The Pit Stall

Johnson (48) nudges Hamlin (11) on the way to victory

Another Martinsville race, another Jimmie Johnson victory.  The pilot of the #48 Lowe’s Chevy has now won 5 of the last 6 races at the track.  They might as well rename the joint Jimmieville (Johnsonville reminds me too much of sausage…and not the hot dogs that the track is famous for).  Denny Hamlin put in a solid performance, and held on for a second consecutive second place finish.

The big story this week would have to be the dominance of the Henrick and Hendrick Lite (Stewart-Haas) cars.  Of the 6 cars they put on the track, all 6 finished in the top 8.  Martin and Newman put together solid finishes for the second straight week, after digging themselves a big hole in the first 4 races.  It will be interesting to see if they have put their troubles in the rear view and can get back to being Chase contenders, as was the expectation to start the year (at least for Martin).

Group 1 – Jeff Gordon(7) & Kyle Busch(8)

Since qualifying was rained out and Gordon would be leading the field to the green and more importantly getting that all important first pit selection, he was a must start here.  He was great for the first third of the race and led quite a few laps before falling off, and eventually rolling across in 4th.  Busch didn’t fare quite as well, having a couple tires go on him, putting him laps down that he would never recover from.  He managed a 24th place finish, which would have been a huge disappointment for a top group driver.

Group 2 – Denny Hamlin(7), Juan Montoya(8), Ryan Newman(9), Kurt Busch(7)

Hamlin was the class of the field for the majority of the race, and held the lead in the closing laps, before being nudged out of the way by Johnson.  Still a great performance, and the most points of anyone in the field.  Montoya was never really a factor in the race, but still managed a 12th place finish when all was said and done.  Newman put together his second straight top 10 with a 6th place finish, and looks to be headed in the right direction as the series heads to Texas.  Kurt Busch rounded out a somewhat disappointing day for the Busch clan with a 18th place finish, near the tail end of the lead lap cars.

Group 3 – Marcos Ambrose(8), AJ Allmendinger(5)

Both of these drivers had great runs this weekend.  Allmendinger was the better of the 2 finishing 5 spots ahead of Ambrose in 9th.  I went with Ambrose, and was happy with his 14th place finish, as it was an excellent finish for this group, and saved an Allmendinger start, since he will be running a handful more races than originally expected.   

Recap

• Points for this race: 334 (Gordon, Hamlin, Montoya, Ambrose)
• Most Possible Points: 368 (Johnson, Hamlin, Stewart, Allmendinger)
• Season Points : 1784
• Current Place : 1st
• Lead over 2nd : 151
• Overall Percentile : 99th (1644 overall) 

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Steve Sheppard

Filed under: Pit Picks, Short Tracks by Site Admin - Monday, March 30th, 2009