Matt McLaughlin's Thinkin' Out Loud: Goody's Cool Orange 500
Matt McLaughlin
The Key Moment: Denny Hamlin took the lead with seventy four laps to go, then benefited from some obstinate lapped traffic behind him to hold off Jeff Gordon for the win.
In a Nutshell: There’s nothing wrong with the new NASCAR an old race track can’t fix.
Dramatic Moment: Every restart featured the sort of fender banging, bumper beating, tire smoking action that put this sport on the map.
What They’ll Be Talking About Around the Water Cooler This Week
Where were all the fans? Yeah, the weather was pretty bad, but the on-track action was typical Martinsville hot.
I think any writer who is going to write off Jack Roush’s comments on his stolen suspension piece ought to at least know the difference between a sway bar and a gay bar. Yeah, I know, it’s easier to talk about Tony Stewart’s haircut than to study the greasy bits of race cars.
Who better to ask if Michael Waltrip’s Toyota team did anything wrong than Waltrip’s brother, who is also on the Toyota payroll? I mean, there’s an objective opinion. I think I liked it better when DW was mute. And who, exactly, are these “Raisin Boys” Waltrip is so high on?
The media pundits seemed a lot more impressed with Michael McDowell’s efforts than the other drivers who had to share the track with him.
NASCAR this week said they would not allow teams to switch points to get one of their drivers into a Top 35 owner points position. (Which guarantees, of course, that driver and team earn a spot in each race, as long as they remain in the Top 35). That’s truly outstanding. Now, if they’d just finish the job and get rid of that ridiculous rule that gives any team in the Top 35 a spot in each race — they might be onto something.
Eddie Gossage of the Texas track offered to allow NASCAR and Goodyear to test at his track prior to next weekend’s Cup event. That means if next week’s race is a debacle like Atlanta, at least the track’s GM has his butt covered… leaving Goodyear and NASCAR the ones looking foolish.
Kyle Busch certainly has been a weapon of mass destruction this year. After Saturday’s Truck race, I was half expecting to see the Army invade Virginia.
I’ve never heard of a sponsor suing a driver to remove their sponsorship decals from his race car; but after watching Robby Gordon on Sunday, I can understand why they did so. Side note: it was apparently Gordon’s statement that, “Street gangs in LA are more dangerous than Al Qaeda” which made Vanguard decide to part ways with the self-proclaimed “America’s most versatile race car driver.”
The Hindenburg Award For Foul Fortune
Kyle Busch was none too pleased after a burnt up rear gear left him struggling to 38th in the final rundown.
Kyle Busch had an eventful weekend. He wrecked on the final lap of the Truck race, got spun by his brother in the Cup race, then went into nuclear meltdown and ran into everyone else while more than fifty laps off the pace.
Matt Kenseth got nailed on pit road, penalized for pitting out of the box, knocked around like a cue ball, and finally got summoned to the NASCAR trailer after deciding to park David Gilliland to avenge an earlier incident. He wound up 30th.
David Reutimann had a decent run going before suffering a ring and pinion failure. As a result, once again he’ll be forced to make next week’s race on speed, while the new driver of the car Reutimann drove for the first five races gets a mulligan.
Carl Edwards ran out of gas on the final lap, the second straight race he’s had fuel problems coming to the finish line.
The “Seven Come Fore Eleven” Award For Fine Fortune
Every fan on hand who wanted to see 500 laps of racing. It seemed like it was raining during the entire day; but somehow, they got it in.
Denny Hamlin was called into the pits out of the lead just as it seemed weather was going to end the event early. But the rains held off, and the pit strategy eventually worked out for the No. 11 team and their driver.
Jeff Gordon’s day could easily have ended when the nose of his Chevy got bent up in the Truex / Labonte wreck. Two pit stops for repairs dropped Gordon to the back of the field; but he recovered nicely to finish second. What were people saying about the Hendrick teams being down for the count?
Jimmie Johnson got spun when the No. 12 and No. 16 cars tangled, but he fought back to fourth by the checkered flag.
Despite a very sore back that made every lap agonizing — and put Dennis Setzer on standby duty — Elliott Sadler drove to a credible fifteenth place finish.
Jamie McMurray’s eighth place run was good enough that he won’t have to race his way into the Texas field on speed. That’s probably a good thing, too, because McMurray’s qualified 31st or worse in four of the last six Texas Cup races.
Worth Noting
* The Top 10 finishers drove six Chevys, two Toyotas, and a pair of Fords. The best finishing Dodge driver was Juan Pablo Montoya in 13th.
