Goody's Cool Orange 500After a wild, crash-filled road course race, the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series headed to the shortest and tightest track on the circuit looking for more of the same at Martinsville Speedway. The track named "the paperclip" lived up to its reputation of hosting wild races filled with plenty of beatin' and bangin', with 15 cautions for 76 laps pacing the event. The event saw intense late-race drama, and plenty of shredded sheet metal and frustrated drivers leaving the speedway early.
Tony Stewart won the pole for the event with a dominant lap on Friday qualifying, and took command of the race early on. He stole the show for the first 90 laps, until a crash between Michael Waltrip, Aric Almirola, Martin Truex Jr., and Kyle Petty brought out the first caution of the race. He would continue to lead through the 2nd caution on lap 106 for Jimmie Johnson and Travis Kvapil spinning, and wasn't passed until lap 159, when Jeff Gordon took command.
Gordon led for 31 laps until the third incident of the day was brought out by Kasey Kahne, Kurt Busch, and Joe Nemechek. Ryan Newman would move in front of Gordon via pit stops and led for the lap 195 restart, but the race went back to yellow quickly when Kevin Harvick tangled with lapped traffic of Dave Blaney and Bobby Hamilton Jr. The race restarted on lap 202, but just two laps later, the biggest crash of the day took place. Casey Mears and Stephen Leicht both tapped Jeff Gordon, who slid wide and clipped the wall exiting turn 2. As cars scattered to avoid the incident and attempted to fall back in line to race to the start/finish line, Kasey Kahne and Elliott Sadler engaged in a pushing match heading towards turn 3 and triggered a second multi-car incident that damaged both of them, Mears and Leicht, Kyle Busch, Johnson, Kvapil, Danny O'Quinn Jr., Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Robby Gordon. Newman would retain control at the top of the running order through pit stops, and the action settled down for a time.
The 6th caution of the race came out 73 laps later for an incident involving Clint Bowyer, Bobby Labonte, and Reed Sorenson. Jimmie Johnson, despite substantial rear-end damage, would move to the lead through pit stops and led the field to the restart on lap 282. 3 laps later Scott Riggs tangled with Almirola, and most of the leaders took a chance to change tires with reports of debris in the turn 3 racing groove. Jeremy Mayfield stayed out however, and held the lead for the lap 293 restart.
Just 2 laps later, another incident brought out the yellow as Matt Kenseth, Todd Kluever, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. crashed on the backstretch. The race settled into a groove for a short while, until Mike Bliss sent Earnhardt Jr. spinning in turn with 177 laps to go. Mayfield would continue to hold onto the lead for the lap 329 restart when chaos unfolded at the front of the pack.
Mike Bliss took the restart 2 laps down and was the first car on the inside lane. He aggressively dove into turn 1 in order to pull a slide job on Mayfield and hope for a caution flag, but he clipped the curb and shot straight into Mayfield's door. The 88 spun sideways, and 2nd through 4th piled in with Newman, Stewart, and Greg Biffle sustaining moderate damage. J.J. Yeley and Michael Waltrip also tangled further back in traffic.
Through the chaos Jimmie Johnson once again emerged with the lead and led to the 11th caution flag for Jamie McMurray and Matt Kenseth's spins. Newman's pit crew did it's fine work on pit road once again and gave him the lead, which he would hold onto for a while.
It wasn't until lap 387 that Greg Biffle was able to use lapped traffic as a pick to get past Newman and take his first lead of the race. The long green flag run enabled Biffle to stretch his lead, but Johnson's fresher tires caught up to the #16, and with 57 laps to go the #48 took the lead back. Just 8 laps later the 12th yellow flag flew for Johnny Sauter and Yeley wrecking on the backstretch, allowing the leaders to make their final scheduled pit stop of the day. Johnson held the lead, but polesitter Stewart had conserved his equipment after the lap 329 crash and methodically worked his way back to the top, passing the #48 on lap 461.
Just 3 laps later another incident unfolded between Sorenson, McMurray, and Jon Wood, giving the leaders another shot at fresh tires. All 5 lead lap cars took a full set of 4 Goodyear tires, primed for a 31 lap sprint to the finish. Johnson was the leader, and held a steady 1+ second lead until the penultimate yellow flag on lap 487. Kenseth and Earnhardt Jr. were involved in another incident along with Blaney and Bliss. The crash prompted angry exchanges between Kenseth and Earnhardt Jr. after the race, and several crew members from both teams had a brief scuffle near Kenseth's hauler. Frustrations were high for both teams, as the crash was the #8 team's 5th incident of the afternoon and Kenseth's 3rd, in addition to losing 3 laps early on due to a green flag stop to change a battery. Despite 5 crashes, Earnhardt Jr. motored to his first top 5 finish of the season and Kenseth persevered to a 10th.
Johnson led Stewart to the restart with 8 laps to go, until the corner that shocked the packed grandstands. Johnson drove conservatively into turn 1, and as he exited turn 2, flat spun out. He reported on the radio that he believed he had a flat or soft tire, but the cause wouldn't account for the result, as Johnson lost 2 laps and more importantly, his chance at victory. Bobby Labonte, Kasey Kahne, and Brian Vickers also wrecked avoiding the spinning #48 car, and Labonte incurred enough damage to drop him from a top 5 result to a 21st place finish. Stewart would then hold off Carl Edwards and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a one lap sprint to the finish, thanks to a cushion of 5 lapped cars to earn his first victory since the 2005 season, boosting him up from 19th to 12th in points.
Out of context - I hate Martinsville in this game. There were so many instances of drivers crashing under yellow or losing a lap during pit stops, it bothered the crap out of me. Not to mention the glitch where Blaney and Sorenson just spent the entire second half of the race making a pit stop, running 1 green flag lap, and making another pit stop, and continuing the cycle. Crazy, crazy, crazy things happened. Aside from that though, the racing was actually entertaining. There was passing, and I think I achieved a good balance of having the right amount of cautions on a short track, which is typically a major issue in NR2003.
Results:
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