The Advance Auto Parts 500 at Martinsville Speedway was a tough 500 laps on a flat short track. The race was hard on equipment as brakes, tires and transmissions all seemed to be at a premuim and the close quarters racing guaranteed beating, banging and lots of cautions. This week's race saw the yellow flag fly 16 times. While 9 drivers officially ended up out of the race all 43 drivers finished with damaged race cars.
The race started with a bang as Scott Riggs scored the first pole position of his career but got loose in turn four of lap one and slid up into Ryan Newman allowing third place starter Jeremy Mayfield to lead lap one.
The contact cut down a tire on Ryan Newman's car and he stopped on the track bringing out the first caution.
The early part of the race saw four drivers share the lead as Jeremy Mayfield, Bobby Labonte, Tony Stewart and Rusty Wallace all showed their strength early amd took turns leading.
Then they settled in for a typical Martinsville race. This means that there was a lot of beating and banging and lots of yellow flags but very little on-track passing.
70 laps into the race Jeff Gordon was three laps down because he had to pit for a loose wheel. He and his Hendrick Motorsports team battled back all day long, made up the three lap deficit and took the lead with 35 laps to go. Jeff looked like he was going to run away with it but Travis Kvapil blew a motor with just ten laps to go, dropped oil on the track and brought out a caution. This set up a single-file restart with just 3 laps to go.
When the final green flag flew Jeff Gordon had a mirror full of Kasey Kahne with Mark Martin and Ryan Newman running third and fourth.
Gordon got a good jump on the restart and the top four finished without any changes: Gordon, Kahne, Martin and then Newman.
The win was #71 of Jeff's career and the sixth time he has won at Martinsville Speedway.
In the big picture Jimmie Johnson still leads the points and now enjoys a 160 point advantage over Greg Biffle. Elliott Sadler moved up to third in points and Mark Martin vaulted from 10th all the way to fourth. Tony Stewart is fifth and Jeff Gordon moved up six spots to take over sixth. Rusty Wallace, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch and Dale Jarrett round out the top ten.
Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick both had bad luck during Sunday's race and dropped out of the top ten.
Next week the teams go to the very fast Texas Motor Speedway for Sunday's Samsung/Radio Shack 500.
The race started with a bang as Scott Riggs scored the first pole position of his career but got loose in turn four of lap one and slid up into Ryan Newman allowing third place starter Jeremy Mayfield to lead lap one.
The contact cut down a tire on Ryan Newman's car and he stopped on the track bringing out the first caution.
The early part of the race saw four drivers share the lead as Jeremy Mayfield, Bobby Labonte, Tony Stewart and Rusty Wallace all showed their strength early amd took turns leading.
Then they settled in for a typical Martinsville race. This means that there was a lot of beating and banging and lots of yellow flags but very little on-track passing.
70 laps into the race Jeff Gordon was three laps down because he had to pit for a loose wheel. He and his Hendrick Motorsports team battled back all day long, made up the three lap deficit and took the lead with 35 laps to go. Jeff looked like he was going to run away with it but Travis Kvapil blew a motor with just ten laps to go, dropped oil on the track and brought out a caution. This set up a single-file restart with just 3 laps to go.
When the final green flag flew Jeff Gordon had a mirror full of Kasey Kahne with Mark Martin and Ryan Newman running third and fourth.
Gordon got a good jump on the restart and the top four finished without any changes: Gordon, Kahne, Martin and then Newman.
The win was #71 of Jeff's career and the sixth time he has won at Martinsville Speedway.
In the big picture Jimmie Johnson still leads the points and now enjoys a 160 point advantage over Greg Biffle. Elliott Sadler moved up to third in points and Mark Martin vaulted from 10th all the way to fourth. Tony Stewart is fifth and Jeff Gordon moved up six spots to take over sixth. Rusty Wallace, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch and Dale Jarrett round out the top ten.
Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick both had bad luck during Sunday's race and dropped out of the top ten.
Next week the teams go to the very fast Texas Motor Speedway for Sunday's Samsung/Radio Shack 500.
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