Martin Tames the Lady in Black
Written by Racin with Russ, Monday May 11 2009
Racin’ with Russ
By RUSSELL SCHMIDT
Fifty-year-old Mark Martin proved once again why he is among the very best to ever climb behind the wheel of a stock car by winning the very tough Cup race at Darlington on Saturday night. The senior member of the Hendrick squad ran well all day, staying among the top ten comfortably until the final segment when rolling the dice with a few other drivers on not pitting paid off.
Gas was definitely a question mark for Martin among others, but with a record number of caution periods (17) certainly helping the gas mileage, Martin managed to hold off the likes of Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon.
Greg Biffle ran very well, leading most of the laps and rookie Joey Logano led for a while as well, something rookies just aren’t accustomed to doing. Biffle had a spin late in the ‘go’ negate his shot at the trophy while Logano ran well to finish a career best ninth.
Notable: Kyle Busch struggled to stay competitive, then met with the wall, leaving him with a 34th place finish, dropping two spots to seventh in the big points picture. Edwards also ran afoul of a loose teammate, Greg Biffle, when the ‘Bif’ got a piece of the big boy sending him into the fence and out of the race for many laps for repairs, leaving the No. 99 Ford with a 32nd place finish. Edwards dropped to 12th in the standings, just seven points from falling out of the Chase. Hey Carl…..dump the green paint scheme and see if that doesn’t turn things around for ya. His luck on and off the track (pit lane) this year is just brutal.
Two spins for Dale Earnhardt Jr saw the fan favorite fall to 27th in the race, yet remain 18th in points, about 90 points back of a spot in the Chase. The fall from grace is long.
Gordon leaves the South Carolina track with a narrow 37 point lead over Stewart and 55 over Kurt Busch with Martin now in the Chase in 11th.
On the Nationwide side, watching the late stages of the race led me to start writing about Kyle Busch’s latest conquest among the Nationwide set as the young Gibbs driver led most of the race. A late race caution forced several drivers to weave their way through wreckage debris, some of which must have attached themselves to Busch’s rear tire forcing a late race pit stop and a 15th place finish. You had to see most of the grandstand on their feet, clapping their hands as Busch pulled down onto pit lane. No, there weren’t any post-race interviews as Mr. Happy once again walked briskly to his golf cart and was whisked away in a huff.
When Busch pitted, he handed the lead over to a strong running Matt Kenseth who had an easy time holding off Jason Leffler, Carl Edwards, Eric Darnell and Justin Allgaier to claim his latest (25th career) Nationwide checkers.
Busch’s fall from grace tightened up the standings, which has him only 37 points ahead of Cousin Carl.
Open Wheel News - The end of the first weekend of qualifying for this year’s Indy 500 found Helio Castroneves holding the big $100,000 after claiming his third pole position. Teammate Ryan Briscoe will start second with Dario Franchitti in third. Sunday’s results found Scott Sharp making the field as did Paul Tracy and Sarah Fisher. The final rounds of qualifying take place this coming weekend.
--- The Spanish GP ending saw Jenson Button claim his fourth win out of the five Formula One races run so far this year, besting teammate Rubens Barrichello and Mark Webber.
From Rumorville – Owner/driver Jeremy Mayfield becomes the very first driver to be suspended from any and all NASCAR events indefinitely after testing positive for controlled substances along with two other crew members. I have met and spoken with Jeremy on several occasions and find it pretty incredible he would throw away all he has put together over the past six months for some recreational drugs. The 39-year-old driver claims a combination of prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs created this failure and he is working with his personal physician and NASCAR’s Dr. Black to turn this situation around.
--- Other news related to drug testing concerns the passing of 31-year-old Kevin Grubb. The ex-Busch driver from Virginia was found dead last week in a local motel from an apparent self- inflicted gun shot wound. This talented driver had tested positive for drug use several years ago, only to be re-instated, yet be banned again two years later after refusing a test in post-race testing after Richmond. Godspeed Kevin.
That’s it for this week. Next week’s RWR will cover the results from this year’s All-Star race in Charlotte for the Cupsters, truck results from Lowe’s on Friday night along with more racing news from around the globe.
Questions? Comments? Contact Russ at racinwithruss@comcast.net
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