Well, it's finally happened. Jimmie Johnson, winner in five of the last six trips to the Martinsville Speedway, was dethroned on Sunday afternoon. It was bound to happen at some point and a lot of NASCAR fans, myself included, look pretty foolish for handing Johnson the check before the race was even started. But much to my surprise, or is that chagrin, Denny Hamlin took the checkers at his other hometown track. Hamlin, a native of Chesterfield, Virginia, won in Richmond in September and snagged the win at the half-mile Virginia "Paper Clip" on Sunday.
Ryan Newman led the field to the green flag, flanked by Jeff Gordon. The beatin' and bangin' didn't take long to get underway, because on lap seven, Matt Kenseth's #17 Ford slid up into the #47 Toyota of Marcos Ambrose, sending the "Tazmanian Devil" around, collecting Kenseth's Ford, as well as Robby Gordon's #7 Toyota. Ambrose received the most damage, having his left front fender sheered off. Michael Waltrip caused the next yellow when his left rear tire blew out, sending the #55 NAPA/Adaptive One Brakes Toyota around off of Turn 2. Not much else happened caution-wise, but the fans were treated to a good ol' fashioned shoving match between Juan Montoya and Jeff Gordon. The drivers exchanged shots, hitting each others cars for several laps, but eventually it settled back down. Sam Hornish, Jr was spun by teammate David Stremme, sending both to the inside wall and Hornish tried to knock the outside wall down only a few laps later. Chase driver Kasey Kahne drilled the outside wall with the back of his car, then the front a few laps later. The final major incident occurred when Scott Speed lost his brakes and destroyed his Red Bull Toyota in Turn 1.
On the final restart, Hamlin led Johnson (like he had for most of the day) and managed to hold the Martinsville Ace off and net his second win at the historic half mile. But for once, I would have preferred Jimmie Johnson as the winner. Not only do I think Denny Hamlin is a dirty dog (to put it politely) for wrecking David Reutimann at Pocono to get the win, putting the kibosh on Reuti's Chase chances, but it was the five year anniversary of the 2004 Hendrick Motorsports plane crash that claimed the lives of ten Hendrick employees and family members. For Johnson to win on that same date five years later, i think, would have been really special. But, it wasn't meant to be and Dirty Denny won the fight. But, although Johnson lost the battle, he may still win the war. The #48 still leads the points over Hendrick teammates Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon. Could Johnson really win a record four titles in a row? First, they need to survive the carnage that will happen at Talladega Superspeedway this weekend. From NASCAR's smallest track to it's biggest, 'Dega will be sure to please, since the 2.66 mile oval produces such close racing and such huge crashes. This race is gonna be a real barn burner and it should also shake up the Chase standings quite nicely.
This weekends race will also be a big one for me personally. Michael Waltrip is a restrictor plate racing ace, winning all four of his career wins at Daytona and Talladega. Since this will be the Sprint Cup Series' final plate race of the season, and since this is Mikey's last full season, this is his last realistic shot to take one last trip to victory lane and obtain some glory before he drives off into the sunset. Nothing would be cooler than seeing Mikey and the #55 NAPA Toyota team that he owns in victory lane after the race on Sunday. LET'S GO MIKEY!!!
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