It’s taken 25 years, 47 wins, 30 poles and over 220 starts but Mark Martin (#5 Hendrick Autoguard/ Hendrickcars.com Chevy) and owner Rick Hendrick (24 years, 22 wins, 35 poles) have finally teamed up in NASCAR Busch Series competition.

Martin, the series’ all-time leader in wins and poles – who was voted #1 among the 25 Greatest NASCAR Busch Series Drivers by media and fans last year – is also the series’ best at Darlington Raceway with eight wins and eight poles.

So the partnership – the first of three events at which the NASCAR icons will work together – has the potential to be a successful debut.

“That #5 means something to me,” Martin said. “I remember the #5 when it was first getting started –when it was All-Star Racing on the side and Rick was a car dealer getting into NASCAR. It’s cool. This is stuff that’s history. And the older you get, the more history means to you.”

Hendrick’s NASCAR Busch Series driver list that contains such names as Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Tim Richmond and Kyle Busch, can now include Martin.

“When I look back at the end of the day and we look at the wins we have and the people that have been part of it,” Hendrick said, “I think it’s going to be really neat to have Mark’s name on that list.”

Keller Returns To NASCAR Busch Series At His ‘Home’ Track

South Carolina native Jason Keller (#11 Force Protection Chevy) is back in the NASCAR Busch Series, fittingly at Darlington Raceway.

Keller, the series’ all-time leader in earnings with over $10 million and one of only two drivers with 400 starts, returns to race for CJM Racing and owners Tony and Bryan Mullet for the organization’s debut in the NASCAR Busch Series.

The team is under the direction of Greg Pollex, who won the series championship in 2000 with Jeff Green – Keller finished second in the points that year as Green’s teammate.

During their tenure together, Keller and Pollex combined for nine wins, seven Busch Poles, 67 top-five and 112 top-10 finishes.

Keller also will be reunited with crew chief Todd Gordon. The event marks the first of several races the 36-year-old from Greenville, S.C., is scheduled to run for CJM this year.

In The Loop: Recent Results Show Kenseth Is The One To Watch At Darlington

Matt Kenseth (#17 Dish Network Ford) is one driver who will relish the last NASCAR Busch Series race at Darlington Raceway before the historic track gets resurfaced.

Kenseth has been brilliant at the South Carolina mainstay, grabbing a win in 2005 and a runner-up finish last season. He already has two wins this season and almost picked up a second at Richmond International Raceway last Friday night.

This weekend, if recent history is any indication, look for Kenseth to make a charge during the Diamond Hill Plywood 200.

Kenseth has by far the best pre-race Driver Rating at Darlington – 131.7. The second-best Driver Rating belongs to Jeff Burton (#29 Holiday Inn Chevy) at 117.1.

His Average Running Position is 4.296, which is second-best in the series, but tops among those drivers who have run each of the past two races at Darlington.

Kenseth also has the most Fastest Laps Run (37), the fastest Speed in Traffic, the third-most Laps in the Top 15 (268) and the second-fastest Green Flag Speed.

With a win in last year’s race at Darlington, Denny Hamlin (#20 Rockwell Automation Chevy) is another driver to watch. Hamlin, who earned a 128.1 Driver Rating in his win last year at Darlington, has an average Driver Rating of 110.9 (sixth-best).

Hamlin’s Average Running Position of 6.558 is third-best of any driver who has run in each of the last two races here. His 294 Laps in the Top 15 are most of any driver.

Then there’s the all-time NASCAR Busch Series leader in wins and poles, Mark Martin, who will drive for Hendrick Motorsports this weekend in the #5 Chevy. Martin has run two NASCAR Busch Series races this season – finishing fifth and 12th, respectively, in a Roush Fenway Racing Ford – and amassed impressive numbers in his series start at Darlington last season.

In his fourth-place finish, Martin had an Average Running Position of 6.429, a Driver Rating of 111.1 and 13 Quality Passes (passes of cars in the top 15 under green flag conditions).

NBS ETC.

