NEwS JOURNAL — ApRIL 4, 2012 — C-5 If you have a question or comment, write: NASCAR This Week, c/o The Gaston Gazette, P.O. Box 1538, Gastonia, NC 28053 or send an e-mail to [email protected]. You can also send your NASCAR questions to Monte on Facebook at Facebook.com/monte-dutton and at Twitter.com/MonteDutton. Please specify you are submitting them for the NASCAR This Week page. Sprint Cup Samsung Mobile 500 7 p.m., Saturday, April 14 SPRINT CUP NATIONWIDE CAMPING WORLD TRUCK TEXAS DATA Race: Samsung Mobile 500 Race: O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 Race: Good Sam Roadside April 14 Nov. 4 Nationwide Series Where: Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Where: Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Assistance 200 O’Reilly Auto Parts 300, Worth (1.5 mi.), 334 laps/501 miles. Worth (1.5 mi.), 200 laps/300 miles. Where: Rockingham (N.C.) FINISH START 8 p.m., April 13 When: Saturday, April 14. When: Friday, April 13. Speedway, (1.017 mi.), 200 Last year’s winner: Matt Last year’s winner: Carl Edwards, laps/203.4 miles. PIT ROAD Kenseth, Ford. Ford. When: Sunday, April 15. 1 TU N R Truck Series R N U 4 Good Sam Roadside Assistance 200, Qualifying record: Brian Vickers, Qualifying record: Jeff Green, Last year’s winner: Not T Chevy, 196.235 mph, Nov. 13, Chevy, 193.493 mph, April 5, 2002. applicable (first race). 12:30 p.m., April 15 2006. Race record: Kyle Busch, Toyota, Qualifying record: None. Race record: Tony Stewart, Chevy, 151.707 mph, April 5, 2008. Race record: None. 152.705 mph, Nov. 6, 2011. Last week: For the first time this Last race: Not only did Kevin T U 3 Last week: Ryan Newman was year, a Sprint Cup regular won a Harvick dominate Martinsville’s Kroger R N N R the surprise winner at Martinsville Nationwide race. Joey Logano, in a 250. Almost the entire race consisted 2 T U Speedway after a first-turn spin Toyota, won at Auto Club Speedway of Harvick running first in one Chevy � It’s NASCAR’s great recurring involving Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson in Fontana, Calif., on March 24. and Ty Dillon second in another. theme. All order breaks down in and Clint Bowyer opened the door to The season’s first four races went to Harvick led 248 of 250 laps, James Distance:.............. .....1.5-mile oval Length of frontstretch:. ....2,250 ft. the waning laps as the checkered victory. Newman’s Chevy held off A.J. drivers who do not compete regularly Buescher finished third and Justin 5º 24º fl ag approaches. Allmendinger’s Dodge in an overtime at the Cup level. Lofton fourth. They also drove Chevys. Length of backstretch:. ....1,330 ft. finish. Banking in Banking in � Kasey Kahne’s dream op- straights Miles/Laps: .....501 mi. = 334 laps turns 1-4 portunity at Hendrick Motorsports has been a nightmare to date. Six races into the season, he’s 31st in points. V RYAN NEWMAN SPRINT CUP SERIES No. 39 U.S. ARMY/OUTBACK CHEVROLET � The only driver unaffected by E the Goody’s Fast Relief 500’s clos- R ing scenes was Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was third before the leaders S crashed in turn one and wound up U fi nishing in that position. S � David Reutimann shares Earnhardt Jr. Reutimann owner points with Danica Patrick, whose next Sprint Cup race is EARNHARDT JR. VS. REUTIMANN scheduled to be at Darlington on Dale Earnhardt Jr. was critical of David Reuti- May 12. The team must be in the mann, whose car coasted down the front straight top 35 in order to assure Patrick and caused the caution flag that essentially cost a spot in that race. That’s why Hendrick Motorsports a victory in the Goody’s Reutimann was on the track, 79 Fast Relief 500. “It doesn’t seem like there laps behind. could be a logical reason for him (Reutimann) � to end up stopped on the track,” Earnhardt said. Points leader Greg Biffl e has Reutimann said: “They gave me the black flag. fi nished sixth or better in four of We were coming to pit road, and it shut off. And six races so far. In both the other that’s as far as I could go.” two, he fi nished 13th. NASCAR This Week’s Monte Dutton � Overtime lengthened the gives his take: “The caution flag certainly threw a Goody’s Fast Relief 500 to 15 monkey wrench into the outcome of the race.” extra laps, making it the longest race ever run at Martinsville Speedway, the sport’s oldest track and the only one that has hosted races in every NASCAR season. Taking Stock In Stock Cars � Brad Keselowski thought This Week welcomes letters to the editor, he should have been second, but please be aware that we have room for only not seventh, on the fi nal restart. a few each week. We’ll do our best to select NASCAR offi cials supposedly set the best, but individual replies are impossible the order by “freezing the fi eld” due to the bulk of mail received. Please do not based on the fi nal “loop” reading send stamped and self-addressed envelopes before the caution fl ag waved. The with your letters, which should be addressed to: “loops” are placed at intervals NASCAR This Week, The Gaston Gazette, P.O. around the track. Box 1538, Gastonia, N.C. 28053. � All three of NASCAR’s major Dear NASCAR This Week, touring series are off on Easter On the day I read the letter by Tom B. Bodine weekend. Only one more open Cup Sr., with which I totally agreed, I got the latest weekend remains. issue of Hot Rod magazine. In it was an article � Auto Club Speedway’s race titled “When NASCAR Mattered.” It stated that ran 71 laps short due to rain. Hot Rod used to cover NASCAR until “stock cars Martinsville’s ran 15 laps long due lost their stockness.” The article made several to overtime. points with which many of us agree. � The current “cars (?)” bear no resemblance to Another controversial topic stock cars, production cars, and have no compo- was why NASCAR offi cials kept nents in common with them. Not even the lug nuts. the green fl ag out as Reutimann’s They are in fact “soulless blobs lacking relevance Chevy limped down the front to anything, anywhere except within NASCAR.” straight for what seemed like NASCAR officials say they have gone to the generic forever. Most drivers preferred car in the name of safety. I would venture to say to criticize Reutimann instead of that most people who watch a race watch it on TV, NASCAR afterward. and I doubt you could tell the difference between 100 mph and 200 mph with the cars running in close proximity to each other. I, for one, would much rather see a real car at 100 mph. NASCAR officials 2012 POINTS STANDINGS John Clark/NASCAR This Week have gone politically correct with these “so-called Sprint Cup Series Pts. Sunday marked Ryan Newman’s first Martinsville victory. The Purdue graduate has won 16 Sprint Cup races at 11 different tracks in his career. cars” and their mandated harmony. In the name 1. Greg Biffle 226 of equality they have destroyed innovation. Teams 2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. - 6 can’t experiment with new ideas or changes 3. Tony Stewart - 12 to improve their cars. This forced equality has Matt Kenseth - 12 destroyed the sport. … Kevin Harvick - 12 Robert Freeman Jr. Martin Truex Jr. - 12 Bonnerdale, Ark. 7. Denny Hamlin - 16 Thanks for letting us know how you feel. NASCAR 8. Ryan Newman - 24 Newman’s Own has realized the error of its ways in regard to generic 9. Clint Bowyer - 34 car designs. In 2013, the next-generation chassis 10. Jimmie Johnson - 37 will have much more brand identity. Stock cars? 11. Carl Edwards - 47 Stewart-Haas driver takes NASCAR’s oldest track Not literally. Those days are never coming back, but 12. Brad Keselowski - 51 By Monte Dutton nature of his victories. making the cars look more like production models is a step in the right direction. NASCAR This Week “I just try to spread them out,” he quipped. “I could Nationwide Series MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Martinsville Speedway races win a bunch of races, but for me it’s more important to 1. Elliott Sadler 214 just kind of spread it out and let other guys win once in tend to be won by acknowledged masters of NASCAR’s 2. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. - 18 a while. shortest track, but it wasn’t too much of a surprise that The Intimidator’s Last One 3. Austin Dillon - 27 “What do you want me to say? That’s just the way it all the latest to visit the .526-mile Virginia track’s victory lane 4. Trevor Bayne - 34 works.” A runner-up finish was easily enough to wrap up 5. Sam Hornish Jr. - 54 for the first time was Ryan Newman. Newman is well-known for his qualifying prowess, Dale Earnhardt’s seventh and final (then) Winston 6. Cole Whitt - 63 Cup championship on Nov. 13, 1994, at Atlanta In his career, Newman, from South Bend, Ind., has though he hasn’t won a pole since September 2011 in 7. Michael Annett - 66 won at the Sprint Cup level 16 times. Those 16 victories Motor Speedway. Mark Martin won the Hooters 8. Tayler Malsam - 70 New Hampshire. That was his 49th career pole.