Will wonders never cease? They had a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at the Martinsville Speedway and a Hendrick Motorsports car didn’t win. It’s one of those rare things that happen, especially at Martinsville.
The record shows that Hendrick Motorsports cars have won 11 races this decade at the 0.526-mile track nestled between Roanoke, Va., and Greensboro, N.C. So, the money was on either Jeff Gordon or Jimmie Johnson winning Sunday’s race. Then Denny Hamlin had to spoil the anticipation of Johnson dominating again (he had won five of the last six races at the track before Sunday), which may have played a factor in what I would call abnormal attendance.
There was a good crowd at Martinsville Sunday. It was a late arriving crowd, but I would venture to say that the track was at 90 percent capacity by the time the green flag fell on the race. Of course, those who frequent speedway are used to seeing every seat full. Not today. I ran into some race fans at my motel in Roanoke, Va., this morning. They explained that their wives usually came on the trip to the track 50 miles away, but not this year.
“My wife said if she had to watch Jimmie Johnson win again she’d puke,” said a fellow from Pennsylvania. “Anybody but Johnson or Gordon,” another said. Maybe Johnson stinking up the Chase has something to do with it, but it was a good crowd in tough economic times for the area -- and a very entertaining race.
Even so, seven of the top-10 finishers drove Chevrolets (five of them from Hendrick Motorsports, or teams supplied by Hendrick). Somehow, Hamlin and Kyle Busch finished in the top five and Jamie McMurray finished sixth. There are lots of Dodge and Ford fans who feel disenfranchised by the current state of affairs. The TV ratings show it, too. These things go in cycles, of course, so relief might be just around the corner for Blue Oval and Mopar fans. Or then again, maybe not.
Saturday, we saw the truck race at Martinsville delayed by intermittent showers enough that it came head-to-head with the Nationwide series race in Memphis. MRN chose to air the truck race and switch to the Nationwide race in progress. The truck race was, as usual, a rowdy affair with the sparse crowd loving it. Timothy Peters, a local driver from Danville, Va., won. With Sunday’s result, it meant that a native Virginian had won both events at the Virginia track. Nothing could be finer to the fans at the track. But the race in Memphis was different.
Brad Keselowski’s aggressive driving once again caused lots of conversation. Fans normally like the “take no prisoners” type of driver, but it seems that Keselowski’s attitude about the way he races has rubbed fans the wrong way. This season Keselowski has punted Carl Edwards nearly into the stands at Talladega and pushed his way into the hearts of other drivers along the way. With his move to Penske Racing next year, it should be interesting to see what he has in store when he gets to the NASCAR senior circuit full time.
That was in stark contrast to the good feelings that came from the bumping and banging in the Cup race back in Virginia. The surprising Juan Montoya tangled with Jeff Gordon and they parted friends. Hamlin and Johnson banged on each other and they understood each other. But in Memphis, Edwards, who got bumped late in the race by Keselowski, simply said that if that's the way he wants to race, he will race him the same way. With Hamlin already on Keselowski’s bad list, it might be an interesting season for the first year driver. In more ways than one.
It wasn’t bad for a race weekend. The rain may have come, but it didn’t stay. It wasn’t as cold as winter (like last week in Charlotte). All three races were competitive (unless you consider Peters’ late-race domination in the truck race). And even with empty seats, the little paperclip-shaped racetrack in Virginia probably had more fans in the seats than the big track in California. Now we head to Talladega on Halloween. Who knows what will happen there?
