NASCAR finally saw the drama fans have been clamoring for this past weekend as the drivers did their best to survive 500 laps at the Virginia half mile paperclip. There were long green flag runs as has been the trend so far this year, but a few late race cautions made for an exciting outcome with a Green White Checkered finish.
First off, congratulations to Ryan Newman and to anyone that enjoyed a free Bloomin' Onion at Outback this past Monday. Ryan proved that the race is truly never over until the checkers fall and running in the top 5 for most of the day helped Ryan sneak in for a win at the end of the race.
While Newman may have grabbed the Checkered flag for the race, it was Jeff Gordon who won big for fantasy owners this past weekend. Gordon dominated the majority of the race, leading over 300 laps and amassing over 200 fantasy points for the week, nearly twice the amount of fantasy points as the weeks second place finisher Jimmie Johnson. Johson led his fair share of laps during the event as well and looked like he would be battling Gordon for the win. Everyone in the Hendrick camp was already beaking out the hats, shirts, and banners for Rick Hendricks 200th win, that is until David Reutimann caused the late race caution that would ultimately prove detrimental to Gordon and Johnson's day and Hendricks chances at number 200.
Reutimann broke a left front tire rod and was limping around the race track. He had gotten down low and it was assumed he would be making it to pit road, but even after being black flagged Reutimann continued to try to make laps. Finally Reutimann stopped on the inside of the track that has no apron forcing NASCAR to throw a caution with three laps to go. Reutimann was highly criticized for not going to pit road during the preceding six laps when he was limping around and being black flagged, but trying to stay in the top 35 in owners points proved to be a factor in Reutimanns decision making.
During that caution period Gordon and Johnson who were running first and second decided not to come to pit road for tires, but everyone behind them did. On the restart Johnson and Gordon had trouble getting their 130 lap old tires to go and the rest of the field all but ran over them coming across the start finish line at the green flag. By turn one Clint Bowyer, who had taken a shot in the back by eventual race winner Newman, was diving low and unsuccessfully made it three wide and ended up in an wreck with Johnson and Gordon. All cars were able to finish the race, and due to the fact that not many cars were left on the lead lap by that point anyways they all still finished decent, but Johnson and Gordon sure weren't happy not contend for the win and have solid top 5's. Dale Jr. was Hendricks last dog in the fight for win 200, but he settled for third behind Newman and AJ Allmendinger.
No drivers fell out of or climbed into the top 10 in Sprint Cup points as a result of Martinsville, but Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski both moved up to 11th and 12th respectively. Jeff Gordon's effort for a 14th place finish was enough to move him up 4 spots to 21st which leaves Gordon one spot away from the top 20 where he can then contend for a wild card spot for the Chase. And if Sunday was any indication, Gordon's cars are strong and grabbing a few wins this season are very likely for the 5 time champion. He just needs to overcome the bit of bad luck that has plagued him so far in 2012.
Perhaps the only driver who has experienced worse luck than Gordon is his teammate Kasey Kahne. After sitting on the pole and looking very strong at Martinsville Kahne suffered an engine failure and just when the Hendrick driver thought he might finally have a good day, he ended up having to settle for a 38th place finish. This dropped Kahne to 31st in points and he will need some major change of luck to even have an opportunity to continue for a wild card position. However Brad Keselowski is knocking on the door of making the Chase in the top 10, so that may open up the door for 2 drivers getting in on wins alone. Only 6 of 20 races are complete so there is still plenty of time for many drivers to find their stride, but they cannot afford to wait too much longer.
The Sprint Cup series will be celebrating Easter this weekend this their traditional weekend off, and with the decision to drop Nashville from the Nationwide and Truck series schedules it will be a complete off weekend for NASCAR. A few teams will be relaxing and enjoying the weekend, and others are bound to be using the time to work extra overtime hours to figure out how to get back in the hunt. It will be a long run until late July before the Sprint Cup has their second and final off week of the season and this next stretch will definitely help solidify the shape of this years Chase. Come back early next week when we set the stage for Texas and take a look at how the mile and half tracks will play a big role in the season over the next couple weeks.
If you followed my top 3 picks from last week (Hamlin, Johnson, and Gordon) then you were rewarded with the top 3 fantasy earners, just in reverse order. However I didn't follow my own advice and didn't pick up Gordon which allowed Karen to win the week by a landslide and overtake 4th place from me. However, Yeffoc still holds onto the lead. But can he hold that spot for another 5 weeks until the end of fantasy segment 1? We will have to wait and see! Until next week, Happy Easter everyone, and we'll see you in the lonestar state!
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