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Double Clutchin’-The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly From Martinsville

Some late posting this week due to sundry reasons that kept me from posting earlier. So, with apologies given, let us go right into things and talk a little bit about Martinsville.

The Good:

Somebody should really think about just handing Jimmie Johnson the deed to Martinsville. For the fourth time in five races, Johnson took the checkered flag and this time he did it in dominant fashion, leading 339 of 504 laps, and in the process he put an exclamation mark on the Hendrick conquering of Martinsville. (When you place four drivers in the top six, you officially own a track.)  Johnson ran away from teammate Dale Earnhardt, Jr. during a green-white-checkered finish and extended his points lead to 149 points over second-place Greg Biffle.

In a recent interview, racing legend Cale Yarborough had this to say of Johnson:

“I’ve watched Jimmie”, Yarborough says. “He’s the kind of driver that likes to run up front. That’s the way I drove. I can see a lot of Jimmie in me.”

One of the biggest compliments that a legend like Cale can give a modern driver is the “I can see a lot of him in me” statement, and it’s nice to see that Yarborough has respect for the guy that is probably going to tie his record of three straight championships.

Also, it was a good run for DE(damn, I almost wrote DEI, I’d better not do that)88.  I wasn’t as much impressed with Junior’s second-place finish as I was impressed by the inspired way that he drove on Sunday.  He bumped, he pushed, he took spots away from people, and he always seemed like he was driving for first.  I’ve been critical of Junior sometimes for racing too soft at times, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t compliment him for running a hell of a race at Martinsville.  There’s no shame in coming in second to someone with a car like Jimmie had, and I’m sure that most Junior fans had to like what they saw out of their guy.

Some love for Casey Mears, too.  Casey has been in the Hendrick doghouse all year it seems and it was nice to see him step up with a good sixth-place finish in one of his final races as part of the clan.

The Bad:

Kyle Busch’s tires are worse than my English (apologies, I rite an speek in da Suthun dilect sumtimes), and whatever was wrong with his tires infected Tony Stewart’s car as well, as the two went on to finishes of 29th place and 26th place respectively.  Boy, if you had told me a couple of months ago that once the Chase started that Kyle would free-fall like he has, I would have called you a politician.  I haven’t seen anyone collapse like Kyle since I watched the Red Sox come back on my Yankees a couple of seasons ago.  Only difference is, watching Kyle’s collapse is much funner (yes, funner) than watching that one was.

Scott Speed finished the race still running.  That’s all that can really be said about that.  Lackluster race for the newcomer in finishing 35th, but it’s way too early to send him back to where he came from.

The Ugly:

Not as much about the race itself, but more about the problems that occurred because of qualifying being rained out.  Rich has a column here where he talks about the amount of rain-outs that have happened this season and his suggestion for a better way to do things.  There’s no doubt that Jimmie Johnson benefited from having the first pit stall and his teammate Mr. Gordon whined a little that he really wished that qualifying had happened.  Gordon thought that he had a car that could have won the poll.  Based on Gordon’s history of winning polls at Martinsville (he’s won as many polls as there are days of the week) he very well might have done so.  Honestly, though, with the way Johnson was running I don’t think that it would have made a difference, as he was in the zone and had a great car.  But who knows?  Maybe if Johnson had been further back in the pits he would have found himself in heavier traffic for more of the race that he was and someone else would have had a shot at the victory.

Really though, isn’t it just another Gordon excuse?

But read Rich’s column here, if you haven’t already.  He has what I think is a pretty good idea about qualifying, and it’s an idea it seems to me is a pretty practical one.

Until next time,

Rubbin’ may be racin, but rubbin’ in the wrong place may leave you with an itch that won’t go away.  Something to think about.

Enjoy the races.

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