NASCAR ROUNDUP News and notes

Junior’s forecast: Dale Earnhardt Jr., economic analyst. NASCAR’s most popular driver gave his own insight into the economic trouble that the nation is facing, which has had a negative impact on fans that travel with the series, as well as on teams struggling to secure big-money sponsors for next season in every series. “The economy is in a dire situation,” Earnhardt said as a steady rain kept fans away from Martinsville Speedway. “It is pretty severe and there is a good chance it is going to continue to get worse. I don’t see how it cannot affect every corner and every piece of the puzzle.”

Mr. October? Jimmie Johnson has become NASCAR’S version of Mr. October, or at least Mr. Fall, often saving some of his best driving — and winning — for the championship Chase. Last year, he won the last two races leading into the 10-race playoff, then won four in a row near the end to clinch his second consecutive championship. This year, he repeated in those last two races to set the Chase field, and he’s won once in the Chase already. It was at Martinsville a year ago that he began his four-race winning streak. Just don’t ask him to explain it. “I don’t understand why, at the end of the year, we win a fair amount of races,” he said. “I’ve always thought that these have been good tracks for us and in the spring we’ll run well at them and in the fall we’ll do a little better job and have a winning car at the point.” The team tries as hard to win in the spring as in the fall, he said. Maybe it’s just the 10 tracks involved in the Chase. “Ideally, any driver would love to sit down and mark out their best 10 races and I’m very fortunate in the Chase with the ones that are in the final 10,” Johnson said. “I’d probably choose seven or eight of them if I had my wish list of tracks to pick.”

Associated Press