NASCAR at Martinsville 2015: Winners, Losers from the Goody's 500
Well, so, that happened at the Goody's Headache Relief 500.
That, ICYMI, was Matt Kenseth kamikaze-ing his beat-up No. 20 car into the very capable No. 22 car, that of Joey Logano.
No doubt this was in reaction to how Logano spun out Kenseth at Kansas on Oct. 18, effectively ending Kenseth’s chances at advancing in the Chase. More on this later.
After a lengthy red-flag stoppage, the race was eventually won by a comically ecstatic Jeff Gordon, who earned his 93rd career win, his ninth at Martinsville, in a race that had 18 cautions. It was a messy, even embarrassing race.
But Gordon stood tall among the static; “We’re going to Homestead!” he yelled during the broadcast.
NBC Sports’ Krista Voda said before the race during the broadcast, “[Kevin] Harvick and Logano are two of the guys with bull’s-eyes on their backs today.”
That rang true when Kenseth saw his chance to turn his car into a projectile and aim it straight at Logano’s left door.
This is the bad side of the current Chase format, that it’s well within a driver’s power to ruin another’s season with one turn of the wheel.
In any case, there’s a lot to comb through from the first race of the Eliminator Round.
Loser: The Junior Varsity Drivers
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From the land of the inconsequential, Danica Patrick and David Gilliland took part in a laughable exchange in several-laps-down-ville.
Gilliland, at one point, got in Patrick’s way. To which Patrick said on her radio, “No matter what I do, he is (in trouble).’’
Oh, boy, the kids are playing.
Patrick tried to spin him out, but in so doing swung and missed in a cartoonish display of revenge that sent her to the garage for good.
“He unnecessarily, I thought, took me out at the beginning of the race,’’ Patrick said in Dustin Long’s NASCARTalk.com brief. “So I was just repaying the favor.’’
Patrick has a temper, and she let it get the best of her. Her attempt at wrecking Gilliland was unprofessional and petty.
She should’ve been parked, but she effectively did it to herself by taking a home run swing and then hearing the ball clap loudly in the mitt behind her.
Winner: Carl Edwards' Roller-Coaster Day
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Carl Edwards had a TERRIBLE car at Martinsville. He couldn’t keep pace with other lap-down cars, let alone the true contenders.
Then stuff got real, and that left Edwards and his No. 19 Camry just seven points below the cut line.
“That was a crazy day,” said Edwards in Jay Pennell’s FoxSports.com story. “It’s Martinsville and just at the end I think we had an opportunity to get a couple more spots and I’m a little more frustrated about that. We just held our own -- it was a bad day, but we didn’t make it worse.”
Sometimes that’s the best course of action. He was able to stay out of the Logano-Kenseth ruckus and turned an otherwise sour day into something sweet.
Edwards has three career wins at Texas and two at Phoenix, the sites of the next two races, so he’s got a strong chance of winning and reaching Homestead.
Loser: Brad Keselowski
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Brad Keselowski may have been THE car to beat at Martinsville. He was the only one taking it to Logano, but on a tepid restart where Kez aimed to give his teammate position, Kez ran into Kenseth and spun out the No. 20.
The chain reaction sent Kez and Kurt Busch to the garage. It also put Kenseth several laps down, thus giving him the grist to take out Logano.
The No. 2 Ford never felt like a title contender until Martinsville, and now that it’s 24 points below the cut, a win is what it needs to advance.
Unfortunately for the Kez, he has zero wins at the upcoming tracks and with his teammate having to drive aggressively to get a win, they could be cannibalizing each other to reach Homestead.
Team Penske is in trouble.
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Winner: Kevin Harvick's Questionable Pit Stop
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Kevin Harvick and his teammate Kurt Busch brushed up against each other exiting pit road. Everyone got bottled up at the exit trying to game each other into certain spots on the ensuing restart. It was a mess.
As a result, Harvick busted up the front left fender of his No. 4 Chevy. His crew chief Rodney Childers called him in to pit road, compromising track position. Not doing so at Chicagoland almost cost Harvick a chance at advancing. They weren’t going to take that chance.
Being down and taking that time kept Harvick away from the Logano-Kenseth wreck and allowed him clearance. Now he’s up seven points on the cut line, far from safe, but in far better position than Logano, Keselowski and Busch.
With Phoenix in this round, a place where Harvick has won seven times, his chances at defending his title got a whole lot better.
Loser: Joey Logano
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It wasn’t his fault, but Logano became the ball to Kenseth’s bat late in the Goody’s 500.
Logano’s No. 22 Ford is the best car in the entire circuit, and after getting smashed by Kenseth, Logano now stands 28 points below the cut line and must win at either Texas or Phoenix.
“I thought what happened in Kansas was a completely different deal,” Logano said during the NBC Sports broadcast, alluding to what happened when he spun out Kenseth. "We were racing for the win. We raced hard, he blocked me and he spun out (at Kansas)."
He continued, "Here, this was a complete coward move especially for a championship driver. Complete coward. It’s a chicken-you-know-what move to take out the leader when your race was over.”
Logano had every right to be mad. Kenseth wasn’t driving for the win after being several laps down by that point. Kenseth saw his opportunity to ruin Logano’s day—and maybe his round—and planted him into the wall.
Logano now has an uphill battle. Being 28 points below the cut when there’s no wild card like Talladega means he’ll have to get to the front in the next two races and win.
It’s unlikely Kenseth will come for him again, seeing as all eyes will be on these two from here on out.
The No. 22 car won’t do anything stupid because it's still alive. Kenseth used his one bullet and fired it right into Logano’s door. Only time will tell if it’s a kill shot.
Ricky Craven, a former NASCAR driver, tweeted, “When a driver (especially late in their career) feels as though something was taken from them, You typically see them take it back.”
Winner: Martin Truex Jr.
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There’s a reason some parks tell you not to feed the geese: They’ll never leave.
That’s kind of what’s going on with Martin Truex Jr. He’s got a taste of the bread and he won’t leave the Chase scene.
Truex started on the front row at Martinsville and even led some laps, but a few poor pit stops and bad restarts sent him careening to the middle of the field.
Yet he kept on grinding, finishing in sixth, nine points to the good.
“I think in years past, this probably would have freaked me out. I think that I’d have been a lot more nervous, I’d been a lot more scared. I would have felt a lot worse had things not gone right than I do today,” he said in David Scott’s Charlotte Observer story.
Gordon wasn’t supposed to be here and he just won Martinsville. At this point, why can’t Truex sneak into Homestead leading that single car Furniture Row Racing team?
The next two tracks set up well for him. He has two top-fives at Texas and one at Phoenix. Can he point his way in? He may have to, because the faster cars in Harvick and Logano will be desperately gunning for a win at these tracks.
Loser: Matt Kenseth's Revenge
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It all started when Brad Keselowski tapped Kenseth’s bumper on a restart that crushed the No. 20 car.
Actually, it all started at Kansas—during the second race of the Contender Round—when Logano spun Kenseth out in the final laps, essentially eliminating Kenseth from the Chase.
At Martinsville, Kenseth maintains that he blew a right front tire and that’s what made him bodyslam Logano, but nobody in their right mind believes him.
Kenseth, very measured, said during the NBC Sports broadcast:
"It’s a really disappointing day. They were jacking up the restart real bad. Brad went in there and I got outside of Joey trying to race him for the win and Brad wiped me out for some reason. I’m not sure why. Then we had some damage on the right front and I should have put it in the garage. I couldn’t get it to turn and ran Joey over.
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Steve O’Donnell, executive VP of NASCAR, told reporters, “We were certainly disappointed with what took place on the race track. There’s a lot to digest.”
Kenseth was already laps down when he took out Logano. This was clearly a move borne out of vengeance.
Kenseth did what he set out to do, which was compromise Logano’s chances at advancing. Logano will have to win at Texas or Phoenix to keep those hopes alive.
“He’s got a couple races left,” Kenseth said. “He’s got the best car. He might get a couple wins. I’m disappointed it came down to that. I was out there trying to race as hard as I could.”
Winner: The Drive for Five Is Alive
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Once the aftermath of the Logano-Kenseth dustup was cleaned up, Gordon grinded out green-white-checkered finish, holding off a game Jamie McMurray to win at Martinsville, his ninth career win at the track and 93rd overall.
More important? He secured one of the four spots at Homestead with a chance to win his fifth Sprint Cup in this, his final season.
“This is the most sweetest, most amazing feeling,” Gordon said after the race during the broadcast.
This was Gordon’s chance to advance, and he rose to the occasion while faster cars, namely Logano and Keselowski, were compromised by crashes.
Gordon’s win salvaged what turned out to be a sour final 50-ish laps with the Logano-Kenseth wreck.
Going forward, can Gordon contend for the championship straight up with the No. 22, the No. 4, the No. 2? Just as Kyle Busch said in his post-race press conference, if the 22 isn’t there, than Gordon has little to worry about.
And with the iconic grandfather clock ticking behind Gordon in Victory Lane, you get the sense that he bought himself just a little more time this season.
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