* Regan Smith’s 14th place finish was the best by a rookie at Martinsville.
* Dennis Setzer’s win in Saturday’s Truck race was the first by any Dodge driver since the late Bobby Hamilton won at Mansfield on 05/15/05, almost three years ago. It was also the first win by any manufacturer other than Toyota this season.
* Denny Hamlin scored his first Top 5 finish of the season, and his first win since Loudon last summer.
* Jeff Gordon (2nd) managed his best finish of the year; he hadn’t finished that well since winning Charlotte last Fall. He now has Top 5 results in the last seven Martinsville Cup races.
* Jeff Burton (3rd) has earned four straight Top 10 finishes.
* Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (6th) has Top 10 finishes in five of this year’s six Cup point races.
* Casey Mears’ seventh place finish was easily his best of 2008, and his highest since Talladega last fall (6th).
* Jamie McMurray (8th) scored his first Top 10 finish of 2008, and his best run since Dover last Fall (also 8th).
* Carl Edwards (9th) managed his first Top 10 finish since he won back-to-back races earlier this season.
* Kevin Harvick (12th) missed the Top 10 for the first time in five races.
* Juan Pablo Montoya’s 13th place finish wasn’t without incident, but it was the best result of the year for the sophomore.
* Dario Franchitti’s 22nd place finish was the best of his six race Cup career.
What’s the Points?
Jeff Burton advanced three spots to take over the points lead. Burton is 39 points ahead of second place Kevin Harvick, who advanced a spot to second; he jumped over Greg Biffle, who fell down a spot to third.
Three high profile drivers advanced into the Top 12 this week. Denny Hamlin advanced seven spots to eighth in the standings, Jeff Gordon made up five spots to take over ninth, and Jimmie Johnson moved up three spots to tenth.
Naturally, three drivers had to fall out of the Top 12 to make room for those above. Kurt Busch fell six spots to 16th, Matt Kenseth dropped four spots to 15th, and Martin Truex, Jr. fell a spot to 13th, now putting him 45 points outside the Top 12.
Other high profile drivers moving forward include Jamie McMurray (up six spots to 30th), Casey Mears (also up six spots to 27th), and Carl Edwards, up two spots to 14th in the standings.
STOP THE PRESSES: Dale Earnhardt, Jr. advanced a spot to fourth in the standings, 69 out of the lead.
On the flip side, notable drivers losing ground included Ryan Newman (down three spots to 11th), Clint Bowyer (down three spots to 12th), and Bobby Labonte (down three spots to 21st).
Overall Rating (On a scale of one to six beer cans, with one being a stinker and a six pack an instant classic): We’ll give this one five chilly and damp cans of Colorado Kool-Aid, with a shot of JD to restore blood circulation to fans’ fingers and toes.
Next Up: The circuit heads off to Texas, so get ready for some really lame cowboy jokes from the media. There just ain’t no cowboys in the Carolinas.
frontstretch.com
Tracking the Trucks : Kroger 250
Beth Lunkenheimer
In a Nutshell: Dennis Setzer took the checkered flag ahead of Matt Crafton to win the Kroger 250 at Martinsville Speedway Saturday afternoon. Setzer held onto the lead during a green/white/checkered finish that ended under caution as Kyle Busch and Johnny Benson wrecked in turn 3. Rick Crawford, Ken Schrader and Erik Darnell rounded out the Top 5 finishers.
Who Should Have Won: Dennis Setzer. Setzer qualified tenth and had a great truck all day; the driver of the No. 18 Duck Head Footwear / Aquadock Dodge took the lead on lap 128 and led all 126 of the remaining laps to score the victory with ease.
Questions You Should Be Asking After the Race:
1. Should Mike Skinner and Johnny Benson be upset with Kyle Busch?
Within five laps, Kyle Busch managed to take Bill Davis Racing teammates Mike Skinner and Johnny Benson out of contention for a win and well out of the Top 5. On lap 249, Mike Skinner ran out of gas, and Kyle Busch ran hard into the back of the No. 5 Toyota Tundra, sending him spinning and the yellow flying with just two laps remaining in the scheduled distance.
Then, on the white flag lap of a green/white/checkered finish, Kyle Busch and Johnny Benson raced side-by-side for the second position. As the two raced into turn three, Busch got into Benson, and both trucks went spinning. Matt Crafton, who was running right behind Benson and Busch, saw what happened clearly.
