Nascar 2012 - Race Six

NASCAR 2012 - “Martinsville Madness”

Martinsville, VA. On April 1, 2012. This was race number six of the thirty-six race season. A short ½ mile track, shaped like a paper-clip. 500 laps were scheduled for the race. 5 Kasey Kahne took his second consecutive pole of the season for this race. One interesting note on this race, was the cost for the brake systems on every race car. $40,000.00 for each car. Fifteen time winner of this race, Richard Petty was the Grand Marshall.

29 Kevin Harvick, driving a special paint scheme for the “End of Prohibition” started second when the green flag flew, and quickly took the lead for the first twenty-one laps, then faded with handling troubles and finished nineteenth (two laps down). Harvick also dominated the Truck Race the day before at Martinsville, taking the victory after leading three-quarters of the race.

Early on in the race, 51 Kurt Busch blew a right front tire, and went four laps down getting that repaired. On Lap 98 his brother 18 Kyle Busch broke a part in the rear end, causing his Toyota to slide up the track and into the wall. Both the rear end and the front end received damages in this first caution of the race. Kyle would go to the garage and did return some seventy plus laps later. During the first caution, 39 Ryan Newman and 48 Jimmie Johnson were both caught speeding entering and leaving pit road. Both drivers went to the back of the longest line for the re-start. Lap 205 51 K. Busch again blew a right front tire, and was able to get off track without a caution. About the same time 10 David Reutimann also had a front tire go down, and was able to get off track.

By lap 225, leader 24 Jeff Gordon was knocking cars off the lead lap at a good pace. At this point, there were only thirteen cars left on the lead lap. Gordon had taken the lead for Harvick at lap 22, and was holding the lead from that point on. On lap 230 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the lead from his teammate Gordon, as the fans showed their excitement with a loud roar around the track. On lap 240 5 Kahne started to have engine troubles after staying in the top five most of the race. He went a lap down after starting on the pole, and never leading a single lap in the race.

Lap 245 had 36 Dave Blaney spinning backwards into the wall and bringing out the second caution of the day. Lap 264 42 Jaun Montoya made contact with another car lightly, and spun out. This brought out the third caution. Caution four was on lap 318 for 5 Kahne whose engine finally expired. At this point, 24 Jeff Gordon had led 288 laps. During the caution, 2 Brad Keselowski tried to beat Earnhardt Jr. off of pit road and was caught speeding. This sent him to the back of the field. Lap 350 another Hendrick driver took the lead. 48 Jimmie Johnson had gotten to the front after being penalized earlier on in the race for speeding on pit road. Lap 361 was caution number five. 93 Travis Kvapil blew a tire and spun up and into the wall. During a round of green flag stops, 27 Paul Menard was caught speeding and had to make a drive through on pit road for the penalty.

Lap 497 of the 500 laps, 10 Reutimann decided to stop his car on track, after loosing his breaks many laps prior. He decided to not go into the pits numerous times before he came to a complete stop on track, bringing out caution number six. Nascar Officials were not happy with this move, and called the driver to the Nascar Hauler after the completion of the race. At this point, Hendrick teammates Gordon, Johnson, and Earnhardt Jr. were lined up first to third. If Hendrick could win this race, he would have his 200th victory in Cup Series. On the re-start 39 Ryan Newman decided to ram the back end of 15 Clint Bowyer while entering the first corner. This caused a pile up of all the leaders, taking Gordon, Johnson, Keselowski all out of contention for the win. The race then went to overtime, making it another Green-White-Checkered Race. Newman had gotten past the mess he created, and re-started first. He held off 22 Allmindinger and the damaged 88 Earnhardt Jr. for the victory. There were less than a dozen cars left on the lead lap, giving Gordon, Bowyer and Keselowski the chance to finish in the top ten. Johnson then finished twelfth position. There were many drivers that had bad attitudes after this race, due to the actions of Reutimann and Newman. Newman’s car is owned by Tony Stewart, giving Stewart-Hass their third win in six races so far this season.

The next race will be held on April 14th at the Texas Speedway. This will be a Saturday night race.

NOTE- Previous winners this season in the Cup Series have been, Daytona, FL. (17 Matt Kenseth), Phoenix, AZ (11 Denny Hamlin), Las Vegas, NV (14 Tony Stewart), and last week at Bristol, TN (2 Brad Keselowski).