Montoya Angry with Martin Over Win
Mark Martin Wins While Montoya Goes Home Mad
For 300 laps Sunday afternoon tempers flared, aggression showed and Mark Martin proved that he was on a Championship run by winning the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and holding on to the Sprint Cup Championship points lead.
But 2nd place Juan Pablo Montoya felt Martin had unfairly held him up.
The win gave Martin 5 victories so far in the season – the most of all drivers.
40th Win for Martin
“That’s a big deal. I don’t get around this place that well,” said Martin. It’s also pretty cool, when we left Michigan, I don’t know how many races was the total race. This is 40,” said Martin, referring to his 40th Sprint Cup win.
Martin held a huge lead late in the race with just 24 laps to go whena late race debris caution was called by NASCAR. The caution flag bunched the field back up and made for some interesting racing. But I never saw the debris – even though it took several trucks to clean it up.
From there Martin held on to the lead through several more caution flags.
With 6 laps to go the caution flag flew due to a spin by A.J. Allmendinger following contact by Marcos Ambrose. Martin held of a charge on the restart by Juan Pablo Montoya.
With 13 laps to go Martin held off Kurt Busch on another restart to keep the race lead.
On the final lap A.J. Allmendinger spun the No. 44 Dodge on the front stretch. This time NASCAR was not so quick to pit the Caution Flag out. The race stayed green until Martin was almost back to the finish line – even though Allmendinger was still sitting on the race track for most of the final lap.
Dale Jr Crash
Dale Earnhardt Jr went a long way to silence his critics by starting 23rd and systematically climbing as high as 2nd place.
The No. 88 Chevrolet was running in 4th position when he spun following contact from David Reutimann’s No. 00 Toyota. Earnhardt had harsh words for Reutimann following the late race crash that put Earnhardt into the wall and out of the race.
I’m pretty disappointed,” said Earnhardt
“Some people you just can’t race side by side with,” said Earnhardt as he criticized David Reutimann for causing the wreck. “ We were probably one of the best cars here the 00 can’t hold his line. He went down to the bottom of the corner, Lost it, run into the side of my car and spun me out came up and spin me out I know that he can’t hold his line and I should have known that, but I’ve got to run hard and try to win.”
“David just run out of talent down there,” said Junior on a final note.
Chase contender Kasey Kahne finished 38th after suffering a catastrophic engine failure on lap 66.
The engine failure occurred at a critical time for Kahne. Not only was it the first race of the Chase – but it was just days after Richard Petty Motorsports announced it was closing its engine shop and merging with Yates Racing to field Fords in 2010. The move will leave many RPM engine shop employees out of work.
Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin are both 35 points behind Mark Martin in the standings. But the race left Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards and Kasey Kahne more than 100 points behind the leader. That’s a lot of ground to make up in 9 races.
Juan Pablo Montoya was unhappy with Mark Martin after the race. Montoya felt that Martin slowed in the apex of the corner to prevent Montoya from passing.
“He screwed me,” said Montoya after climbing from his car on pit road.
“He always runs very clean, so I was kind of surprised when he did that,” Montoya continued from the media center after the race. “I know it’s the Chase and everything, but you just learn from it. I would have done the same thing. I think you’ve got to do it to somebody that you trust is not going to knock you out, because I think if I would have done ‑‑ if the second place guy wasn’t me, I think somebody else would have been a little bit more aggressive. But you learn from it. It’s one of those deals that you’ve got to do what it takes, and he did.”
“You can read into that what you want, said Mark Martin in response. “But my first instinct to answer that question would be, yeah, I stopped compared to how fast his car was going. I fought for that race.”
I am still amazed when drivers complain that other racers make it hard for them to pass or win. I thought that was what racing was all about. Hard racing.
Penalty coming for Busch
Kyle Busch failed post race tech inspection. His No. 18 Toyota was too low on the left front.
So here’s your chance. Do you have a comment or opinion on the race?
Photo Courtesy Hendrick Motorsports
Dale Earhnhardt Jr Too Big For NASCAR
Is Dale Earnhardt Jr getting too big for NASCAR?
It seems that Dale Earnhardt Jr is getting plenty of blame these days.
Sales of official NASCAR souvenirs and merchandise are not where they once were. Some companies that make and sell that merchandise said that was due to Dale Jr lack of wins this year. That stopped buying his No. 88 merchandise.
TV ratings are up and down in 2009 – many blamed that on Junior’s failure to win a race.