“Kyle [Busch] drove in underneath that No. 23 [Johnny Benson] and wheel-hopped it and opened the door for me,” said Crafton. “I kind of shut my eyes and went through the middle. In Kyle’s defense, he wheel-hopped and got sideways, and that’s why he wrecked the No. 23.”
Mike Skinner went on to finish 29th; Johnny Benson and Kyle Busch went on to finish 25th and 26th, respectively.
Busch did look like the bad guy on the track, but there’s really no way the driver of the No. 51 could have avoided hitting Mike Skinner or Johnny Benson. Avoiding a truck that ran out of fuel just inches ahead of you is virtually impossible, more so on the half-mile Martinsville Speedway where space is at a premium to begin with.
In the incident with Johnny Benson, it was really hard to tell the No. 51 wheel-hopped and lost control. If anyone should be upset with Busch, Benson is the one; however, that’s not going to do him much good at this point. For if Busch really did lose control of the truck, there’s not a whole lot he could do; although a third place finish would have been much better than the 26th place one he ended up with.
2. How did Chrissy Wallace fare in her Craftsman Truck Series debut?
Chrissy Wallace made her debut for Germain Racing Saturday afternoon at Martinsville Speedway. After qualifying 35th, Wallace had a long way to go to get to the front, and it showed. Early in the race, the 19-year-old found herself a lap down after being passed by then leader Ron Hornaday, Jr.
Chrissy and Mike Wallace share a father/daughter moment before her Truck Series debut Saturday in Martinsville.
But Wallace found her way back onto the lead lap, and wound up as high as 11th before a black flag for a loose fender sent her tumbling through the field to 28th. In the closing laps, Wallace took her No. 03 GEICO/Mobil Delvac Oils Toyota back through the field once again, coming home with a respectable finishing position of 18th.
Wallace’s father, Mike Wallace, coached her all race long as her spotter, and Sprint Cup Series driver Tony Stewart also coached Chrissy from the pits.
“It was definitely crazy,” Wallace said. “I think we had about four wrecks in the last 50 laps. Luckily, we avoided all of them and came home 18th. They [Mike Wallace and Tony Stewart] were both on the radio coaching me. It was pretty good.”
Overall, the driver of the No. 03 ran a decent race. She tapped Scott Lagasse, Jr. late to bring out the 13th caution, but stayed out of trouble otherwise — managing to get some valuable track time instead. It’s still early, but it seems Chrissy Wallace has a promising Truck Series career in her future.
Truck Rookie Report
2008 Rookie of the Year Candidates:
Colin Braun (No. 6)
Andy Lally (No. 7)
Donny Lia (No. 71)
Justin Marks (No. 9)
Marc Mitchell (No. 15)
Phillip McGilton (No. 22)
Brian Scott (No. 16)
No. of Rookies in the Race: 6
No. of Rookies to Finish in the Top 10: 1, Donny Lia finished 9th
Rookie Of The Race: Donny Lia
Worth Noting / Points Shuffle:
Dennis Setzer’s win is the first for Bobby Hamilton Racing since the team partnered with Arrington Manufacturing and moved to Virginia during the offseason. The victory was also the first for Dodge since May, 2005 when Bobby Hamilton won at Mansfield Motorsports Park.
The yellow flag flew 16 times over the Kroger 250, tying the record for most cautions at Martinsville Speedway. Also, the race was red flagged twice; once on lap 144, and and once on lap 239.
Kyle Busch remains the series points leader by 35 points over Todd Bodine, who remains in second. Ron Hornaday, Jr. finds himself 65 points out of the lead in third, and Dennis Setzer moved up five spots to fourth, just two points behind Hornaday. Rick Crawford sits two points behind Setzer and moved up one spot to round out the Top 5.
Matt Crafton jumped eight positions to sixth, and finds himself 106 points back from Kyle Busch. David Starr is just five points behind Crafton, and Erik Darnell, who moved up five spots to eighth, is 118 out of the lead. Johnny Benson and Terry Cook round out the Top 10 four races into the season.
