FanHouse Martinsville Speedway

Where: Martinsville Speedway
Time: Sunday 1:30 p.m. EST
TV/Radio: ABC, MRN Radio
Twitter: Updates @ FanHouseRacing
Forecast: Mostly sunny, High 60s
Distance: 500 laps (263 miles)
Pole Winner: Ryan Newman
2008 Winner: Jimmie Johnson

For for the first time in 2009, Kyle Busch left a race weekend without a race-winning trophy in hand and didn't appear a bit pleased with the way that happened.

Kevin Harvick nudged Busch's No. 51 in turn four at Martinsville Speedway and passed him for the lead with 10 laps to go in the rain-postponed Camping World Truck Series Kroger 250 to win the event, but not before Busch fell deep in the field.

While trying to straighten out a fender by brushing the infield wall under caution, Busch crossed the pit road commitment line and earned a penalty for not pitting. Busch was relegated to a 17th-place finish in the Kroger 250, and afterwards, dashed directly towards the track's exit to the motor home lot.

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.

What do you suppose DEI pulled out of the Garage Mahal and put under Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s hood this weekend?

Will he get an engine that lays all it's cylinders on the track up front and craps out before the halfway mark like in Fontana? Or will he get a teaser that takes him all the way to the end providing hope of a top 5 finish only to give up on the last lap like last weekend in Martinsville?

It's quite laughable that the #8 car was labeled still running in the Subway 500 results, but I guess that's accurate--it did, after all, sprint backwards from the fourth position to a 23rd place finish. But if the race had been even one lap longer, this would have been his eighth DNF of the season--seven due to engine failures.

Is it enough for conspiracy theories? Depends on who you ask. It's sure enough for Dale Jr. fans--and any other NASCAR fan whose got brain enough to recognize his talent and ability to put the car at the front of the pack.

Whatever it is they got him running in Atlanta was good enough for a top 5 start. But will it be good enough for a top 5 finish?

Consider Jimmie Johnson the new Martinsville master.

Johnson took Sunday's Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway for his 30th career victory over Ryan Newman and Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon. He now follows Gordon in the Chase for the Nextel Cup by 53 points with just four races left.

It's the first time one driver has taken three-straight at Martinsville since Rusty Wallace did it in 1994-95.

Late in the race, cautions were the story and likely affected Jeff Gordon's chances -- who led a race high 168 laps -- at winning a possible third race in a row. Needing longer runs for his car to come in, Gordon was hampered by several yellows and was passed on a late restart by Newman.

Another caution flew leading to a final green-white-checkered finish that could have been more exciting had David Ragan not spun in turn one. NASCAR, like usual, waited to throw the caution flag and very nearly put a stalled Ragan in harm's way as the leaders flew into turn one before NASCAR threw the yellow, sealing Johnson's win.

Clint Bowyer, third in points, and Tony Stewart, fourth, finished 9th and 13th respectively. Bowyer now sits 110 points back of Gordon and Stewart holds a deficit of 244 points, unofficially.

So ... in case you haven't heard, Malibu, Calif. is on fire. In fact, some of Malibu is burning to the ground. Pepperdine University has been evacuated as have numerous residences. No fatalities have been reported, but the historic Castle Kashan has been lost ... and the fire jumped and is now burning on both sides of the Pacific Coast Highway.

We were warned by meteorologists for days that the Santa Ana winds were coming to wreak havoc in Southern California. So, while tragic, the raging fires came as no surprise.

SoCal NASCAR fans received no advance warning, however, that we would not be watching NASCAR because KABC-TV would preempt the race for breaking news coverage. Hard to be mad at KABC for that ... but ...

It's not hard to be mad at ESPN and NASCAR for being content to screw the fans instead of having a contingency plan in place. The second-largest television market is being denied access to the Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway. And ESPN couldn't care less ... their official response: contact the station.

Why would ESPN not preempt Pro-Bowling on ESPN? or "The Blitz" talk show on ESPN2? Re-programming certainly seems justified for a preempted Chase race! Or, here's an idea, how about putting some programming on ESPNA or ESPN2A which are currently showing NOTHING!

Once again, I have to thank ESPN ... thanks for nothing.

1--and only. Four-time Cup champion; current points leader; Subway 500 pole-sitter Jeff Gordon.

This is Gordon on Martinsville Speedway: most poles of any active driver (5); most wins of any active driver (7), most top 5s of any active driver (17); 23 top 10s in 29 starts; most lead lap finishes of any active driver (22); all-time record-holding driver with the fewest DNFs (0). Twice he's won from the pole. Any questions?

Former Cup champion Jeff Gordon had more than 10 laps to move his teammate out of the way for the win in Martinsville Sunday but couldn't get the job done.

Is Jimmie Johnson that good? Or did Gordon go soft on him?

The announcers intimate that Gordon took it easy on Johnson because he's his Hendrick Motorsports teammate--not to mention Gordon is also an owner in the #48 team.

Gordon's post-race tears quotes imply that if it had been anyone but a teammate out front that he would have put the driver in the wall and if any other driver besides Gordon had been in 2nd, he'd have also taken Johnson out.

But what was really going through Gordon's mind those last few laps were Talladega flashbacks:

"We're out here to win a championship and by wrecking him or myself or both of us trying to go for that win which Rick Hendrick has seen before and I've heard about those Monday morning meetings and I don't want to be a part of that."

Fair enough. But does anyone really believe that Gordon didn't do everything he could to win?