Martinsville Speedway is one of five short tracks to hold NASCAR races.[5] The standard track at Martinsville Speedway is a four-turn short track oval that is 0.526 miles (0.847 km) long.[6] The track's turns are banked at eleven degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at zero degrees. The back stretch also has a zero degree banking.[6] The racetrack has seats for 63,000 spectators.[6]
In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet was leading with 213 points, twenty-two points ahead of Toyota.[8]Ford, with 160 points, was twenty points ahead of Dodge in the battle for third.[8] Stewart was the defending race winner after winning the event in 2011.[9]
Three practice sessions are scheduled to be held before the race; the first on Friday, which lasted 90 minutes. The second and third are both scheduled on Saturday afternoon for 55 minutes each.[10]Brian Vickers was quickest with a time of 19.386 seconds in the first session, 0.038 seconds faster than Earnhardt Jr.[11] Hamlin was just off Earnhardt, Jr's pace, followed by Gordon, Bowyer, and Paul Menard. Johnson was seventh, still within a tenth of a second of Vicker's time.[11]
Forty-five cars were entered for qualifying, but only forty-three could qualify for the race because of NASCAR's qualifying procedure.[12] Johnson clinched the twenty-eighth pole position of his career and third of the season, with a time of 19.402 seconds.[3][13] He was joined on the front row of the grid by Vickers.[13]Kyle Busch qualified third, Jeff Burton took fourth, and Hamlin started fifth.[13] Kenseth, Stewart, Bowyer, Menard] and Aric Almirola rounded out the top ten. Keselowski only managed thirty-second.[13] The two drivers that failed to qualify for the race were Mike Bliss, and J. J. Yeley.[13]
Once the qualifying session was completed, Johnson commented, "After qualifying as poorly as I did in the spring, I focused on these two laps pretty heavily and wanted to make sure I did my job. We just hit it [Friday], from the car standpoint, from my standpoint of driving the race track. We got it right [Friday]. The tough position there is, once we get single-file and we're about 10 laps into the show, the leaders are [caught up] to the 43rd-place car. You've got to go, and everybody around you has that same mentality, too, so it can be pretty cutthroat back there."[3]
In the second practice session, Vickers remained fastest with a time of 19.732 seconds, less than two-hundredths of a second quicker than second-placed Gordon.[14]Juan Pablo Montoya took third place, ahead of Johnson, Kyle Busch and Bowyer.[14] Hamlin only managed eleventh place, while Keselowski was only quick enough for twenty-seventh position.[14] In the third and final practice, Vickers was quickest with a time of 19.751 seconds.[15] Earnhardt Jr. followed in second, ahead of Gordon and Kyle Busch.[15] Hamlin was fifth quickest, with a time of 19.830 seconds.[15] Johnson, Menard, Ryan Newman, Kenseth, and Bowyer rounded out the first ten positions.[15]
^Brown, Brian (October 23, 2012). "The Tums Fast Relief 500". Rotoworld.com. NBC Sports. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved October 26, 2012.
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