• Twice As Nice: For Shane Huffman (No.  88 U.S. NAVY Chevy), things are better in twos. The JR Motorsports team will be taking chassis #022 to Darlington. It’s been run twice thus far in 2007 and Huffman posted two top-10 finishes in it.
• Sponsor Helped Start Mother’s Day: Braun Racing drivers Dave Blaney (No.  10 Camping World Toyota) and Jason Leffler (#38 Great Clips Toyota) will sport associate sponsorship from the Fraternal Order of Eagles (FOE) this weekend. An idea by a member of that group over 100 years ago led to Mother’s Day. Frank Hering had the idea for a special day that would provide formal recognition for mothers.  In 1904, he verbalized publicly his idea of a "national day of honor for Mothers” but it would take 10 years for it to become a reality. Legislation was introduced in the U.S. Congress in 1914, requesting a presidential proclamation making the second Sunday in May Mother's Day throughout the country. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed May 10, 1914 the first official Mother's Day.
• Big Week For Owen: Keeping with the Braun Racing Mother’s Day theme, Trent Owen, Blaney’s crew chief and nephew of the great Richard Petty, is preparing to become a father for the second time. His wife is scheduled to give birth to a boy on May 8th.  It adds to the big weekend for Owen, who is from Darlington, S.C. This is his first fulltime season as crew chief, but he also acted as crew chief last year for Blaney for seven races, including the fall race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway where both got their first series win.
• Final Test Of Season Upcoming: The NASCAR Busch Series will have an open week next weekend before resuming racing at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on May 26, but the series’ last of four scheduled test sessions for 2007 will be held at Lowe’s May 14-15. The test will be the second on a 1.5-mile track – teams tested at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in early February.  NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series teams will also be testing the Car of Tomorrow at Dover International Speedway those same days.
• Bowyer Makes Big Leap: Clint Bowyer (#2 BB&T Chevy) collected his second win in the last three races with his victory at Richmond last Friday night. The win allowed him to make a 10-place jump in the points to 15th; he’s now 77 points out of 10th place. Standings leader Carl Edwards (#60 Scotts Ford) finished 13th at Richmond, the first time this season he did not register a top-10 finish.

The Director’s Take: Darlington

WHAT TO WATCH FOR AT DARLINGTON: FROM JOE BALASH, NASCAR BUSCH SERIES DIRECTOR

“Darlington is an egg-shaped track. Because of the differences in its shape as opposed to an oval, teams will have to compromise on their setups. If both ends are identical, you’re setting the car up for one type of track.
 
“But here, teams and crews will try to get a balance on the car based upon the differences on both ends of the race track. You may see some cars handle better in Turns 1 and 2 as opposed to Turns 3 and 4.

“The teams that are able to capitalize and nail the set up should be those competing for the win.”

Rookie Spotlight: Ragan Takes Slight Edge Over Montoya To Darlington

• Ragan Rules: David Ragan (#6 Discount Tire Ford) has maintained his lead in the NASCAR Busch Series Raybestos Rookie standings for the second week in succession but it’s precarious at best as the series heads to Darlington. Juan Pablo Montoya (#42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge) is second, just one point behind Ragan. The largest lead between first and second was six points following Bristol.

• Montoya Surging: Ragan hasn’t given any quarter to Montoya as far as his slim lead is concerned, but the Colombian star has been slightly better over the last couple of races to creep closer to the top spot. Ragan had a 35th-place finish at Phoenix three races ago, rebounded with a fourth at Talladega and had a respectable 14th last Friday at Richmond. Montoya, however, has been a tick more consistent, bettering Ragan with a 21st at Phoenix, a seventh at Talladega and an 11th at Richmond, his best back-to-back finishes of the year.

• Santos With The Program:  Bobby Santos made his series debut and his debut in the Raybestos Rookie program last week at Richmond. He sat on the provisional pole for a length of time before being bumped to seventh on the starting grid. He finished 30th for the Bill Davis Racing/Riley-D’Hondt Motorsports effort.

2007 NASCAR BUSCH SERIES RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE YEAR STANDINGS

     Driver                      Points
1.  David Ragan                111
2.  Juan Pablo Montoya    910
3.  Marcos Ambrose         104
4.  Kyle Krisiloff                 94
5.  Brad Keselowski           57
6.  Brad Coleman               50
7.  Justin Diercks               39
8.  Sam Hornish Jr.            35
9.  Robert Richardson Jr.    23
10. Alex Garcia                   7
11. Bobby Santos               6

ESPN/ABC

ESPN2 will have live primetime coverage of Friday night’s Diamond Hill Plywood 200 from the 1.366-mile Darlington Raceway beginning at 8 p.m. ET with NASCAR Countdown. The race will start at 8:30 p.m.

