Race no. 6 Subway 500

Opened: 1947

Location: Martinsville, Va.

First NASCAR Cup race: Virginia 500, May 20, 1956

Distance: 0.526 miles

Front stretch: 800 feet

Back stretch: 800 feet

Banking in Turns 1-4: 12 degrees

Banking in straights: none

Grandstand seats: 91,000

Tickets: 877-722-3849

Website: martinsvillespeedway.com

Mobil [1] Official Motor Oil of NASCAR[R]

Down the road

MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Subway 500

* When: 1 p.m. ET Sunday

* Length: 500 laps/263 miles

* TV: NBC

Run with this:

NASCAR's champions are some of the finest racers who have ever lived. Included among the NEXTEL Cup elite is 1989 champion Rusty Wallace, who claimed his title in one of the closest battles in series history--by a margin of 12 points. Wallace won six races that year, but his high-water mark for victories came in 1993 when he won 10 times.

Mobil 1 is original equipment in some of the world's finest vehicles, including Chevrolet Corvette, Porsche, Mercedes Benz AMG, Dodge Viper, Ford Mustang Cobra R and Aston Martin.

Mobil Command Performance

BACKTRACKING

ADVANCE AUTO PARTS 500

MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY

April 18, 2004

Finish   Start   Driver               Car, make      Laps led

 1.       17     Rusty Wallace        2 Dodge           45
 2.       23     Bobby Labonte        18 Chevrolet
 3.        4     Dale Earnhardt Jr.   8 Chevrolet      154
 4.        8     Jimmie Johnson       48 Chevrolet     104
 5.        3     Ryan Newman          12 Dodge          16
 6.        1     Jeff Gordon          24 Chevrolet     180
 7.        2     Jamie McMurray       42 Dodge
 8.       29     Matt Kenseth         17 Ford
 9.       18     Sterling Marlin      40 Dodge
10.       25     Dale Jarrett         88 Ford

JEFF GORDON GIVES US THE RUNAROUND

"They've repaved Martinsville, so I'm really looking forward to going there. The keys in the past have always been to have good brakes on the car and be able to get into the corners without overdriving the car, and to roll through the middle so you can get good acceleration off and down the straightaway.

"It's one of those tracks that having a lot of patience is really important because it's so easy to overdrive the corners them. Once you start overdriving the corners, it ruins your entire lap, and it ruins your entire corner. You can tell yourself that all day, but until you really do it, it doesn't matter. Jimmie (Johnson) is a perfect example. He knew our success at the track, but until he ran with me, (that's when) he really began to understand it. He realized he was driving too deep into the corners. That took me years to figure that out because I didn't have a teammate to follow. Once you learn that, the track will come to you."

68.169 TSNumber

Rusty Wallace's average mph during his spring win at Martinsville, where he returned to victory lane for the first time in 105 races.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Sporting News Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning