Did Sunday's race mark a fundamental change in racing at Martinsville?
March 31, 2014
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
Parity at Martinsville?
What an alien concept!
And
what a dichotomy we saw in Sunday's STP 500. The sixth NASCAR Sprint
Cup Series event of the season produced a track-record 33 lead
changes, even though Jimmie Johnson, the current master of
Martinsville, led 296 of the 500 laps.
Johnson,
Jeff Gordon and Denny Hamlin had combined to win 17 of the previous 22
races at the .526-mile short track. But there was no
sense on Sunday that Johnson was head-and-shoulders above the rest of
the field, even though he led almost 60 percent of the race.
Winner
Kurt Busch passed Johnson in the closing laps -- twice. Busch grabbed
the top spot on Lap 473, lost it to Johnson on Lap 483
and made what turned out to be the winning pass on Lap 490.
It
was a case of parry and thrust, rather than Johnson simply skewering
the rest of the competition, as he had done eight times in the
past. And in the end, Busch won the race because he had a slightly
superior car when it counted, along with the talent to drive it.
But,
as 33 lead changes might suggest, it was a race of ebb and flow. Pole
winner Kyle Busch paced the first 17 laps, but after another
brief stint at the front, from Laps 59-64, the driver of the No. 18
Toyota all but disappeared for the rest of the afternoon.
Matt
Kenseth was strong early, lost a lap when he stayed out on old tires
and subsequently rallied to finish sixth. Joey Logano was
solid all day, capable of passing cars and moving forward when he was
shuffled back in traffic. Logano started third and finished fourth in
the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford.
Dale
Earnhardt Jr. gained ground throughout the event, starting 26th and
finishing third. And Greg Biffle drove from seventh to the
lead in the space of 35 laps after a restart on Lap 120.
That's
the same Greg Biffle who has a career-best finish of seventh at
Martinsville, the same Greg Biffle whose career-average finish
at the historic short track is 20.1.
But
on Sunday, Biffle found the rhythm at the track that, more than any
other, has been his Kryptonite. Ultimately, Biffle's car tightened
up, he wore the "new" off his tires, and a succession of outside-lane
restarts relegated him to 18th at the finish.
None
of that, however, diminished the achievement of running down and
passing Jimmie Johnson for the lead and staying there for 18 laps.
We
won't know whether a sea change occurred in the nature of racing at
Martinsville until the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returns during
the Chase in October. We'll know then how well teams have adapted to
the new no-ride-height platform they're still learning at this stage of
the season, and which teams have made the most progress with the new
configuration.
Nevertheless, what happened Sunday suggests that the track may be ready to escape the stranglehold of Martinsville's Big Three.
Why is that the case?
With
a number of variables interlocking to produce one of the most
competitive Martinsville races in recent memory, tire management
was the foremost factor.
If
you were a "rabbit," you could charge to the front and lead, only to be
overtaken late in the run by drivers who had been more judicious
with their equipment. Talk of saving tires dominated conversations
between crew chiefs and drivers throughout the race.
To
the company's credit, Goodyear provided a tire at Martinsville that
fell off considerably during the course of a fuel run, with the
degree of fall-off proportional to the aggressiveness of the driver.
That's precisely what the Sprint Cup stars have been requesting for a
number of years.
Almost
as significant was the rain that washed out both scheduled practice
sessions on Saturday, forcing crew chiefs to make educated
guesses at setups for Sunday's race. Those who missed it made wild
swings at adjustments during the course of the afternoon.
That's
one of the reasons you saw cars that had been floundering for the first
200 laps suddenly come to life. That's why you saw cars
that had run well in the early stages falter later on, as track
conditions changed.
It's
obviously a facetious notion, but it makes you wonder what might happen
if NASCAR did away with post-qualifying practices entirely
and forced teams to adjust during the races themselves.
If a show like Sunday's event at Martinsville is an indication, it might not be a bad idea.
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