Point leader Carl Edwards struggled most of the day but ended up in the top ten to maintain the lead. Matt Kenseth fell from second in points to a distant fifth and out of contention after he crashed with Kyle Busch in the closing laps and finished 31st.
Qualifying
Rain washed out qualifying so NASCAR went to the rule book to set the starting lineup. NASCAR uses car owner points to determine the lineup when qualifying is rained out. This makes the starting order look a whole lot like the point standings so all of the Chase drivers started in the first six rows.
Chase leaders Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth made up row number one. Brad Keselowski and Tony Stewart started in the second row while Kevin Harvick rounded out the top five.
Drop Of The Green
The Roush-Fenway Racing teammates on the front row stayed side-by-side to complete lap one and Matt Kenseth lead the first lap and gained one bonus point for leading a lap. Edwards drove it hard on the bottom as there were clearly no team orders in effect here.
Edwards finally made it stick on the bottom and took over the lead at the end of lap four to get his bonus point. Tony Stewart followed him through on the bottom to take over second before there was a big pileup in turn one on lap eight which brought out the caution and collected some Chasers.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. dove into turn one way too hot and took out Kurt Busch. Fellow Chasers Jeff Gordon and Denny Hamlin also got a piece of the incident and came away with damage.
There were five more cautions in the first 105 laps and a total of eight cautions in the first 200 laps. This race never did really settle down in the early going and the constant cautions kept the field bunched up as cautions breed cautions.
Storylines
As predicted, point leader Carl Edwards struggled today in Martinsville. This is the worst track in the Chase for Carl and he didn't run well today. Carl was lapped in the first half of the race, got the Lucky Dog pass to get back on the lead lap but he was in danger of being lapped again not too long after.
A caution flag saved Carl from losing a lap a second time and he was able to keep slugging all day long. Carl ended the day in ninth place which has to feel like a win considering his day and his general dislike of this race track.
Carl's teammate Matt Kenseth was having a batter day until his fortunes suddenly changed late in the race.
With only 37 laps to go Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch crashed while battling for fifth. Kenseth did significant damage to the car, fatal damage to his 2011 Chase dreams and continued his Martinsville jinx.
Kenseth finished 31st, many laps down.
Chasing The Checkers
The 2011 TUMS Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway was the story of patience. Tony Stewart was hardly mentioned all day long. He spent most of the race riding along, staying out of trouble, working on his car and hanging out on the lead lap.
At one point Stewart was the last car on the lead lap in danger of going a lap down. The caution came out and Stewart was saved. Tony hit pit road, got the car fixed and was able to start working his way towards the front as the race turned 400 laps old.
With 88 laps to go Tony Stewart restarted on the outside of Kevin Harvick for the lead after taking only two tires under caution. Stewart made it work on the outside and lead a lap before the caution flew again just a few laps later.
Stewart hit pit road under caution and got four fresh tires. Stewart restarted 23rd with 81 laps to go and once again disappeared from the race.
Jimmie Johnson took over the top spot from Kevin Harvick with 62 laps to go and was looking like the car to beat as the laps continued to tick away slowly with caution after caution keeping the leaders bunched together.
Brian Vickers crashed once again with eight laps to go which set up the final run to the checkers in this grueling short track slugfest.
Stewart restarted on the outside of Jimmie Johnson with only three laps of racing to go. Stewart drove hard on the outside and made it work in turn three and four. When they came back onto the front straight Stewart had the lead and Johnson had to drop in behind him.
In turn four of the last lap Johnson gave him a gentle nudge to try to make room but Tony Stewart was able to hold on and claim the win.
Top Ten
- Tony Stewart
- Jimmie Johnson
- Jeff Gordon
- Kevin Harvick
- Denny Hamlin
- Jeff Burton
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Carl Edwards
- Ryan Newman
The Points
Carl Edwards gave up almost half of his point lead in Martinsville. Carl came into the race with a fourteen point lead over Matt Kenseth. He leaves with an eight point margin over Martinsville winner Tony Stewart.
Kenseth was the big loser of the weekend. He fell from second in points all the way back to fifth. Kenseth is 36 points out of the lead with only three races remaining. Kenseth is not mathematically eliminated from contention but I will add him to the list of drivers with no realistic chance at the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.
The 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Standings:
- Carl Edwards -0
- Tony Stewart -8
- Kevin Harvick -21
- Brad Keselowski -27
- Matt Kenseth -36
- Jimmie Johnson -43
- Kyle Busch -57
- Kurt Busch -58
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. -73
- Jeff Gordon -76
- Denny Hamlin -80
- Ryan Newman -89
