It’s a beautiful day here in the Atlanta metro area. I believe the weather is gorgeous in Martinsville also. The thrill is gone for me. The remaining Chase contenders are either folks I don’t want to see win, or folks I don’t particularly care if they win. I’m really glad I don’t have tickets to Homestead now.
Congratulations to Darrell Wallace Jr on winning yesterday’s Martinsville Truck race driving a Wendell Scott tribute truck. Great going kid!
I like the commercial for Sunoco that has been airing recently with the tractor-trailer driver doing his job carrying Sunoco to the masses. It has nice music and I love the scene with the kid tugging his hand and getting a honk for his efforts from the driver. It has a nice feel.
Nicole says she can’t see a cloud anywhere in Martinsville. Nice.
Bestie said its an unprecedented situation that eight drivers are tied for the championship lead with four races to go. The only problem is that it doesn’t really mean anything until Homestead. Luck can put the least championship-calibre car in the winner’s circle on any given week.
Jamie Mc leads them to the green flag. Here we are on lap three and Martin Truex Jr already has a tire rub. Alex Bowman brings out the first yellow flag on lap 5 of 500 as he goes around. He tried to go on the inside of Aric Afterburner and ended up on the curb and around. They said they got turned around. Not exactly what the video shows.
Second caution is out for Travis Kvapil going around on lap 13 of 500.
Lap 34 of 500 the 44 of Timmy Hill has gone to the garage area and a fire extinguisher has been deployed on the car. He got off the track and behind the wall without bringing out the caution.
Caution out on lap 75 of 500 for Kyle Fowler in the 32 in his NASCAR Sprint Cup debut. Looks like he melted the bead and lost a right front tire and hit the wall.
On lap 92 Jimmie complained of a bad vibration and brought the car in to pit road and lost two laps on the stop.
Caution is out on lap 160 for Brian Vickers going around as a result of Kasey Kahne getting into the back of him.
Jason Aldean is doing the pre-race concert at Homestead. Now there’s something I’d like to see.
Caution is out on lap 191 for Reed Sorenson in the 36 doing a loop-dee-loo.
Jeff Gordon was speeding on that pit stop. He was leading the race. Newman also got popped on that stop. Keselowski got hit with it a couple stops prior.
Caution is out on lap 207 for David Ragan in the 34 going around.
Brian Vickers is coming in on lap 215 of 500 because his hood just flew up. Race stays green
Vickers hits Kasey Kahne and puts him into the wall on lap 222. Kasey has quite a bit of damage. He obviously went after Kasey. Got a little bit of Keselowski in the process.
Jimmie is in the garage. He got some damage on one of the restarts to the front of the car when Casey Mears checked up a lot. The 48 was leaking oil. They think they see a broken line. They’re trying to get Jimmie back on the racetrack.
Vickers just lied on the radio and said something must’ve happened with the splitter causing him to just go straight when he got down to one which happened to put him into the back of Kasey Kahne who had gotten into him earlier in the race. Of course the video shows him obviously turning right – instead of going straight.
Caution back out on the restart on lap 228 as Harvick and Kenseth go around. Harvick spun into the wall hard on the driver’s side door. Kenseth’s car started wheel-hopping and spun around into Harvick. Smoke got a little of Kenseth as he spun. They’re pushing Happy’s car to the garage.
Jimmie is back on the track 36 laps down on lap 248.
Caution is out on lap 254 of 500 for debris in turn one.
Justin Allgaier, by not pitting leads them to the green flag. Smoke takes over the lead relatively quickly.
Kasey Kahne and Kevin Harvick have come back out onto the track. Harvick is 40 laps down on lap 268.
Caution is out on lap 277 of 500 for Vickers who seemed to have gotten into the wall. Looks like Kasey’s might have had splitter issues and went straight, into the Vickers and spun him around.
NASCAR asked Race Control to inform the crew chiefs of the 5 and 55 to tell their drivers they are done – in other words those two need to stop the payback now or else.