Interest in the Chase has dropped among many Junior fans – can we blame Junior because he isn’t in it?
While TV ratings continue to be inconsistent, it’s not just NASCAR. Virtually all sports are suffering. Maybe it’s due to more coverage on the internet and the availability of all NASCAR races on Sirius satellite radio.
Would more people tune in to the Chase if Dale Jr were in it? Probably.
But one man cannot carry NASCAR. No sport can afford to have a single player be their entire draw.
Dale Jr doesn’t need to change anything. He just needs to race. Everyone else just needs to cut him some slack. Enough with the hype, let’s get back to racing.
Tony Stewart Property
A Private Tour of Tony Stewart’s Property
Tony Stewart takes you on a tour of his new home site and property.
Dale Earnhardt Jr Confident
Dale Earnhardt Jr Confident Heading Into Richmond
Richmond is one of Dale Earnhardt Jr’s best tracks . He has 3 wins at the 3/4 mile D-shaped Virginia track, along with eight top 5 finishes and 10 top 10s. Hendrick Motorsports has 10 wins and 14 pole positions at Richmond.
Junior has completed almost every lap of every race he has competed in there. 7,919 of 8,003 laps. He has been the leader on 427 laps.
Last fall Dale Jr scored a 4th place finish after qualifying 4th. He lad 90 laps.
Earnhardt will be piloting Hendrick chassis No, 88-539 in Saturday night’s Chevy Rock and Roll 400. He last ran this car at Martinsville and finished 8th.
Junior will greet a special guest at the race track. Anthony Landowski of Ringgold, Georgia. He is a soldier with the Georgia Army National Guard. Landowski was injured in Afghanistan by a roadside bomb.
Dale Earnhardt Jr really likes the Virginia track. “It’s one fun racetrack. I love short-track racing, and Richmond is a lot of fun,” said Earnhardt. “You can move around and run different grooves, and the track is real, real slick. So it makes for a driver’s racetrack. I enjoy it.”
“It’s a driver’s track to where I feel like a driver can play a big role in making the car better. It’s easier for me to tell my crew chief what the car is doing at that track than some others, and how to fix it and what we can do to help it. I have a lot of confidence going into there. I really like it.”
Lance McGrew, crew chief on the 88 team, knows how good junior is at this track. “Junior is good there,” said McGrew. “It’s a short track, but it’s really fast. So it’s not like traditional short-track racing. You race it like a little superspeedway. It’s a driver’s track. There are some people that are really good there, no matter what you stick them in, and there are some people that no matter what you stick them in, they’re not.”
“Right now we’re racing for wins,” said McGrew.
Photo Courtesy Hendrick Motorsports
NASCAR Richmond Preview
Chevy Rock & Roll Richmond Preview
Obama Using NASCAR Drivers for Political Gain
President Obama is Using NASCAR Drivers to Gain Political Edge
With his approval rating dropping like a rock President Obama has enlisted several top NASCAR drivers to help get his message on education out.
Obama is set to address America’s school children on Tuesday — but he is coming under fire by angry parents who don’t want their kids forced to listen to Obama.
One parent called the President’s upcoming address ”very socialistic,” and a “form of indoctrination.” according to Fox News.
So the President thinks he can parade out a group of NASCAR stars to get more kids to watch the speech. Obama is just using these drivers for political clout in order to get more kids to watch.
This video was shot on a recent trip to The White House by last year’s Chase Drivers. The drivers didn’t know at the time that a firestorm was brewing over this issue — but Obama and his staff did.
Will you be more or less likely to watch the President’s speech after watching this video?
Black Number 3 Returning to NASCAR
Richard Childress Bringing Back the Black No. 3
A black No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet will race in NASCAR this weekend for the first time since Dale Earnhardt ran his last Daytona 500 in 2001.
Austin Dillon – Grandson of Richard Childress – will drive a black No. 3 Chevy Truck in Saturday’s Camping World Truck Series race at Iowa Speedway.
If Dillon’s career takes him to the Sprint Cup Series I fully expect him to be behind the wheel of the No. 3 car then, too.
Some Earnhardt fans will be unhappy about this decision — but the No. 3 was Richard Childress’ number before it was Dale Earnhardt’s.
Childress had 285 NASCAR starts before he stepped out of the No. 3 car and put Earnhardt behind the wheel. But it took Earnhardt to drive the car to 6 championships.
Are you happy to see the No. 3 back on the track even though someone whose last name is not Earnhardt is behind the wheel of it?
