NASCAR Cup Series

Johnson's coming but Harvick won't back down

Published Mar. 28, 2010 10:11 p.m. ET

foxsports

With rain delaying the Goody’s 500, polesitter Kevin Harvick will have another night to strategize staving off Jimmie Johnson’s advances at Martinsville Speedway.

Good luck.

Alas, racing on Monday won’t make the task any easier. Compared to Johnson’s average finish of 5.1 — which is bolstered by six victories — Harvick trails the four-time champ with an average of 17.1 and a top finish of seventh.

Still, Harvick maintains a 14-point lead over Johnson — for now. But unlike some drivers in the Sprint Cup Series garage, Harvick’s not going to allow the driver of the No. 48 to get in his head.

“It just motivates you to keep working on your stuff and keep trying to make it better,” Harvick said. “They haven't won three out of the first five races by being lucky, though. They win them because they have all their stuff together and when they get a lucky break, they capitalize on it and make things happen.

“They are the ones that have everything going right now and where you base yourself on where you stand as far as being competitive and doing the details right, they do all that right. So, we definitely don't let it frustrate us like that. You just use it as motivation."

Rain on me

Jamie McMurray and AJ Allmendinger had no qualms with delaying the race on Sunday.

Both understand how rain can be a game changer and would prefer to race on merit — particularly McMurray. After scoring top-10 finishes in both Martinsville races last season, he’s had this weekend marked on his calendar for a while.

“I’m glad they didn’t get it started and then have to stop and try to start again,” McMurray said. “I’d rather have a good day to run the entire race rather than taking a chance on damaging our equipment in the rain or have the winner determined due to the weather.

“This is the best car I’ve ever had at Martinsville. Everyone at (Earnhardt Ganassi Racing) has worked hard to give me a real light car with a lot of speed. If we get in the right position, I’m confident we can win the race.”

Allmendinger, who scored his first Martinsville top 10 last spring, has been pacing the transporter ready to race. For ‘Dinger, he’s just thrilled to get behind the wheel.

“Yeah, it’s difficult. It stinks for the fans and all the teams, but the fortunate thing is we’ve got an off-week coming up, so it’s not like this is gonna put everybody way behind,” Allmendinger said.

“I’m happy whenever I get to be in the car, whether that’s Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. When we get to drop the green, I know we’ll have a good car and we’ll be ready to go.”

Just breathe

Martinsville Speedway used to be notorious for toxic fumes invading driver’s cockpits over the course of the race — particularly those with damaged race cars.

To help with the problem, NASCAR has worked with filtering packages for the driver’s clean air systems and mandated the addition of a three-inch NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) duct on the left-side quarter window two years ago.

The NACA duct pulls fresh air into the cockpit, creating a circular motion to force the dirty air out of the front of the driver’s side window.

Tony Stewart, who has had a rough experience with carbon monoxide in the past, credits NASCAR with devising a solution.

“It seems like everybody has kind of worked together on making it a better air package,” Stewart said. “It is a lot better than it used to be. In the last two years in particular it is quite a bit better and significantly different. It is a lot better and at the end of the race you feel a lot better.

“NASCAR will come down and take readings with the drivers after the race and it has been cut in half in the last couple of years from what we saw two, three, four years ago. They have definitely made huge gains in that area and that is better for us down the road."

Numbers game

Say what?

Matt Kenseth on starting from the front row by default of rain:

"We don’t usually qualify very well here. I don’t really qualify very well anywhere, but especially here, so to start second is good. The only bad thing is you have nowhere to go but backwards, but I’m happy to start second."

Ironically, Kenseth's best Martinsville starting position came in this race last year when qualifying was rained out as well.