Racing News Digest

Big number 4 for Mark Martin and his 1st ever at Chicagoland came this weekend.

That is a team that I like to see doing well. And I predicted that they would be back in the top 12 and they will be come time for the chase. And look out, while I am pulling for Tony Stewart to take the Championship my feelings will not be hurt if Mark Martin wins the championship.

Mark Martin gained 2 spots in the points landing himself in 11th with his win at Chicagoland Speedway. And while he may be sitting in 11th right now, if the chase were to start tomorrow he would be at the top of the list due to his 4 wins. That’s the most wins of any driver this year so far with Kyle Busch right on his heals with 3.

Speaking of Kyle Busch. Poor Kyle, his car was not running well Saturday night then it blew up. If you watched the race I think most people would agree that Kyle did all that he could to make sure the engine eventually blew so he didn’t have to be in that car anymore. Like reving it 10,000 RPM leaving his pit stall. I don’t know if he actually hit 10,000 but it sounded like he was trying to blow it.

Oh well, Kyle dropped 2 positions to 10th. I’m not loosing any sleep over this one!

And I am lovin’ the double file restarts. The racing sometimes 3 or 4 wide which obviously leads to some beating and banging or drivers just driving a little harder than they should be. Very exciting stuff. This leads to some cautions which I hate seeing. I love the beatin’ and bangin’ but I always hope that’s were it stops. I don’t like seeing the cars spinning out and crashing. Some say that the double file restarts are the cause of some of the crashes that happen on the restarts. Give me a break. While I will agree with that to a degree, how long has the saying been around “cautions breed cautions”. NASCAR definitely made the right move here by implementing the double file restart.

Towards the end that double file “Shootout Style” became a chess game. With these restarts the leader is able to choose if he wants the inside line or the outside line. This became a big conversation between Mark Martin and his crew chief Alan Gustafson. Alan pretty much told Mark he thought the outside was better.

“With Jeff Gordon on new tires, to put him on my outside, it was a risky move,” said Martin. “Restarting and putting me on the outside of him was also a risky move because it wasn’t my favorite place to be. But I thought, you know, I’d rather put him in that vulnerable position rather than me be in it. That was it.”

Starting next to Mark was his teammate Jeff Gordon. Gordon had newer tires by about 30 laps I believe. On the restart Martin got a great restart while Jeff spun his tires. It was all Gordon could do to hold onto second battling Kasey Kahne, but he did.

“Once I got to second, I don’t think I really had anything for Mark until that caution came out,” said Gordon. “I thought I had a shot at it. He got a great jump and I spun the tires. Then it was trying to fight Kasey again for second. But a great 1-2 finish for us.”

Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon getting the 1 – 2 finish came just minutes before Rick Hendricks birthday. Pretty cool present. Jimmie Johnson finished 8th and Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 15.

“I’ll tell you, Mark put on an unbelievable performance tonight. To see him get four wins this year is pretty phenomenal. He’s just an awesome talent, he and Alan, a great combination. They just get better and better every week,” said Hendrick. “If we could just take out three or four of those real the two plate races and the three failures, we wouldn’t be sweating this top 12 so much.”

POINTS
As previously mentioned Mark Martin moved up to 11th in the points standings.

Kasey Kahne leaped positions up to 8th in the points with his 3rd place finish. That is his second best finish of the year behind his win at Infineon and his 3rd top 5.

Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin swap 5th and 6th positions with Denny Hamlin moving up to 5th.

Juan Pablo Montoya moves up to 2 positions to 9th while Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth each drop 2 positions to 10th and 12th respectively.

Have you figured it out yet. If Mark Martin came into the top 12 this weekend that means someone fell out of the top 12. Yes, Greg Biffle fell 4 positions to 13th this weekend with his 31st place finish.

Tony Stewart stays on top of the points with a 4th place finish at Chicagoland.

I was distracted from a lot of the race due to getting a call from work and having to work while watching the race. I guess it would be fair to say that I was distracted from both!