Dale Jarrett, the 1999 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series champion and one of the charter members of the NASCAR Busch Series, will join two-time NASCAR champion crew chief Andy Petree in the ESPN booth for analysis. Jarrett is filling in for ESPN’s lead auto racing analyst and his former on-track foe, Rusty Wallace, who will rejoin NASCAR coverage in June. Dr. Jerry Punch returns to handle play-by-play duties for ESPN while Dave Burns, Mike Massaro and Shannon Spake will report the action from the pits.

Allen Bestwick will again host NASCAR Countdown from the ESPN Pit Studio where he’ll be joined by analyst Brad Daugherty. Tim Brewer will report from the ESPN Chevy Cutaway Car.

In addition to the telecast on ESPN2, ESPN’s signature broadband service, ESPN360.com, will deliver a live online simulcast of the event, and a Spanish-language version of the race will be televised on ESPN Deportes, ESPN’s domestic Spanish-language network.

2007 At-A-Glance: NASCAR Busch Series Leaders After 11 Of 35 Races:

Traditional Statistics:                                                                     
Driver points – Edwards (1793)  
Victories – Bowyer, J. Burton, Edwards, Kenseth (2)
Races led – Edwards (8)
Laps led – Ky. Busch (532)
Top-five finishes – Edwards (8)
Top-10 finishes – Edwards (10)
Owner points – Roush (#60) - (1793) 
Money Won – Edwards ($497,400)
Miles led – Ky. Busch (760.03)
Busch Poles – Ky. Busch (2)
Closing in on Top 10–Smith 10th (1106 pts), Ambrose (-12), Biffle (-38)
Consecutive Weeks in Top 10 – Blaney, Edwards, Harvick (11)

Loop Data Statistics:
Driver Rating – Edwards (115.0)
Average Running Position – Edwards (6.598)
Fastest Laps Run–Ky. Busch (237 fastest laps)
Quality Passes – Edwards (555)
Laps In Top 15 – Edwards (1958)
   
Ford Can Make Up Ground At Darlington

With its win last Friday night at Richmond courtesy of Clint Bowyer, Chevy has put together the first three-race winning streak of the season and in the process has been able to build a 10-point distance between its first-place ranking and that of second-place Ford in the Bill France Performance Cup standings.

The two manufacturers are beginning to pull away from third-place Dodge and fourth-place Toyota; however, they remain separated by only four points heading to Darlington.

Ford should be favored to make up some ground this week if its performance at Darlington is any indication. Ford has 16 wins at the “Lady in Black,” most of any manufacturer and from 1999-2002, won seven consecutive races. Ford has also won two of the last three series races at Darlington.

But Chevy captured this race last year while Dodge had a win in 2004, giving three different manufacturers wins in the last three races at the track.
 
NASCAR Busch Series Manufacturers' Championship

Chevy 82
Ford        72
Dodge     46
Toyota     42

Up Next: CARQUEST Auto Parts 300 At Lowe’s Motor Speedway

Following the final scheduled test session for the NASCAR Busch Series at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, teams will be able to take their notes to task for the CARQUEST Auto Parts 300 on May 26.

The NASCAR Busch Series’ all-time wins leader, Mark Martin, is also the series’ best at Lowe’s with six wins.

Matt Kenseth is tied for the lead in Busch Poles at Lowe’s with three – Harry Gant and Tim Richmond also collected three poles during their series careers at the track.

Carl Edwards is the defending race champion, while Kenseth captured the pole for this event last spring.

FAST FACTS

The Race: Diamond Hill Plywood 200
The Place: Darlington Raceway
The Date: May 11, 20071
The Time: 8:30 p.m. (ET)
TV: ESPN2, 8:00 p.m. (ET)
Track Layout: 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval
Race Purse: $1,088,013
2006 Winner: Denny Hamlin
2006 Pole: Denny Hamlin

2007 Point Standings
No.  Driver            Pts
1     Edwards        1793
2     Harvick          1391
3     Blaney          1283
4     Reutimann     1268
5     Kenseth        1223
6     Ky Busch      1171
7     Hamilton Jr.   1149
8     Ragan           1146
9     Montoya        1109
10   Smith            1106

Schedule:
Thur., May 10 – 3:30 – 4:10 p.m., Rookie Practice; 4:20 – 5:20 p.m., Practice, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m., Practice; Fri., May 11 – Qualifying 5:05 p.m. (Impound).