For Mark Martin fans it was a night that saw Martin dominate like he did when the Sprint Cup Series visited Phoenix in April. “It was really cool to make a fan a millionaire tonight. It was really special,” Martin said after the race. “I'm glad Jeff got second.”
In just fourteen days yours truly will be at the world famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway watching the same men who ran 400 miles yesterday evening battle it out against each other—and the often faulty Goodyear tires—for 400 more miles at the 2.5 mile track. But first, we should look back at what occurred last night at the Lifelock.com 400.
1. Mark Martin wins in dominating fashion
As I noted late last night, Mark Martin was dominant in his fourth victory of the season. He now leads the series in victories and if the Chase started today, the man from Batesville, Arkansas would be the points leader.
But, in true Mark Martin fashion, he’s not too worried about points. “Let me tell you about the points. Tonight I leave the track in 13th. That's fine with me,” he said, pointing to his head. “It's just weird, okay? I'm not gonna let myself get sucked into all that. We were 13th coming here. What we needed to do was lead the most laps and win.”
Mark Martin and (Mr.) Rick Hendrick celebrate their win at the Lifelock.com 400 yesterday
He continued, with a very serious look on his face. “No matter what happens going forward, I may change my mind later, but right now I'm leaving the track the same points position I was last week, ‘cause it's just a rollercoaster.”
And you know where the Sprint Cup Series will race in two weeks? Well, I’ll tell you over the next few days. For now, it’s just time to bask in the glory of another Mark Martin victory.
2. Kyle Busch was bad last night
Every NASCAR fans knows Kyle Busch is passionate, in both the good way and the bad way. Even Wally Dallenbach and Kyle Petty joked on the telecast that his crew chief Steve Addington should get some kind of award for putting up the younger Busch brother. Early in the race the #18 car was moving backward and he was moving a lot more quickly than he ever does.
“I got nothing,” Busch said over the radio. “I don’t care what you do. It’s junk.” After getting so loose he smacked the wall in the third corner, Busch was never the same. He lost a cylinder, and then finally lost his engine on lap 260. He refused to talk to media after the race, once again citing that he “didn’t feel well.”
Busch fell to 10th in the standings and sits just three points from the cutoff for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. If he keeps running like he has been, Busch might find himself outside the top twelve after Richmond. And, quite honestly, there’s more than few NASCAR fans that wouldn’t mind seeing that happen. I’m not one of them, but I know most of you reading this wouldn’t mind seeing Kyle Busch miss the Chase.
3. Pit stop problems plague the field
Under the first caution—a mysterious “debris” caution—Jimmie Johnson’s normally solid pit crew messed up. The #48 car fell off the jack on the right side, and Johnson went from first to sixth. Jeff Burton’s car also fell of the jack on a pit stop, and points leader Tony Stewart lost nine spots on a late pit stop when his left front tire changer missed a lug nut.
But, the most confusing call of the night came when NASCAR removed the scoring card of the #43 car of Reed Sorenson for one lap. He passed the #47 car of Marcos Ambrose on pit road during a green flag pit stop on the way into the pits, just as the two cars drove past the commitment cone.
I figured Sorenson got picked up for speeding, but apparently it’s against NASCAR rules to pass a driver on pit road. Maybe I need to read my rule book (can someone get me one?) but I thought you were allowed to make passes, even on pit road. Maybe it’s just another case of the NASCAR rule book being totally unclear again, but I don’t know what happened that made Reed Sorenson the bad guy for making a pass on pit road.
4. Older drivers dislike the double-file restart procedure
Jeff Burton was involved in a crash when Paul Menard’s left rear tire got cut by another driver (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) and he gave a not-so-friendly review of NASCAR’s double file restart system. “It’s great for fans but we’ve been involved in four wrecks in four weeks. I don’t like it,” he said.
Even the man who won the race had some negative feelings about the double file restarts, “Shootout Style.” Martin said, “I just knew those dumbass double-file restarts were gonna cost us. Seriously when you think about double file restart, what's exciting about that? What's exciting about it is you take the guy that probably earned a spot and you mess him up.”
The winner continued his tirade, “You know, you took the car that was gonna win the race for sure and you had a double file restart and you took the car that was second and put him out front, and then you had another one, and I wound up in fourth or something.”
As exciting as it is for fans, sometimes it makes the drivers cringe. “So when the cautions start coming, you know, I cringe because I got the superior car on the long run and who knows what happens on the short runs,” Martin added. It seems that NASCAR just can’t get it right, no matter what they do.
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Tomorrow I’ll take a look at what the chances are of a driver repeating at Indy. Today I’ll continue doing some research on trends and statistics and hopefully you can tune in tomorrow for more information on Mark Martin’s chances of winning the Brickyard 400 in a few weeks at Indianapolis.
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