Caution is out for Danica spun around. It was expected since her tires weren’t as good as those behind her. Martin Truex got into her a little. That could’ve also been a bit of payback for an incident early in the race.
Changes imminent at Stewart-Haas racing. Next week Tony Gibson becomes the crew chief for the 41 of Kurt Busch and Daniel Knost becomes the interim crew chief for the 10 of Danica Patrick. Zippy – Greg Zippadelli – said he wasn’t prepared to discuss the future of Tony Stewart’s 14 yet.
Caution is out for Reed Sorenson in the 36 with 113 laps to go as he loses the right front tire and hits the wall.
Caution is out on lap 417 for debris.
Kurt Busch’s car erupted in flames on lap 424 (after the pit stops) which is extending the caution. Doc Punch mentioned that Kurt got out of the car and gave Daniel Knost a big hug.
Caution is out on lap 436 as Keselowski says he lost the transmission and Truex, Casey Mears, Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards, Danica Patrick all ended up getting collected. They think they lost an axle. Danica’s car is on fire. They’re red flagging the race. Both Casey and Kasey have a lot of damage. Of course ‘It’ didn’t get any damage in the situation. Casey and Kasey are both heading to the infield care center it appears.
Keselowski was going really slow, Casey Mears ran into the back of Keselowski and Danica got a piece of Casey’s wreck, and Carl got into the back of Truex who was behind Danica and got a piece of her and Kasey got into the back of Casey. They’re not sure what broke. ‘It’ said he lost a transmission for no reason, he didn’t miss a gear. Then the crew chief said they lost the rear axle. At this point they’re really not sure, but since the race is red flagged there’s not much they can do.
The race is now under caution. Paul Wolf says its not the rear axle and the crew is pushing the car back to the garage. I tmay be a rear gear.
Carl gets the free pass and his damage is relatively mild.
Joey Logano take the lead from Denny Hamlin with 50 laps to go.
Dale Jr takes over the lead with 45 laps to go.
Marcos Ambrose and Kyle Larson go around and the caution is out on lap 490. Kyle Larson continued to make things worse and spun both of them. The red flag is now out. Kyle Larson’s car is sitting driver’s side to the outside wall. He’s walking to the ambulance seemingly without injury. Looks like Larson’s car put a lot of fluid on the track.
Jr and Jeff Gordon both choose to come in for tired. Bowyer comes in also. Bowyer wins the race off pit road. Smoke, Stenhouse and David Ragan didn’t pit.
Bowyer, Earnhardt Jr, Hamlin and Jeff Gordon line up behind them.
There are five laps to go as Tony Stewart takes the green flag.
Jr bumps and runs on Smoke. Jeff Gordon passes Smoke for second.
White flag is out while Jeff Gordon chases Dale Jr.
Dale Jr wins his first Martinsville race! Jeff Gordon finished second.
The crowd is going wild! He’s giving them a burnout as he goes around the track.
Smoke finished fourth and seems quite pleased.
Jr got out of the car in Victory lane and ran up on the stand to hug his crew members literally jumping up and down in joy with them.
Jr said, “We’re going to drink a lot of beer tonight, that’s what’s going to happen.”
Mr. Hendrick finally got a chance to congratulate Jr.
Fred Lorenzen won the first clock in 1964. He will be inducted into the Hall of Fame with the next class.
In NASCAR news this week:
- The Sad State of NASCAR Affairs: Kenseth, Newman Vie for Title Despite Being Winless.
- Updates Coming for XFINITY and Truck Series.
- Hunt Brothers Returns to Sponsor Harvick.
- South Point Extends Sponsorship.
- Wallace Wins Again at Martinsville.
- NASCAR informs teams about Ebola virus as series heads to Texas.
- Kurt Busch to Compete in Race of Champions.
- Logano Takes Blame For Incident With Patrick.
- SHR Swaps Teams.
- Crew Chief Swap for Patrick, Busch Explained.
- Cheez-It to Sponsor Biffle in 2015.
- NASCAR Clears Newman’s Car.
- Kyle Busch Captains Superboat.