So I got up at 7:30 in the morning and made the 2 hour drive to Martinsville. Parking was a disaster, even for a race track. I basically put my Monte Carlo on a hill steep enough to stall an automatic transmission in a cow pasture.

Souveneir stand prices are falling rapidly. I guess this is partially becasue it's the end of the year, and they know they can't get anything for that stuff for much longer. I bought a 1/64 Jeff Gordon and a pair of Carl Edwards special paint job cars for $2-4 each, and thats about what they all were. CHEAPER THAN WAL MART!! Those driver jackets that are like $99 on NASCAR.com... $70 Model cars, the 1/24 scale... $35-55, depending on the driver and paint job. Oh, and Kasey Kahne's old stuff is dirt cheap...

The infamous Martinsville hotdog isn't so bad either. Worth $2 each!!! Chili and BBQ sauce on it... MM!!!! Just like momma makes 'em!

I also saw some stupid driving. When guys spun out, they acted like they didn't care who was around when they turned back around. Sam Hornish nearly nailed about 4 lead cars, mainly Dale Jr. as they came by while he was trying to get it right, then when he took off, he had a flat tire and couldn't control his car. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. chased him around the track for a few moments after that. That was funny. Then Clint Bowyer spun, and he just drove backwards around the track and hte leaders all stopped for several seconds and they acted like they were playing chicken with one another in turn 3. Marcos Ambrose wasn't much better.


Martin Truex Jr. is an idiot too. That car wasn't running for a long time, and he passed the first entrance to the garage, off turn 2 at the exit of pit road, and brought out that caution. He was supposbely trying to refire the car, but he should have known at that point it was a loss and tried to restart it in the garage. What an idiot.

The guys in the back are almost as much fun to watch as guys in the front. They nearly wreck one another every other lap. And at the track, you can really see how much more aggressive guys get later on, they start pinching one another more and shoving.

And speaking of shoving, I was watching Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch each time they would go by me. Jeff was a good bit faster than Kurt, but was in the back becuase he kept getting stuck in the outside on restarts. He was trying to set him up several times going into the corners. He diamond cornered 1 and 2 for a set up, then took an aggressive line into turn 3 which Kurt tried to block, and I saw him go up the track. I then turned to watch the leaders go by and saw the 24 sliding down the straightaway... well, I put together in my head what happened.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.... well, I thought he was a lap down or something, but no, he was charging to the front and led laps!!! The fans loved that! The Fans cheered Jeff Gordon when he was leading, and cheered him when he wrecks. Martinsville hates Jimmie Johnson too. And for a guy who gets booed a lot, Kyle Busch sells a lot of merchandise. Oh, and so does Danica, even though she wasn't even there.

AT the mid points, it was almost annoying how many cautions there were... just waching cars idle by so much. Then taht 99 lap green flag run... I was rooting for it to stay green so Jimmie couldn't have a chance. I'm glad Denny won, and there were a surprising number of boos for the Virginia native, but a lot more cheers still. Pretty funny. And with 20 laps to go, it's a wonder we never had a caution because someone had an engine fialure/tire smoke (something to cuase smoke) and about 4 cars cut tires and had a hard time getting to the bottom of the track. But it was a great race, and about the most exciting one I've ever been to (Winston in '01, Charlotte last fall, Dover and Martinsville this year.

And Moderator Space... I didn't know you were sponsoring the 71 car!! You're guy nearly took out the Taco Bell and Long John Silvers cars (as if they coudln't do a good enough job of taking each other out) I watched them as they came by, the first 10 laps or so, that MODSPACE car nearly took out everyone! Here is a picture of it



Look on pit road, behind the 88

And in the Speed Fan Zone, you can get a picture taken behind this little fake booth, but the Green Screen was not working..



And here are some other pictures....

 

great pics man !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

Very cool pics Duane!

 

Cool pics... brings back so many memories from my b~day 6 years ago...we were sitting in about the same area in turn 1, in the highest row =]

 

Looks alot different in pictures than on tv. very cool, Good race too seems like martinsville has been lacking the last few years. Go Harvick!!!!!!

 

Everywhere has been lacking to be honest. The COT just doesn't measure up in my opinion, I gave it a chance, but it needs some changes. You used to see guys go diving down on to the apron on mile and a half tracks, dive into corners harder... they just don't do that anymore, not like they did.