FanHouse Martinsville

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.

Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson led 339 laps Sunday afternoon at Martinsville Speedway en route to winning the Tums Quikpak 500, his sixth of the 2008 season.

More importantly, it gave Johnson -- yeah, that guy who's won two championships in-a-row -- a 149 point lead in the Chase for the Sprint Cup standings after Jeff Burton was penalized for pitting outside the box late in the race.

NASCAR's two biggest names -- