Mammoth Blog

A glance at the 12 drivers competing in NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup championship heading into this weekend's race at Martinsville Speedway (in order of points):

DRIVER: Jimmie Johnson

CHASE POINTS: First, 5,923

CAR: No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet

TEAM: Hendrick Motorsports

POSITION CHANGE: None

CAREER MARTINSVILLE STARTS: 15

AVERAGE MARTINSVILLE FINISH: 5.3 (six wins)

LAST WEEK: Johnson is doing his best to take all the drama out of the Chase. Again. He had a perfect weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway, winning from the pole to extend his points lead and move closer to a record fourth straight title.

CHASE CHATTER: "I'm not trying to downplay where we're at," Johnson said. "I'm very, very, very happy where we're at. But there's five races left. There's a lot of racing left."

DRIVER: Mark Martin

CHASE POINTS: Second, -90

CAR: No. 5 Carquest/Kellogg's Chevrolet

TEAM: Hendrick Motorsports

POSITION CHANGE: None

CAREER MARTINSVILLE STARTS: 43

AVERAGE MARTINSVILLE FINISH: 13.3 (two wins)

LAST WEEK: Is the glass slipper starting to get a little too snug? Martin finished 17th at Lowe's, the first real crack in the pursuit of his first points title.

CHASE CHATTER: "We had a lot of issues and we could have given up and (nobody) did," Martin said. "We had a really good effort. I got really tight at the end."

DRIVER: Jeff Gordon

CHASE POINTS: Third, -135

CAR: No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet

TEAM: Hendrick Motorsports

POSITION CHANGE: +2

CAREER MARTINSVILLE STARTS: 33

AVERAGE MARTINSVILLE FINISH: 6.8 (seven wins)

LAST WEEK: Gordon has been nearly the equal of Johnson the last two weeks. He finished fourth at Lowe's and led late for the second straight week. Good, just not good enough.

CHASE CHATTER: "All you really want to do is get maximum points and finish ahead of the guys you're racing in points," Gordon said. "Other than Jimmie, we're doing that."