Sofa Sideline – Mark Martin – “The Bruiser” Wins the Coca-Cola 600
So, who in there right mind would have messed with Mark
Martin those last two laps as he bullied his way through lap traffic to bring
home the win at the Coca-Cola 600 this past weekend. More than likely I would
have been one of those individuals saying good race, but I was soured by Mr.
Martin early on, when it seemed as though he just drove right down in to Bobby
Labonte as he was making the pass on the front stretch. From what I heard,
Martin had already hit him once on the back stretch the prior lap.
Bobby was faster; Matt Kenseth was faster. To add salt to the
wound; today Mark Martin’s car failed to pass post-race inspection (found too
low) and his crew chief was fined $50,000. At what point does this nonsense stop
– still think taking the win away would be the solution.
Jimmie Johnson was the man to beat; dominated most of the
race, but with forty laps to go, overshot his pit stall, had a horrible stop,
and was not able to regain the lead. Johnson wound up finishing in seventh
place.
Matt Kenseth – a great car; his usual great run in
Charlotte, and in my mind, probably could have made the pass to beat Martin.
Jeff Gordon had a fairly consistent race, ran in the top ten
most of the day, but never seemed to be in a position to contend for the lead.
Nevertheless a good run; finishing in fifth place.
Tony Stewart – same thing. Had a fairly consistent run, top
ten most all day long, ended with a sixth place finish.
Kurt Busch; how fast can you be? He got beat by himself; he
spun out lap twelve, came back to lead the race, missed his pit stall, got black
flagged for a tire rolling outside the stall, had to do the drive through; at
which point he was three laps down, an impossible feat to recover from.
Ricky Craven – nice run; glad to see him finish third and
we hope at some point this season he gets another win.
Other notes:
Once again the folks at Lowe’s Motor Speedway outdid
themselves with a spectacular opening ceremony. The Stealth Bomber; wow!
Congratulations on a job well done; I think you inspired us all. There was a
chorus of voices singing the National Anthem along with George Jones; it was
really neat!!
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Kevin Harvick and his
family after hearing about the loss of his grandmother last Friday.
Also condolences to Bobby Labonte and his wife, Donna; and to
all her family after her father passed away on Sunday morning.
How difficult it must be for these drivers to go on and
compete during a time of loss and where they should be with their family. It has
to be an incredibly hard thing to do; the ability to concentrate hampered; we
can only imagine.
God Bless you all…
The Winston Cup Series is off to Dover this week; I’m in
California that day, but hopefully will be able to find a good place to watch
first thing in the morning.
The ARCA RE/MAX series is off to Kansas City on Saturday –
Dutch-born, Michael Vergers, ran the fastest in testing, so hopefully we’ll
see some interesting results come out of this race.
That’s it for now.