Sofa Sideline – The Kid with Confidence Picks Up the Win
After a fourth turn spin out on lap 180, Kurt Busch came back to lead for 111
laps and held of a hard-charging Johnny Benson to pick up his second win of the
season at the Old Dominion 500 in Martinsville, Virginia. Busch also made the
record books at this speedway starting from the 36th position to gain the
victory. Previously the farthest starting position for a winner was 24th.
JB was hungry for the win, but in Busch’s own words;
"Nobody can be hungrier than I am. This is sweet. This is Winston Cup.
This is racing with the best of the best. Racing with Johnny Benson at the end
is no different than racing with a Dale Jarrett or a Jeff Gordon or a Dale
Earnhardt that used to pressure you hard. It was a great race, a great ride for
us and it’s just great that Martinsville puts on good shows like this all the
time. With the grooming of the race track, it didn’t turn out as well as
everybody though it would, but it provided a second groove. If you could run on
the bottom, you could run on the top. It made for an interesting race on a
short-half mile like this," said Busch.
Johnny Benson’s second place finish made this his sixth top-ten finish for
the 2002 season. This was also his best finish in fourteen races at Martinsville
Speedway. From where I was sitting, there were a lot of people on their feet
cheering for the #10 as he managed to get close enough a couple of times to
attempt the pass during the last few laps of the race. One of these days, JB!
The fastest car on the track just might have been the car that finished in
third place. Two laps down early in the race, Ricky Rudd came back to end up
third.
"The guys built us a new race car," said Rudd. "We got two
laps down early; I guess Matt Kenseth and I got together. It wasn’t intentional,
but that cut a left-front tire down and we weren’t five laps into the race. We
shouldn’t have been running that hard, I guess, but we had to make those two
laps up. And then we kept getting boxed in in our pits and had to come from the
back. We had one of the fastest cars out here, and we were lucky to get back to
third. The guys had a good race car for us."
Tony Stewart hangs on to the points lead after winding up in 11th place. A
severe headache resulting carbon monoxide inside the car after the crash panels
were caved in created a somewhat dangerous situation for the driver of the #20
Home Depot Pontiac. NASCAR officials are investigating the problem, but it
appears that Stewart seems more susceptible than most. Luckily, his eleventh
place finish only cost him a few points in the race for the title; Stewart now
has an 82 point lead over Jimmie Johnson.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished in fourth place; making this is fourth straight
top ten finish; consistency starting to be the name of the game for this team.
This may be a glimpse of things to come for 2003; with possibly a
"title" season in the not too distant future.
I don’t know how much was visible on television, but Todd Bodine, on
probation until the end of the season for rough driving during the race in
Charlotte, looked like he should have been driving Jimmy Spencer’s car with that
big "target" on the hood. It seemed like just about everyone was
giving him a shot when they passed by and there was nothing he could do about
it. One almost felt sorry for him; nahhh…
Maybe it has to do with the fact that following the race in Charlotte he
denied any responsibility for causing the ten car pile up; afterwards the story
changed.
Other notes:
After spending a lifetime watching racing, I’ve had the opportunity to be
part of the behind the scenes world of NASCAR for a little over a year and a
half now; it’s been a learning process to say the least. As far as the racing
world being a tight-knit little community, one has to say that is pretty much
true. The comrade is very much evident, but sometimes some of the new people are
left to feel like outsiders. A point in case, I got talking to a photographer
from a local paper some place in Virginia outside of Martinsville, and he
relayed this story of a fellow photographer who threatened to pour water on his
camera if he didn’t get out of her way in Victory Lane. Is this the way you want
to treat people coming into this sport? Luckily this young man was not
intimidated, still had a great deal of enthusiasm for the sport (hooked), and
will be back.
In all aspects of life, you find that when you treat people with respect, you
get it back. Why is it that some people never seem to get that? It’s a shame; it
makes life so much easier.
The Winston Cup Series moves on to the Atlanta Motor Speedway this week. It’s
a fast racetrack and with the earlier date, it looks like the weather will be
reasonable, the grandstands hopefully will be full, and we’ll get to see some
great racing!
That’s it for now.