(WOMR file photo)
The Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway illustrated to all the fans why short track racing is so action packed. For most of the race, however, the race was conducted under green flag conditions. Nevertheless, in the closing laps Martinsville provided the fans with some spills and thrills! In what started out to be a brilliant inside move by Clint Bowyer, resulted in a game changing disaster for Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Clint Bowyer. Thereby, handing the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 victory to a lurking Ryan Newman.
It looked like the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 was going to be a Hendrick Motorsports victory day at Martinsville, that was until the first green-white-checkered attempt. Up until that point Jeff Gordon led for 322 of the 500 laps at Martinsville. It was quite apparent that Rick Hendrick was going to celebrate his 200th Sprint Cup victory, absent the bonzai move by Clint Bowyer on the first attempt to the green-white-checkered!
On that first green-white-checkered attempt, Gordon and Johnson stayed out and restarted with old tires, about 132 laps on those tires. The remaining top ten cars bailed out, and dropped into the pits to “slip on a new pair of shoes”, ie, four fresh Goodyears underneath the chassis, for the mad dash to the finish.
As the green flag flew, both Gordon and Johnson being on old tires, didn’t get the best of restarts, allowing Bowyer to gas it up and dive for inside lane going into turn #1. Unfortunately, there was not enough room for all three cars to enter the turn and successfully exit the turn still facing forward. There is that old say that eight tires are better than four. Well, Bowyer was testing a new theory that twelve tires should be better than four!
Well, that theory still needs some more testing, at least at Martinsville!
After all the smoke cleared and the yellow flag flew, Newman was leading the pack with “The Dinger”, A.J. Allmendinger, in second. Meanwhile, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. had sliced his way through the spinning and wrecking Johnson, Gordon, and Bowyer to be in third place!
The victory for Newman was his first of the 2012 season, his first at Martinsville, and his 16th win of his career. It was also the third victory in the first six races of the 2012 season for Stewart-Haas Racing.
Note to Sprint cup drivers:
One must remember that when racing at the short tracks of NASCAR, Bristol, Martinsville, and Richmond, there are a few things to keep in mind. When checking in at those track’s pit gates, you must check your feelings, your ego and your weapon with the pit steward. That way you won’t get your feeling hurt, or get your ego bruised, and ultimately won’t try to murder that driver who is going to hurt your feelings, bruise your ego, and crumple the sheet metal of your race car!
Check out the unofficial results of the Goody’s Fast Relief 500.
Check out the Sprint Cup standings after the Goody’s Fast Relief 500.
PS Look who is now in second place in the Sprint Cup standings………………..JUNIOR!
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