Quotable:
“I ran second to Bobby Hamilton the year he won the championship [2004]. We raced really hard against each other, but off the track, we were the best of friends. I don’t think we ever had a harsh word for one another. I respected him a lot.” Dennis Setzer
“This win right here is for Bobby Hamilton only — he is the man!” Marcus Richmond, crew chief for Dennis Setzer
“It’s just exciting. It’s exciting for the fans. Walk up there and ask them. They saw heroes become heroes in Dennis Setzer. They saw outlaws become outlaws as in the No. 23 [Johnny Benson] and the No. 51 [Kyle Busch]. And they saw guys driving their hearts out all day long putting on a show for the fans.” Rick Crawford, finished 3rd
Up Next:
The Craftsman Truck Series takes four weeks off before heading to Kansas Speedway for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 250 on April 26th. Erik Darnell scored his first career Truck Series victory in that one last year, after finishing more than ten seconds ahead of Rick Crawford. Bill Lester set the qualifying record at the speedway with a speed of 173.833 mph (31.100 seconds) on July 1, 2005. Coverage of the race begins at 5:30 pm EST that Saturday on SPEED; the race can also be heard on your local MRN affiliate.
frontstretch.com
Kanaan Wrecks, Dixon Wins
RacingOne.com
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – In a stunning turn of events, Scott Dixon won Saturday’s season-opening Gainsco Auto Insurance Indy 300 after race leader Tony Kanaan tangled with a lapped car only seven laps from the finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Dixon, shuffled back after dominating the early stages of the event from the pole, beat Marco Andretti in a three-lap sprint to the checkered flag by .5828 seconds in the first race of the unified IndyCar Series.
Kanaan passed race-leading Andretti Green Racing teammate Andretti on lap 161, and regained the point on the final exchange of green flag pit stops. However, when Ernesto Viso spun with seven laps remaining, Kanaan grazed the spinning car, bending his right-front wheel. Kanaan remained out during the brief caution, and was quickly passed by Dixon at the restart with three laps remaining.
“We were catching him quick,” Dixon said after recording his 11th career victory for Target Chip Ganassi Racing. “It would have been close at the end. Tony and Marco were quick, but were had a strong car on long runs.
"It was one of those races where we didn't exactly have the speed all the time, but we still came out on top," Dixon said. "If you can have races like that and still come out on top, that's a great way to take some points away from others and hopefully it works for the rest of the season.”
Dan Wheldon, Dixon’s teammate seeking his fourth consecutive victory at Homestead, finished third, followed by Penske Racing’s Helio Castroneves, the final car on the lead lap.
Ed Carpenter, Danica Patrick, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Kanaan, Anthony Foyt and Vitor Meira rounded out the top 10.
The race marked the beginning of a new era in American open-wheel racing, with eight cars fielded by former Champ Car World Series teams. Oriol Servia led the transition drivers by finishing 12th, with two of the drivers involved in incidents down the stretch that played a key role in the race.
Andretti took the lead on lap 74 when he passed Dixon on the 74th circuit, and seemed headed to his second career IndyCar Series triumph – and first on an oval circuit. However, he bobbled coming up to lap rookie Mario Moraes, and that was the opening Kanaan had been waiting for.
However, Kanaan had problems in traffic of his own when Viso spun.
"The race is not won until the checkered flag," Kanaan said. "With 10 laps to go I was looking around and thinking, 'This looks too easy.' This was a misfortune, yes. But how many times have I won races because some other guy was unlucky?"
Andretti passed pole sitter Dixon for the lead on lap 74, and maintained the point after 133 of the 200 laps.
Wheldon worked his way up to second after starting at the back of the pack when he crashed in Friday night’s qualifying.
The race was slowed only three times for 24 laps for caution. There was one early in the race for debris on lap 20, and the second flag waved on lap 127, when Milka Duno tangled with new Penske Racing driver Ryan Briscoe, who was running fifth.
Second and third qualifiers Carpenter and Foyt were also at the back of the grid for the start. Wheldon crashed in qualifying, when the Vision Racing teammates failed post-qualifying inspection.
Dixon the pole Friday night with a four-lap average speed of 213.341 mph. He was joined on the front row by Andretti Green Racing's Patrick, starting at the front of the 25-car field.
Dixon averaged a race-record 171.248 mph. Dixon led three times for 67 laps, while Andretti led three times for 85 circuits and Kanaan three times for 35 laps. Wheldon (nine laps) and Castroneves (four) also led.
The race featured eight cars from teams that formerly competed in the Champ Car World Series. The teams had only one month to prepare the Honda-powered Dallara chassis exclusively used in the IndyCar Series. Champ Car formerly used turbocharged Cosworth-powered Panoz cars. Two of them, driven by Justin Wilson and Will Power, touched on a lap 25 restart, putting Power out of the race.
"I think everybody was using their heads," Dixon said. "The guys who came in from Champ Car were fantastic. They were giving everybody room and they drove a great clean race."
The IndyCar Series teams have only eight days before Round 2, next Sunday on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.