Welcome, gay NASCAR fans! Congratulations to the DeVine 9 1/2's very own Jeff Gordon for his dominating win Sunday, sealing his sweep of Martinsville in 2005! Martinsville seemed like Bristol's crazy kid brother on Sunday as the boys of NASCAR set a new record for cautions -- 19! -- at the paperclip shaped half-miler.
Dixie and I were traveling back from Monkey Island, our Daytona Beach estate, so once again this week we caught the race on the radio. You can drive from DB all the way across Georgia and stay in range of at least one station running the race the whole time! That's what I like about the South!
At Martinsville, we had three guys in the top 10. In the points race, our Big Daddy Award goes to Jamie McMurray, who spent much of the day in the top five and moved up three spots! Race winner Jeff picked up two, as did the suddenly racy Dave Blaney. Gaining one were Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards and Kasey Kahne. Earnhardt Jr., Brian Vickers and Casey Mears lost one spot. Mark Martin dropped two and Elliott fell back three. Only Mikey Waltrip kept his same place.
Before we get to Martinsville, let's make a quick stop by Lowe's. The motorspeedway, not the store. As I mentioned, I was on vacation last week and so watched the Lowe's race in Florida. Though I'd eagerly awaited the final night race of the season, I confess that I was less than enthralled by the spectacle of the recently re-ground Charlotte track shredding the tires at actually predictable intervals.
And seeing Cheatie Johnson win his fourth race in his last four starts in the LOWE'S car at the LOWE'S speedway was about as surprising as finding a copy of Delta's Sky magazine in the seatpocket on a Delta jet! (This week, even NASCAR.com's own waggish "Lap by Lap" scribe snarked, "We wonder... since Jimmie Johnson won at Lowe's, shouldn't Greg Biffle win the Subway 500?" MEE-OWW!
The preacher Sunday was the Rev. Eddie Hunnicut of Raceway Ministries , whose invocation was followed by Jamie O'Neal's rendition of the National Anthem. We rolled off with Tony Stewart on the Bud pole.
Now with 19 cautions, I would go nuts reliving all the drama, so I'll just fill you in one some of the high points involving our team. At lap 84, Kasey got into Mike Wallace, who got into Mikey. Poor Mike Wallace! He'd already brought out the first caution by spinning on lap 47! At lap 100, Jamie had made it all the way up from 30th at the start to fifth! At lap 198, Mikey spun out after a bump from Kurt Busch. So obvious was this smack that NASCAR held the reigning Cup Champion one lap for rough driving!
At lap 209, Dave Blaney, who had been having an unusually strong day -- ironically, since he'd just been dropped by Jack Daniels for next year -- got tagged by Derrick Cope in an accident that also caught up Scott Riggs and Jeff Green. At lap 239, Kevin Harvick set off a wreck that involved Jr., Elliott and Talladega winner Dale Jarrett.
Later, during a restart at lap 296, Hermie Sadler's car fell out at the stripe, causing a restart-caution (a green-yellow start?). At 342, it was Casey's turn to get the yellow waving with a blown left-front. Mikey went to the wall courtesy of Carl on lap 363.
At lap 435, Mark, had brake trouble and brought out the caution. Ironically, Mark, stung by press coverage that makes him look pessimistic, had predicted victory before the race -- didn't happen. After leading since lap 348, Jeff took the green flag. In a touching gesture, he celebrated with his cap turned backwards in memory of Ricky Hendrick and the others in that family and team who died in last year's tragic plane crash at this track.
HERE'S GOOD NEWS!
In news that is delighting race fans coast to coast, NBC has reportedly said it will not bid to show Cup racing after next year! Oh, happy, happy day! Claimed it was not making enough money for them. Funny, I didn't hear FOX moaning and groaning. Could it be that everyone would a million times rather watch, and listen to, the FOX broadcast than the NBC broadcast? I think so!
Talk is about ABC and ESPN showing the former NBC half after next year. Honey, I know FOX is evil and everything, but they do NASCAR right! And we love "The Simpsons" and the "O.C.", of course.
WELCOME TO ATLANTA, WHERE THE PLAYAS PLAY!
A big hello this week to all the NASCAR drivers, teams, fans and press in Atlanta for Sunday's race! We're hoping for great weather and a terrific, exciting race on NASCAR's fastest speedway! We'll be hanging out in the infield in turn 2, screaming and hollering like crazy when Jamie and the rest of the DeVine 9 1/2 roll by! In addition to our team, we'll be excitedly watching the Cup debut of 19-year-old Atlanta native Reed Sorenson, who will be driving the #39 Discount Tire machine. Y'all come!
That's it for this week, friends. See you at Atlanta Motor Speedway! Let's all meet up down at the Track Bar!
Love,
Betty Jack DeVine
E ME at Bettyjack@gaytona.com
