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Nine weeks in and you already have a guest writer. The Maniac finds himself in Europe where I bet he had a tough time finding good coverage of the race.

Blair’s computer caught a nasty bug and was [messed up]. So, I took the handoff and I find myself composing my first Track Trash after reading a few years’ worth from RM.

My NASCAR love began about 1981 and now I’ve passed it down to my 8 yr old son who was busy taking notes to help me with this edition. Good thing for DVR as it was definitely a busy TV day today in my household with Martinsville mixed in with NCAA Elite Eight games. Go Jayhawks!

The Venue: Martinsville is the oldest track currently on the NASCAR circuit with the first sanctioned event being run there in 1949. We’re lucky this old dog has survived the rapid development of the new cookie-cutter NA$CAR tracks and hasn’t been kicked to the side like Nazareth Speedway and several others. Nothing beats a short track: plenty of banging & bumping to keep things excited. The first Martinsville race I watched (1981) found Morgan Shepherd in victory lane of the Virginia 500, his only win that year.

Whine & Cheese: The Hat is HOT!! “It’s lawyer time” Roush announced on Friday after Mikey came clean that the sway bar missing from Roush’s pits in Dover last Fall was found in the Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota shop early this year. Mistake or theft, it’s just one more pissing match for the media to froth over. The Hat is pushing NASCAR for a criminal investigation as if someone from ‘Yota had been snooping in his passport file. Get over it & race on!

Interesting: Simulator training?! Michael McDowell moves into MWR’s 00 car vacated by David Reutimann and makes his NASCAR debut at Martinsville. However, it won’t be the first time he’s been around the track as he claims to have more than 700 laps under his belt courtesy of an in-home training simulator, the same technology that helped him excel in the ARCA series. Ahh, an unexpected benefit of the Playstation generation. (more on his on-track abilities later).

Brake It! Not a bad showing for braking technology today. Although this place has historically destroyed brake systems the massive components used by all the teams now seems to handle the punishment pretty well. 1000 times these heavy sleds barreled into the corner from 100+ mph down to 40 and, as in the past, those who manage their brakes the best finish at the top.

Hendrick shines: Although winless for ’08 Hendrick Motorsports had their act together today as they secured 4 of the top 10 spots. Gordo certainly had the best run going at the end of the day but just couldn’t make it through the backmarkers quick enough to close ground on Hamlin before running out of laps. Agree with me or not, Jr. will find himself spraying AMP in Victory Lane soon in ‘08.

RACE TIME…..
The cold, damp weather resulted in only about two-thirds of the 91,000 seats being filled to witness Gordo, a 7 time Martinsville champ, lead the pack at the drop of the green which headed into a 3 ½ hr race with 18 cautions and 20 lead changes. Many figured JJ would pick up win #1 for ’08 and make it a four-pete at the famed “paperclip.” It was a typical Martinsville race with more bumping & grinding going on than at a high school prom. There weren’t any large pile-ups but plenty of 2-3 car tangles when the rear car would come into the corner too hot and jab those in front out of the way. My favorite being brother Kyle humping Kurt on lap 21 to bring out the first caution of the day. The most notable being on lap 296 when Biff turned Cryin’ Ryan up into JJ who was running third at the time. Several teams fell prey to the 2 tire stop to gain track advantage but soon found themselves going backwards. Overall a fairly clean race but enough excitement to keep me from surfing channels too much.

Pit [Stuff]: With some of the smallest pit boxes on the circuit, Martinsville had its typical pit stop problems. First to feel the pain was Kenseth during the lap 44 caution when he was hit entering his pit while Burton was exiting. Not only did Mattyboy end up with car damage but NASCAR slapped him with a 1 lap penalty for pitting outside the box. Many drivers ended up with more bruises from pit road than they did on the track.

The Boneheads: There are several lapped drivers that could earn the Bonehead award this week but my Co-Champtions are Skinner and RoboGordo, with a honorable mention to Michael McDowell. Funny enough Robo & Skinner brought out the second caution on lap 44 when RoboGordo jacked the #84 Red Bull car causing him to spin. DW couldn’t get enough of air time commenting about these two…..”Skinner has run in to about everybody out there except the pace car” was probably my favorite. Easily followed by DW’s chuckle about Robo earning the free pass on lap 199 to the great pleasure of Gordo and the other top three who were being banged up by Robo who was battling to stay on the lead lap. McDowell had a fair showing but that simulator didn’t teach him about on-track courtesy. Burton said it best…“He better learn some manners or he’s going to get taught,” which is exactly what happened in the waining laps as Edwards shoved him out of the way, along with other drivers, ultimately resulting in McDowell cutting down a tire and catching the black flag for staying out and littering the track with debris.

HM Power House in ’08? Clearly Hendrick Motorspots is rolling along just fine as evidenced by the boys grabbin 4 of the top 10 spots. But are they going to continue to be the power house of the past? Consider the other Martinsville finishers: Joe Gibbs racing had a good showing for 2 of their 3 and RCR just about put 3 in the top ten. Consider Penske Racings impressive 1-2 finish at Atlanta. What I’m noticing is that the other teams seem to be pulling closer to the power and domination that we saw from the Hendrick shop in 2007. I predict HM to be strong in ’08 but don’t expect the 18 wins they had last season. It’s also cool to see a more even spread of manufacturers in victory circle.

