FanHouse GoodysCoolOrange500

Twenty-five years later, Hendrick Motorsports is still on top at Martinsville Speedway after driver Jimmie Johnson bumped his way past Denny Hamlin to secure the win in Sunday's Goody's Cool Orange 500.

Don't say we didn't warn you.

Monday afternoon will be the right time for race time after rain halted plans to run Saturday's Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway.

The rain set in over the speedway just as CWTS qualifying was ending, but the session was completed with Rick Crawford earning the pole. Instead of taking his truck to the green flag for the Kroger 250 later in the day, he'll instead get that opportunity Monday at 12 p.m./EDT.

Friday afternoon, the skies over Martinsville, Va., didn't cooperate with NASCAR officials.

In town for the sixth race of the still young 2009 season, both the Sprint Cup Series and the Camping World Truck Series got in some needed practice time before rain showers halted activities at the 0.526-mile short track later in the afternoon -- scrubbing both Sprint Cup qualifying and a full CWTS final practice.

Thanks to the rain, point leader Jeff Gordon will start on Sunday's pole but Saturday activities might also be slowed by more precipitation.

Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway saw its share of spins and wrecks to contribute the races 18 cautions.

Aside from Matt Kenseth's antics, the biggest crash of the day involved 5 cars early in the 500 lap event. The melee, shown below, involved Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte, Aric Almirola, Scott Riggs, and Martin Truex Jr.


Almirola slid the nose of his No. 8 coming off of turn four into Bobby Labonte on the outside, turning the No. 43 and blocking the track for the rest of the field. Riggs then gets turned by Gordon as the accordion effect takes shape, damaging the nose of the No. 24.

Former NASCAR champion has made it a well-known fact that he doesn't get along with Martinsville Speedway.

Sunday, he made it very well known that he just isn't very good at wrecking people intentionally without getting caught. Catch the first replay at 0:10:



As you can see, Kenseth's yellow and black DeWalt Ford suddenly swiped up the track directly into the right rear corner of David Gilliland's No. 38. Naturally, the No. 38 quickly spun up against the turn 2 wall.

When Jeff Gordon got out of his No. 24 Chevrolet following Sunday's Goody's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville Speedway, he was wondering why he had lost so much grip over the last 50 laps.

Then, he felt the pavement and saw just how moist it was, and immediately understood why.

Nearly all day, a heavy mist hung over the track -- wreaking havoc with on-board cameras, windshields, and FOX's rooftop cameras. Throw in temperatures in the low 40's, cloud cover, and a cool breeze and the conditions were just plain horrible.

But yet, nearly 60,000 race fans made it to Martinsville and stuck around for 500 laps of Sprint Cup action, and they should be applauded.

Let's face it -- sitting in aluminum grandstands elevated off the ground wouldn't be most people's cup of tea on a blustery, rainy, early spring afternoon.

If you're starting to shiver a little bit at your keyboard right now, then you're starting to get the feeling.

Denny Hamlin beat the rain, beat the cold, and beat Jeff Gordon's best charge to win Sunday's Goody's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

The win was a first for the Virginia-native in his home state and the fourth of his career.

Hamlin held on to the victory despite Jeff Gordon breathing down his neck late in the event. Gordon steadily closed on Hamlin's No. 11 in the final ten laps, but soon ran out of time.

The race featured a comeback bid of sorts for Hendrick Motorsports with all four drivers finishing in the Top-10. Gordon was 2nd, Jimmie Johnson 4th, Dale Earnhardt Jr. 6th, and Casey Mears 7th. With the exception of Mears, the remaining three HMS drivers have found the Top-10 in points despite having what many have called a lackluster season.

18 cautions for 88 laps kept NASCAR officials on their toes, including former champion Matt Kenseth getting a two-lap penalty for wrecking David Gililland in the most of intentional ways possible.

Kyle Busch came to Martinsville with the point lead, but he slid to 5th in the standings after getting involved in a wreck on lap 23 and then breaking a rear end gear.

What: Goody's Cool Orange 500
Where: Martinsville Speedway, Martinsville, Va.
When: Sunday, March 30 1:30pm/et FOX (Green Flag Approx. 2:00pm/et)
Distance: 500 laps, 263 miles
Weather: Rain likely, mainly after 8am. Cloudy, with a high near 39. East wind between 7 and 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Ugh.
2007 Winner: Jimmie Johnson
Predictions: Keep Reading





Rain-proof race tracks, anyone? NASCAR again faces a big time threat of rain Sunday at Martinsville as the keen observers of FanHouse can tell from the title of "Weather" above. Two words about that:

Does anyone really care what Jack Roush has to say anymore? Or has the "irrelevant" tag finally landed squarely on his shoulders?

Honestly, at this point, if Jack Roush -- owner of Roush Fenway Racing -- were to be illustrated in a comic book, he'd be the guy with the bubble over his head saying "Toyota did this" or "I hate Toyota" or "My teams can't beat Toyota, so I bring up other issues". In other words, the guy that the good guy would destroy at the end.

But Geoffrey, why the hate towards ol' Jack?

Friday afternoon at Martinsville Speedway, Roush decided to head down that "Toyota is ending the world as we know it" path -- again -- to respond to a story that quoted him earlier this week talking about a part that Toyota either stole or mistakenly took, depending on who you talk to.

The part in question, according to Roush, was a sway bar that had proprietary designs to it made exclusively for RFR. Somehow, it disappeared during last fall's Sprint Cup event in Dover.

The culprit? A Toyota team that Roush wouldn't identify. Michael Waltrip, though, would later take responsibility, saying that it was a "mistake" and that his team called Roush and promptly returned it.

That being said, Roush tells a little bit different story -- like a person trying to drum up support against someone else would -- and has tried to persuade NASCAR to get involved in reprimanding the team (MWR) in question.

So what's all this talk about a drought for Hendrick Motorsports?

Team driver Jeff Gordon gave the racing media a chance to quit their barking about the HMS performance over the first five races by putting his No. 24 Chevrolet on the pole for Sunday's Goody's Cool Orange 500.

His seventh-career Martinsville Speedway pole -- yep, that's just one shy of the track record -- came quite solidly after picking up over two-tenths of a second from his fastest practice lap, enough to make his qualifying lap of 19.666 over a tenth quicker than 2nd-place Denny Hamlin.

The pole was Gordon's 65th of his career, 2nd of the season, and yada yada yada. In other words, Jeff Gordon is in normal form at Martinsville this weekend and barring a large concrete block hitting the front end of his car, he's gonna be tough as nails on the .526-mile track.

Aric Almirola, David Ragan, and Jamie McMurray rounded out the latter half of a top-5 that could easily be mistaken for a Nationwide Series lineup. The rest of Hendrick will line up 10th (Jimmie Johnson), 22nd (Dale Earnhardt Jr.), and 39th (Casey Mears).