Hamlin Wins Soggy Martinsville
by Russell Schmidt - Racin' With Russ
04/04/2008

Perhaps, it was poetic justice that Denny Hamlin won Sunday afternoon at Martinsville after losing a few weeks ago with a sputtering Toyota at Bristol with one to go.

It looked for a while like deja vu for Jeff Burton running second to Hamlin in the waning laps of a race, this one a very cold and dreary day with a constant slight drizzle at the ‘paperclip’.

But, Hamlin’s car stayed fast to the stripe, holding on to claim his fourth win, this time over a very hard charging Jeff Gordon in the final few laps.

The race started with Gordon on the pole (his 65th career) seventh at the half-mile track, going on to lead many laps until an early multi-car wreck left the four-time champion with no where to go.

Two pit stops later for repairs, Gordon rejoined the field deep in the pack, but managed to get back out front some 200 laps later, taking the lead from teammates Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

All four Hendrick drivers including Casey Mears spent time among the top five before day’s end. The top five finishers were Gordon, Burton, Johnson and Tony Stewart. Mears wound up seventh.

Points leader Kyle Busch had a tough day making several bad on track decisions and having the rear end of his Toyota break sent him down to fifth in the points, the result of a 38th place finish.

Burton’s latest top five run has the Virginia driver leave the Virginia track with the points lead, yet only 39 over teammate Kevin Harvick and 60 over Greg Biffle.

The racing weekend started with lots of bumpin’ and bangin’ in Saturday afternoon’s Craftsman truck race at Martinsville. When the smoke cleared and while cars were still spinning out of control, short track ace Dennis Setzer nailed down his third truck win, this one in Dodge.

Earlier in the run, Ron Hornaday beat his way to the front as did Kyle Busch, but it was Setzer with the strong horse on the day leading the most laps.

On the final circuit, Johnny Benson was running second with Busch thirs when Busch tapped Benson in turn 3, spinning Benson and himself, both finishing way down the list while the pack motored by. Once again Busch is not making any friends on or off the racetrack and I predict someone will shorten up the nose on his face sooner than later with his on-track antics.

Of particular interest in this race was Chrissy Wallace making her truck debut. The 19-year-old daughter of race Mike Wallace started 35th and finished a very credible 18th. More races are planned for the young driver.

The Cup and Nationwide teams move on to the wide open Texas Speedway this weekend.

Open Wheel News - The Indy Racing League held their season opener at Homestead Speedway with Scott Dixon besting Tony Kanaan who, while leading lightly hit a spinning back marker, but ended his shot at the win late in the go.

Marco Andretti took an impressive second with Dan Wheldon third.

There were eight newcomers from the Champ car ranks with most having a hard time dealing with the roundy-round concept. The majority of the drivers either crashed, broke or dropped out, a few taking out top runners inadvertently. They’ve got a ways to go to catch up with the experience of the IRL regulars. Several of the newbees were simply rolling chicanes for the rest of the field, being lapped often.

From Rumorville - There are still a lot of conversations involving a Roush Fenway part (a sway bar) being taken by a Toyota team (Michael Waltrip Racing) and not returned or informed of (for six months) until accusations were flying by Jack Roush. Some people say it’s no big deal, I say it is…what do you think? Drop me a line.