What a finish to a great race! Even though I knew that Denny Hamlin was going to end up in victory lane the finish still had me on the edge of my seat. Hamlin and the Fed Ex 11 team were having a rough go at it until just about the halfway point of the race, then they got their ducks in a row and "pulled a 48". They were able to fine tune the car enough to make a charge for the lead, and dominated the entire second half at Martinsville.
The drama began as I sat there watching the 11 lead the race with 10 to go and thought to myself, "well its over", I know he wins (thanks Ben!) so he is just going to hold off the field for the victory right? Wrong.
Suddenly the caution flag waived and the Joe Gibbs cars (at this point Kyle Busch and Hamlin were running 1-2) threw caution to the wind and hit pit road for four freshies and a splash of fuel. DW and the Fox sports crew were baffled by this, stating that they just threw the race away, Why would you pit now? Are you crazy? ect. ect... But I knew the outcome, I knew Hamlin had won the race, however, even I wasn't sure how he was going to pull this one off.
The restart with about 7 to go and Hamlin is somewhere back in the 10th position. This is Martinsville, not exactly the best place to try and pass 9 cars in 7 laps. The paper clip shaped track gets congested and will give you the squeeze. So I sat there just waiting to see how this would play out. 4 laps later Kyle Busch is dumped into the corner in turn 4 and the caution waves yet again. This is a common trend in present day NASCAR, you can expect 3-4 cautions in the last 25 laps, reminiscent of the last few minutes of an NBA game where one team fouls constantly thinking they still have a shot to win.
Now the restart with 2 to go. The good ol' green white checkered we all have become accustomed to. Hamlin now is restarting 6th, but remember he is on fresh tires and needs to save his crew chief's you know what with a win that they all but handed away.
Hamlin dives to the middle bullying his way 3 wide into turn 1 like a bat out of hell. Gordon and Kenseth, both former champions and Martinsville monsters are all that stands in his way. The 17 of Kenseth was bumped hard by Gordon and losses all his momentum. As this rubbing is playing out between the two champs, the 11 sneaks by on the inside followed by youngster and fellow teammate Joey Logano in the Home Depot 20. The two Joe Gibbs car finish 1-2, a feat accomplished for the first time in a long time for the organization.
Even though I knew the outcome, I could not have been more pleased with the quality racing that took place at Martinsville.
Jeff Burton had a great race and looked strong all day, but his good run was ended when he was sideswiped into the wall with about 50 to go. The 31 team is a sleeper for any NASCAR fantasy league. These guys are as consistent as Hideki Matsui, who's middle name translates loosely to consistency. They always run up front and are usually good for a top 5 on any weekend.
The proud owner of many a grandfather clocks (the race winner at Martinsville gets a grandfather clock in lieu of a trophy), Mr Jeff Gordon, had a dominant car all afternoon as well but just could not close the deal.
A bad day for our points leader (going into the race), Kevin Harvick. The 29 battled a balky car all afternoon and eventually ended up behind the wall to repair an blown engine. He finished 35th, leaving him looking up at our new points leader, you guessed it, Jimmy Johnson.
The spoiler made its return to the cup series this weekend and fans could not be more pleased with the cosmetic appearance of the cars. The aesthetically pleasing cars actually look like stock cars again! We will see how the drivers handle the new package at Texas next weekend. The high banked 1.5 mile speedway is known for its high top speeds. The spoiler effects the aerodynamics and down force of the cars much differently than the wing, last week on the short track it was more about the integrity of your bumper than your aero package. We may see some drivers doing their best impression of the Tokyo Drift next week, we are talking "slideways" all day folks!
Michael Clark (emsea)
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