Virginia is for Loving…Hamlin: Chesterfield, Virginia native Denny Hamlin finally posts a win Martinsville after four top ten finishes in the prior five starts. In the process Hamster leaps from 15th to 8th in the points standings. As is particularly common on short tracks, pit strategy played a major role in the outcome of the race. Not paying attention to where the leaders were on pit schedules, Hamlin was forced to pit on lap 215 after crossing the commitment line without confirming with crew chief Mike Ford. He found himself restarting 19th as a result. However, with Reed Sorenson stalled at the opening to pit road caution #17 brought the field back in where Hamlin’s team opted for fuel only, a move that put him out of the pits first (ahead of Gordon) and behind four drivers that did not pit. From there the Virginia native methodically picked off Mears, Vickers, Edwards and Burton to retake the lead on lap 427. From there he carefully worked his way through backmarkers and was fortunate that the laps expired when they did or Gordo would have picked up his 8th win at Martinsville. Congrats to Joe Gibbs Racing & their second win of the year and to Denny for taking home his first Ridgeway Grandfather clock.

Infield Lizard Racin’ (filling in for Racing Maniac)

Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Pts Bns Total Award Status
1 2 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Freight Toyota 500 190 5 $207,391 Running
2 1 24 Jeff Gordon DuPont Chevy 500 175 5 $159,336 Running
3 24 31 Jeff Burton AT&T Mobility Chevy 500 170 5 $149,308 Running
4 10 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe’s Chevy 500 165 5 $142,861 Running
5 9 20 Tony Stewart Home Depot Toyota 500 155 $131,236 Running
6 22 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr AMP Energy/National Guard 500 160 10 $102,850 Running
7 39 5 Casey Mears Kellogg’s/CARQUEST Chevy 500 146 $99,475 Running
8 5 26 Jamie McMurray IRWIN Industrial Tools Ford 500 142 $91,150 Running
9 27 99 Carl Edwards Claritin Ford 500 138 $123,775 Running
10 12 07 Clint Bowyer BB&T Chevy 500 134 $97,200 Running
11 4 6 David Ragan AAA Insurance Ford 500 130 $87,200 Running
12 11 29 Kevin Harvick Shell/Pennzoil Chevy 500 127 $119,961 Running
13 29 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Wrigley’s Big Red Dodge 500 124 $105,983 Running
14 33 01 Regan Smith # Dale Earnhardt Inc./Principal 500 121 $86,325 Running
15 25 19 Elliott Sadler McDonald’s Dodge 500 118 $104,045 Running
16 35 15 Paul Menard Menards/Pittsburgh Paints Chevy 500 115 $84,200 Running
17 6 9 Kasey Kahne Budweiser Dodge 500 112 $105,766 Running
18 14 28 Travis Kvapil Yates Racing Ford 499 109 $102,764 Running
19 13 12 Ryan Newman alltel Dodge 499 106 $118,575 Running
20 19 16 Greg Biffle Jackson Hewitt Ford 499 103 $85,175 Running
21 42 1 Martin Truex Jr Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats 499 100 $105,258 Running
22 43 40 Dario Franchitti # Kennametal Dodge 499 97 $81,925 Running
23 40 83 Brian Vickers Red Bull Toyota 497 94 $73,625 Out Of Fuel
24 21 38 David Gilliland freecreditreport.com Ford 497 91 $92,433 Running
25 32 43 Bobby Labonte Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge 497 93 5 $110,436 Running
26 34 00 Michael McDowell # Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota 497 85 $88,808 Running
27 23 96 JJ Yeley DLP HDTV Toyota 497 82 $80,425 Running
28 26 77 Sam Hornish Jr # Mobil 1 Dodge 497 79 $114,800 Running
29 37 10 Patrick Carpentier # Charter Dodge 497 76 $71,550 Running
30 28 17 Matt Kenseth DeWalt Ford 496 73 $117,066 Running
31 30 84 Mike Skinner Red Bull Toyota 496 70 $68,775 Running
32 31 70 Jeremy Mayfield Haas Automation Chevy 495 67 $68,625 Running
33 20 2 Kurt Busch Miller Lite Dodge 493 64 $68,400 Running
34 17 21 Bill Elliott Little Debbie Snack Cakes Ford 492 61 $87,570 Running
35 16 55 Michael Waltrip NAPA Auto Parts Toyota 483 58 $82,383 Running
36 38 41 Reed Sorenson Target Dodge 471 55 $95,389 Running
37 7 49 Ken Schrader Microsoft Small Business Toyota 467 52 $79,758 Running
38 8 18 Kyle Busch M&M’s Toyota 443 49 $86,050 Running
39 15 44 David Reutimann UPS Toyota 441 51 5 $68,000 Rearend
40 41 7 Robby Gordon Charter Dodge 440 43 $85,472 Running
41 36 66 Scott Riggs State Water Heaters Chevy 420 40 $67,875 Running
42 3 8 Aric Almirola U.S. Army Chevy 379 37 $102,973 Engine
43 18 22 Dave Blaney Caterpillar Toyota 374 39 5 $67,246 Engine