Taking the Short Way Around

Martinsville Virginia is a quiet little town with not much going on. I know some people there and they tell me that there are boring places and then there is Martinsville. But, twice a year Martinsville becomes a very busy and congested little town, much like the half-mile track there. Congestion on the track is about as bad as off the track going home. Like Bristol this usually means tempers flare, but it seems they were able to keep that in check which means the racing took the leading roll.

No matter your opinion of Dale Earnhardt Jr. you cannot deny his run at Martinsville was nothing less than impressive. We are talking about a guy who had his fender removed on the second lap and came all the way from 42nd to 4th before being knocked in the wall and still was able to come back up to finish 4th. This is not something he and that team could have done last year. Better yet he had fun doing it. “This was a fun race, man,” Earnhardt said. "We kept on coming back. We knew we were putting on a good show.” If he can continue this and have as much fun doing it as he says he did he should easily make the Chase and should contend for the title.

Did I not say that despite what Gordon claimed he was going to be doing that things would not change and Gordon would still be Gordon? Well here is what the new aggressive Jeff Gordon had to say after blowing a tire on lap 90. “When my tire blew, that instantly sent a message to me that I need to be a little less aggressive,” Gordon said. “It was pretty much my fault. I was racing with Kasey Kahne at the time, and he had a good car. I recognized I was over-driving the car. Then we got tight and boom, it blew.” See I told you so. Gordon did not win all those races and 4 championships by being stupid. He didn’t do it by being aggressive when not called for. He is a smart racer and knows how to take care of his equipment.

Bad deals came for some of the rest of the top 5 in points. Kahne lost a cylinder and had an underpowered car the rest of the race. Matt Kenseth was spun out with 9 laps left to run. I hate to say it but that is short track racing. Remember Martinsville is a half mile congested paper clip. Mark Martin just had a hard time overcoming early problems. All of their bad luck lead to Jimmie Johnson reclaiming the point lead with his 3rd place run.

Next week we hit the Lone Star State. In 10 races we have 10 different winners. I’m going with a first time repeat winner. I would be wrong but I think any of those 10 could pull into victory lane again this weekend.