Matt Kenseth's climb to the points lead heading into Sunday's DirecTV 500 at Martinsville Speedway is NASCAR's greatest turnaround from last season. Not far behind Kenseth for biggest comeback, though, is Robby Gordon.

Kenseth was 28th at this point last year. Kasey Kahne, second in the points, and Gordon, 20th, have improved 22 spots since last season.

While Kenseth and Kahne have won races, Gordon's turnaround is due to participating with his second-year team. Last year, he failed to qualify for the Daytona 500, setting his program back. He struggled most of the season, missing other races. He already has two top-15 finishes this season. He didn't score his first top-15 finish last season until Watkins Glen, the year's 22nd race.

"Just not being a new race team," Gordon says, is the biggest difference from last year to this year. "Pretty much every guy on this team was here last year. That allowed us to work on our cars and be prepared over the winter time. I can remember a year ago the night before Bristol, finishing the car late at night on Thursday night and then come to Bristol."

Gordon did not qualify for that Bristol race. He said last week that his Martinsville cars were done a week ahead.

While Kenseth, Kahne and Gordon have improved more than 20 positions from this point last season, others also have had a good start. Casey Mears (eighth) has gained 18 spots. Kyle Busch (fifth) has gained 17 spots.

Not everyone has had a good start to the season, though.

Sterling Marlin and Scott Riggs are both 22 spots worse than last year. Marlin is 35th in points; Riggs is 36th. Carl Edwards (22nd) is 18 spots lower than a year ago. Travis Kvapil (41st) and Jeremy Mayfield (34th) are both 16 positions worse than last year.

Marlin is outside the top 35 in car owner points and not guaranteed a spot Sunday. He must qualify on speed.

No delay

Fox doesn't plan to add a brief delay to its coverage after broadcasting a profanity during last weekend's race at Bristol. Some networks delay their broadcast of live sporting events by about five seconds to prevent such an occurrence.

Fox aired Martin Truex's radio channel after he wrecked and caught a team member uttering a profanity. Fox announcer Mike Joy apologized for the incident.

"While we review our policies all the time, I know of no intention to change the way we broadcast sports events," said Fox spokesman Lou D'Ermilio.

New ride

Jimmy Spencer will replace rookie Brent Sherman this weekend at Martinsville, BAM Racing announced Tuesday.

Spencer joins the team as an advisor and will work with Sherman. Spencer also might drive additional races. Sherman has limited experience in Busch or Cup. He is 39th in the driver standings after five races.

The team said the change was made because NASCAR's new testing rule limits where teams can test. Martinsville is not one of those places.

Sherman has never competed on that track. Spencer has 28 Cup starts at Martinsville with a best finish of third in 1993.

Also, Cup rookies David Stremme and Clint Bowyer will compete in Saturday's Craftsman Truck race to gain track experience for Sunday's Cup race.

Late addition

Mark Martin has expanded his Craftsman Truck schedule from seven to 14 races and will drive in Saturday's Kroger 250.

Martin also added the October Martinsville race.

Pit stops

The truck series has had one repeat winner in the last 12 Martinsville races. Dennis Setzer won races in 2002 and '03. ... Bill Lester, who became the first African-American to compete in a Cup race since 1986 earlier this month, and his wife are expecting the birth of their second child this week. Lester competes in the truck series fulltime. ... Joe Nemechek is scheduled to make his 400th career start Sunday at Martinsville.