Top Row Seat - Martinsville
Dateline: 04/22/97Good Seats
I was very happy to discover that the seats I ordered last summer were excellent. We were sitting in row 33 just past the start/finish line 11 rows from the top. We had a great view of all the action on the track and in the front pits. To make the seats even better, the two seats next to ours were left vacant so we had plenty of extra room to stretch out and enjoy the show.
Driver Introductions
It's interesting to watch the crowd reaction during driver introductions. Earnhardt gets a fair amount of applause these days and a lot fewer boos than he used to. Jimmy Spencer gets a nice lukewarm reaction which for him is great progress. He used to get a pretty harsh reaction when he was introduced. By far the most brutal reaction from the crowd was for PosterBoy. When he walked up pit road with the lovely and talented Brooke he was met with boos. Then when he was introduced the place erupted. I'd estimate maybe 10% applause, 85% boos, and the remaining 5% were silent. That has got to be tough on your ego. :)
The Race
What can I say? PosterBoy led 432 of the 500 laps and was never seriously challenged. However, (you knew I couldn't give him all of the credit) Bobby Hamilton was faster on long runs and just never got the 100+ lap green flag run late in the race that he needed to win. Mark Martin might have had a shot but in battling his way up from his 39th place starting position he used up the brakes and was unable to push as hard for the last 150 laps as he had earlier in the race.
The Wrecks
Although there was almost constant bumping and grinding throughout the day. There were only two incidents worth noting. The first was early in the race when Steve Grissom got hit from behind and spun. The guy who hit him? Ernie Irvan of course. The big rumor from the weekend was that Ernie is going to be replaced in the #28 car by Sterling Marlin. According to MRN's "NASCAR Today", Robert Yates Racing denys that they are talking to anyone else. Personally I hope it's true. I'd like to see Ernie get out of racing before he hurts somebody, he has been involved in a number of incidents already this year and I'm afraid of what he'll do next.
The other noteworthy incident was the Spencer/PosterBoy incident. Certainly Jimmy Spencer was very loose. You could plainly see that. And he probably should have just let the leader pass him without putting up such a fight. All that aside, if you watch the incident (which I did over and over again in slow motion and frame-by-frame) you will see that PosterBoy did come down on him a little just as Spencer's car wiggled a little. If this incident had happened during a battle for position it would have been just a "racing thing."
#24 said on the scanner just after this incident "I guess that's Spencer's idea of revenge."
Talladega Superspeedway
First off let me say that I don't really have a problem with restrictor plate racing. It's just a different way of doing things that all of the teams have to adjust to. Some people have complained that's it's more dangerous having all of the cars bunched together and that it's boring when nobody can pass without help. I completely agree, however I remember Richard Petty coming dangerously close to getting into the grandstand at Talladega and firmly believe that NASCAR has made the best decision available to them. They continue to search for aerodynamic solutions but in the meantime the restrictor plate is the best solution they know of.
Prediction Time
I'm going to have to admit defeat and give up on trying to predict the winners. NASCAR Winston Cup racing is too competitive and too unpredictable for me to try to pick the winner. Instead let's take a look at the drivers to watch.
Sterling Marlin is always a threat at the restrictor plate tracks; Dale Jarrett has been tough all year and ran well at Daytona; Team Hendrick is probably the favorite here after dominating the finish at Daytona; Team Rousch has been solid all year as well. Heck, restrictor plate racing is so close I just picked 8 drivers and I'll still probably be wrong.
Go Fast, Turn Left, Stay Safe!
