Schrader taking the seventh starting spot after his team made the switch from Dodge to the dreaded Toys. The GOGH crowd was led by the poorly performing Pigtail, John Andretti, Tony Raines and Not Front Row Joe.
Friday’s qualifying was a 50/50 deal for Hendrick drivers. Gordon was first with JJ tenth. Junior, on the other hand, could only muster a twenty second place starting spot and Casey Mears languishes back in thirty ninth. JJ tested extensively in the off week and since he and Jeff share setups it looks like they are on the right track while Junior and Casey got left out in left field. Since the usual winner at Martinsville comes from within the top ten starters it looks like Junior’s first win may have to wait until Texas and beyond. Rowdy must be disappointed with an eighth place starting spot and he struggled mightily in Truck practice. Gordon’s pole run leaves him one shy of the Martinsville record.
Meanwhile, over in the media center, Jack Roush continues to show his childish side by complaining that Toyota (MWR) was cheating by stealing a proprietary part. NA$CAR told him to stuff it when he took his whine to them. It took the track medical team’s best efforts to revive Jeff Gordon when he collapsed after falling victims of an extreme hysteria attack. The media mavens all required a double shot of high caffeine coffee after listening to over thirty minutes of Roush’s endless droning of tech talk and were left wondering what he really meant to say. Roush wants to sue Toyota while Mikey admits it was his team who misappropriated the subject part. Hey Jack, I’m no fan of the Toys myself but you need to lighten up.
We get back from Barrett-Jackson to see more Truck practice where the main story revolved around Chrissy Wallace’s attempt to make her first start in a major NA$CAR Series. It was great to see a shorn Terrible Tony jumping in to help and advise Chrissy while her Dad, Mike, was up on the roof spotting for her. Sadly, with all the help she was getting her best lap only registered thirty fifth of thirty six drivers.
Saturday morning dawned much cooler and cloudy with a promise of rain on Sunday. The Trucks took to the track for qualifying and were followed by SPEED’s NA$CAR Live and back to the Barrett-Jackson Auto Auction. Pole position runs began at 10AM EDT on a green race track after overnight rain. Qualifying ended with Jack Sprague on pole with a new track record. Denny Hamlin placed second and has ole Rowdy on the ropes for the Toy front runner spot as Kyle could only manage eleventh. Kevin Harvick (KHI) has to be proud as a peacock with his two trucks starting first and third. Where did fourth place qualifier Brian Scott come from? Scott and fellow rookie Colin Braun, starting seventh, both look like the real deal.
The CUP cars take to the track for practice with Jimmy Johnson running the second most laps and leading the field. Then, here comes the rain. After the rain, final practice had Jeff Gordon on top of the leader board with JJ third. Mc Murray was second fastest with David Ragan still impressive in fourth. According to an online pole on Jayski’s McMurray is picked to be a surprise winner. This is Martinsville so let’s see how this turns out.
It’s 3PM EDT and the Trucks are ready to take the green. Fortunately the rain held off and we ended up seeing an atypical Truck race. I, like many others, were interested to see how Chrissy Wallace would perform under actual race conditions. I, for one, will give her credit for running a good race and having quick reaction times to avoid causing or being the victim of the numerous wrecks. At one point, by avoiding the mini Big One, she had worked her way up to eleventh to have that nullified by NA$CAR calling her to the pits to have some loose body work removed. The race ended with her in eighteenth place and on the lead lap. Not too shabby. What started as a promising day for KHI both Sprague and Hornaday suffered numerous problems that ruined their chances at victory. The proudest moment for me was seeing Skinner run his Toy out of gas.
On the other hand, Kiddie Kyle returned to the track as he took a sure third place finish and turned it into a disaster by trying to pass second place Benson on the final lap. When he checked up to avoid the spinning Benson he got punted in the rear and ended up finishing twenty sixty but still managed to hold on to the points lead. Race winner, Dennis Setzer, arrived at the track with a plain white wrapper but his good qualifying run allowed him to pick up sponsorship from Duck Head Shoes. Setzer drove a flawless race and was quite humble in victory lane in his attribution to the late Bobby Hamilton. His words were so touching that Bobby’s widow, Lori, broke into tears before the cameras mercifully turned away. Meanwhile, Johnny Benson’s crew decided to turn the on track incident into a pit side brawl which the cameras judiciously avoided. One thing Toyota has done for me is causing me to root for Fords and Dodges so long as they are keeping a Toy out of victory lane. Hey FOX dudes, bury Digger and the over used Gopher Cam and, while your at it, Chris “I Haven‘t Got a Clue“ Myers.
I tuned in to ESPN Saturday night to see how the combined IRL open wheelers performed. My main interest was in seeing how Danica Patrick would perform and had high hopes of seeing her get that first win. That wasn’t to be. Even though penalties to other teams put her on outside pole her car was supposedly pushing as were those of several other drivers. The IRL and NA$CAR are equally guilty of the same dumb move. Practice and qualify in daylight and run the race at night. I’ll never understand this nonsense. Scott Dixon won after late race leader Tony Kanan clipped a spinning car and ruined his right front suspension. Danica finished seventh, one lap down. Maybe next time.
Sunday dawns cold and dreary with a promise of rain. Accu Weather is predicting a break in the weather between 1 & 3PM so let’s hope we don’t have another weather fiasco like CA. Rain is also predicted for Monday as a cold front moves through. There were two big topics of discussion leading up to Sunday. The first involved the afore mentioned Roush sway bargate and the other is Elliott Sadler’s sore back. As one who suffers daily from a bad back I can assure you he has no business being in the car where so much braking effort is required. This is no time to bite the bullet Elliott. Take care of yourself or face a potential career ending injury. Sadler is twenty fifth in points so it’s not like he’s trying to protect a sure run for The Chase. Sadly, NA$CAR rules, unlike other sports, do not allow substitutes regarding points accumulation. That’s a whole different story for a different time.
NA$CAR Race Day showed a bundled up crowd
but no rain. Crossing my fingers for what race
time presents and as it ended up we got in all
500 laps. All I can say is WOW! Congratulations
to Denny Hamlin on a well deserved and hard
fought race. I’m now taking orders for all those
who counted out the Hendrick teams. Would
you like your crow with or without feathers? Jeff
Gordon rallied to second with a battered car. His
teammates finished fourth sixth and seventh. At
various times during the race it appeared that any
of the four could be in position to win. Several
drivers had problems with rear ends and
transmissions including Rowdy and Roto
Reuterman. Jeff Burton in third was the maddest
I’ve ever seen him with his denunciation of the driving of Michael McDowell in the 00 car. Rowdy’s problems dropped him out of the points lead and Jeff Burton takes over for now.
Overall I think we saw a good race. There were a lot of lead changes under green and a lot of framin and bamin back in the pack. Many of the cars looked like they had been in a Saturday night demolition derby but the only cars out of the race were due to rear ends or transmission failures. I still think they need to figure out a way to limit the starting field to the old standard of thirty two cars. Forty three cars at Martinsville and Bristol are way too many once the first caution flies and the crowded pit roads are disasters just waiting to happen. Oh well. It’s on to Texas and maybe Junior will get that long awaited win there.
These are my opinions based on my observations. While you may disagree you may not become disagreeable.
God Bless and watch over those little ones. Never forget 911.
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