas. Restrictor-plate racing really isn't our strong point, but we feel that we have some really strong races coming up starting this week at Kansas which is the type of track that really suits Mark's driving style. We'll be taking our favorite car and we are looking for some pretty good results. As always we know we have the driver to do it, we just have to make sure we give him a car good enough to win."

-rr-

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