Headed into the TUMS Fast Relief 500 this weekend at Martinsville Speedway all eyes are on Jimmie Johnson. Perhaps some of the attention should be turned toward Tony Stewart, especially at this tough old short track.

Stewart isn’t buying into the talk of handing Johnson the Sprint Cup trophy with five races to go and, on top of that, he knows his way around Martinsville’s half-mile oval.

Stewart comes into Sunday’s TUMS Fast Relief 500 fourth in the standings, 155 points behind Johnson. With five to go, though, the two-time Sprint Cup champion believes the Chase is still on.

“Until somebody comes up and says ok, mathematically you are out of it, until then, we have got a shot. That’s all I can say about it. That’s all we know,” said Stewart. “Until they tell you that you can’t physically or mathematically catch up, then you are still in it. You still have a shot.”

Although Johnson has racked up the wins at Martinsville, Stewart understands what it takes to run up front here. He has two Martinsville victories to his credit, and most always is running toward the front. He’s led 1,193 laps and notched 12 top-10 finishes in 21 Sprint Cup starts at Martinsville.

And in those 21 starts, he’s banked a lot of Martinsville knowledge.

“You learn how to protect the car. You learn how to not beat it up,” Stewart said of his Martinsville experience. “You learn it’s a lot more fun racing when you use a lot more patience. Patience seems to be the biggest variable that can hold you up at a place like Martinsville. Needless to say, after going there a couple of times, I’ve learned how to be patient – out of necessity, basically.”

With the patience has come the ability to preserve his brakes on the track that can take a tremendous toll on brakes.

“You try to stay off the brakes as much as possible,” said Stewart. “You always hear the crew chief talking about floating the car into the corner and what they mean by that is instead of driving it in really deep into the corner and using a lot of brake pressure, the theory is to lift a little earlier and use less brake pressure. You’ll end up running virtually the same lap time as you would if you drove hard into the corner.

“But when you’ve got a 500-lap race at Martinsville and you’ve got to use the brakes hard twice a lap, that’s 1,000 times during a race where you’re asking the brake system to slow down a 3,400-pound race car. If you can be easy on those brakes for the first half of the race or first three-quarters of the race, then when you really need those brakes to battle for the win at the end, you’ve got ‘em.”

Action kicks off at Martinsville Speedway Friday at 10 a.m. with NASCAR Camping World Truck Series practice followed by Sprint Cup practice at 11:30 a.m. The truck series has a second practice session at 1:10 p.m.

Qualifying for the TUMS Fast Relief 500 will begin at 3:10 p.m. and time trials for the Kroger 200 will start at 4:40 p.m.

The Sprint Cup cars hit the track at 10 a.m. Saturday and will have a second practice session at 11:15. The NASCAR Camping World Series Kroger 200 takes the green flag at 1 p.m.

The TUMS Fast Relief 500 will get underway at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Fan gates open at 9 a.m. each day.
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ickets for the TUMS Fast Relief 500 on Sunday, October 25, the Kroger 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race on Saturday, October 24 and the Farm Bureau Insurance Pole Day on Friday, October 23 are on sale and can be purchased by calling 1.877.RACE.TIX or by visiting www.martinsvillespeedway.com.

Ticket prices range from $25 to $77 for the TUMS Fast Relief 500.