Welcome to The Pace Lap, your catchall preview post! Let's get you started on race weekend with a metric truckload of stats, facts, opinion and innuendo.

The race: NASCAR Banking 500, 7:41 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 17 at Lowe's Motor Speedway

The specs: 334 laps on a 1.5-mile track

The broadcasts: ABC, plus the live chat right here on Yahoo! Sports. 

Defending champ: Jeff Burton. That name is vaguely familiar, but I can't quite place it.

The standings leaders: Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin (-12), Juan Pablo Montoya (-58)

The history: The "Beast of the Southeast" was the first superspeedway to host night racing in the modern era, in 1992. It's the home track for most drivers, with 90 percent of all drivers based within 50 miles of the track. And on race weekends, it temporarily becomes the third-largest city in North Carolina.

The appropriate video: This has nothing to do with racing, but it's somebody jumping a trailer and stuff blowing up. This half-minute of video is better than four hours of driving last week at California.

Guy with the most to gain: Jimmie Johnson. JJ's in a no-lose situation at this point; he's starting to exert some of that Tiger Woods mojo on the rest of the field, even though he could be third place in the points within just a few laps on Saturday night. But he's cruising at this point, and one or two more good wins would all but deliver a knockout blow to the rest of field.

Guys with the most to lose: Juan Pablo Montoya. He's run in the top 5 every race of the Chase, but he's still losing ground on the leader. When you're running at the top of your game and you're still sliding back, that's got to be dispiriting. All it's going to take is one rotten finish and any hope Montoya might have had is going to be gone.

Our pick to win: Johnson. Sorry, but he's as dominant as it gets at Lowe's. (Plus, he gets a two-lap advantage for running in the Lowe's car. You knew that, right?) The rest of the Chase will depend on how closely the rest of the field can cling to his bumper, but until further notice, this is the Jimmie Show.

All right, you're up. Who's your pick for this weekend? Go!