NASCAR at Martinsville 2015: Winners and Losers from the STP 500
Martinsville—the paperclip, 500 laps totaling 263 miles—saw many cautions on Sunday, and when the clock struck midnight Denny Hamlin stood tallest on Victory Lane.
This half-mile oval was like a blender, churning up all the cars into in indiscernible mush.
ESPN’s Ricky Craven nailed what the day was like in his pre-race column:
"Track position is a priority to preserve tires and protect brake pads. It's as difficult to pass at this track as any on the circuit, and the tax on equipment comes at a steep price, particularly late in the race. Pit crews will do whatever they can to help gain track position (perhaps, only four lug nuts on left-side tire changes). Drivers need to do their best to gain it on restarts.
"
We saw the most cautions of the year and the most lead changes. It was a slog of a day. Barely a single car drove back to the garage without some damage.
All that said, read on for the winners and losers from the STP 500.
Loser: No Lateral Grip
1 of 8
Ryan Newman started Sunday’s STP 500 outside the pole and held position behind Joey Logano through the early going.
Then he slipped back. And back. And back. All the way to 27th, four laps down.
Newman has, to his credit, two top-fives in the first few races. Over the past season and early in 2015, he has proven that winning isn’t everything. He pointed his way to a second-place finish in last year’s Chase.
Sunday at Martinsville looked to be a race where Newman could threaten to win. Not so.
“There’s no lateral grip,” Fox Sports 1’s Larry McReynolds said during the television broadcast. “He’s rolling on the right rear. In simple terms, the car is just sliding around.”
And that is a nightmare at Martinsville where the turns are tighter than Newman’s high school t-shirts.
Newman has one win and three top-fives at Texas Motor Speedway, the site of NASCAR's next race in two weeks' time.
Winner: Danica Patrick
2 of 8
Which Stewart-Haas driver had the best finish Sunday?
Kevin Harvick? No, he finished eighth and out of the top two for the first time since 2014.
Kurt Busch? Nope, he was finished 14th.
Tony Stewart? Ha!
No, it was Danica Patrick.
Patrick had one of the best days off all drivers, finishing seventh in the STP 500. Unlike many drivers on the day, when Patrick got ahold of the top 10 she didn’t relent.
“I would say that we had a couple races this year that have been pretty decent,” Patrick said during the television broadcast. “It was so much more fun here. It’s like a disaster to be off and struggling with the car. It’s really fun to have a good car.
This is the kind of stuff we need. It’s a new group together. We need these ego boosts every now and again.”
At a track like Martinsville anything can happen. Like the restrictor-plate races, the best driver or the best team isn’t always immune to the intricacies of short-track racing. Patrick stayed out of trouble, even swerving out of trouble during a mid-race wreck.
“She was just so confident,” Fox Sports 1 analyst Michael Waltrip said during the broadcast. “You could tell that she felt good about her car. She practiced well, started 16th, and drove a heck of a race today. She was battling with Kevin Harvick. She out ran her teammates. What a day for Danica.”
Loser: Chase Elliott's Rookie Debut
3 of 8
Much was made about the debut of Chase Elliott, the baby pharaoh of NASCAR, at Martinsville. Nobody expected him to be competitive, but nobody expected him to fall all the way back to 38th. He was a footnote on a day that saw many big-name drivers get chewed apart.
"Expectations? None other than Rick Hendrick will hand him the keys to the No. 24 car next season with the blessing of current driver Jeff Gordon, who told Elliott in January he not only wanted him to drive the car, but he wanted Elliott to drive the car with the No. 24 on it. Elliott was all in, not trying to argue for the family No. 9 and instead considering it an honor to have Gordon's 24 on the side of his car.
"
What a track for a Sprint Cup novice to debut, not the wide-open expanses of next week’s Texas Motor Speedway, but the paperclip, hairpin turns of Martinsville.
It was a baptism by fire, as the saying goes, and a taste of things to come. At 19 years old, Elliott’s sky has no limit.
The pressure of filling the No. 24 car will be heavy in 2016, but fans of Hendrick Motorsports and the No. 24 car will be in for a long run of success.
.jpg?w=256 "Titans Camp Football")
Winner: Team Penske
4 of 8
Team Penske finished second and third in Sunday’s STP 500.
Joey Logano tried to sweep the truck and Sprint Cup race having won the pole in both divisions.
Brad Keselowski made a powerful run late in this race to catch Hamlin, but settled for second.
“I really wanted that clock!” Keselowski said after the race on the television broadcast. “It seemed like sometimes we were good on long runs, sometimes on short runs. At the end we were good at the right time. I just couldn’t make the move at the end. I was right there. I would’ve loved to have five or 10 more laps.”
Logano spun out earlier in the race. That put him far back and he made a valiant run to get into the top five.
“I was hoping I could keep up with [Hamlin and Keselowski],” Logano said during the television broadcast. “I’ve got the best view in the house. I just don’t get to race with them. We had a good recovery from the spin earlier in the race. Overall, it was a great weekend to get the truck win and a couple of poles.”
Both drivers have a spot in the Chase and will take away a ledger full of great notes: Martinsville is the seventh race in the Chase.
Loser: Dale Earnhardt's Gear Shifter
5 of 8
Dale Earnhardt Jr. won his first Martinsville grandfather clock during the Chase in 2014. It wasn’t Earnhardt’s day this time around as he finished 36th.
Early on his gear shifter shook off. After settling that as best he could, the No. 88 car smashed up its front end in a wreck, thus ending the day.
“He’s got a bigger problem than a shifter,” said Darrell Waltrip during the Fox Sports 1 broadcast. “It’s one of those days for the No. 88 car.”
In the garage, Junior stood outside his car, his spirits higher than one would expect.
“Our guys here have a transmission and gear problem,” he said during the broadcast. “There’s no engine power or torque. Thirty laps in the vibrations were so bad it broke the shifter off. It was shaking like a tuning fork.”
Junior returned on Lap 275 with a new radiator on a car that looked skeletal since it lacked a hood and bumper. An ugly car for an ugly day for the No. 88 team.
Winner: The No. 42 Car
6 of 8
The No. 42 team was delivered a big loss when Kyle Larson passed out while signing autographs Saturday afternoon, but Regan Smith filled in just fine.
Larson, 2014’s Rookie of the Year, missed the race and sought the attention of a neurologist.
"Although all tests came back negative and Larson feels completely fine, the doctors felt he should be held for more testing today," the team said in a statement released Sunday morning in Jay Pennell’s Fox Sports story.
Smith, the 2015 bullpen player of the year, performed just fine in finishing 16th. Earlier this year he raced three times for Kurt Busch’s No. 41 for Stewart-Haas Racing.
It hasn’t been a great season for Larson so far. Yes, he does have two top-10s, both coming on the West Coast swing. But his other finishes are 34th, 26th and 26th.
His qualifying spots have been solid. When he comes back he needs to parlay that early speed into results on Sundays.
Loser: Jeff Gordon's Speeding Penalty
7 of 8
Jeff Gordon’s drive for nine wins at Martinsville looked promising with under 20 laps to go. He was on the lead lap and his car was strong. It was time to pit and see if he could finish out the race.
Heading to his pit box near the fifth speeding checkpoint, Gordon blew the tachometer and had to start at the back of the field. Gordon told Fox Sports 1:
"I’m so disappointed in myself. I knew I was pushing the limit and I didn’t think I was doing anything I hadn’t done all day long when I was behind other guys. I felt like we finally got the car in position to win that race. It was a struggle. We were battling with tire wear. I thought Denny had the best car but I thought with our track position at the end we had a shot at it. I don’t even know what to say right now.
"
Gordon threaded his way through the field to finish an amazing ninth.
“Of course the car is the best all day when I have to drive up from the back,” Gordon told Fox Sports 1.
Gordon hasn’t found his groove this year. He has had bouts of brilliance in races, but never for the race’s entirety. The bouts of brilliance he's had haven’t come at the right times.
Last week, Keselowski won on the final lap. Timing is everything, and right now Gordon hasn’t had time on his side, especially at Martinsville—a track that awards a grandfather clock to the winner.
Winner: Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing
8 of 8
Joe Gibbs Racing needed this win, and the Deliverminator delivered.
Earlier in the week, JGR president J.D. Gibbs took a medical leave of absence to begin treatment for “symptoms impacting areas of brain function.”
Then his team went out and finished three drivers inside the top five, including the winner.
“I feel like I’ve missed out on so many grandfather clocks here with mechanical issues,” Hamlin told Fox Sports 1. “We weren’t going to be denied today. Hat’s off to Brad. He had an option and he took the latter. I thank him for that.”
Keselowski got into Hamlin’s bumper on the final lap in an attempt to pass. The No. 2 Ford could have spun Hamlin to win the race, but instead ceded the race to Hamlin. Keselowski’s spot in the Chase is locked up, so wrecking Hamlin would not have been in good faith.
Hamlin's win marked his fifth at Martinsville and 25th of his career.
Kenseth, Hamlin’s teammate who hasn’t won since 2013, finished fourth.
“Martinsville’s very unique,” Kenseth said on Fox Sports 1. “It’s hard to be disappointed with a top-five, but we really thought we had a chance at a win today. As an organization we really needed a win.”
David Ragan, still driving in Kyle Busch’s place, took fifth.
With the illness to the president and the injury to Kyle Busch, this win—and three drivers in the top five—was good medicine for JGR.
.jpg?w=480 "Titans Camp Football")
.jpg?w=600 "Best NFL Free Agents")
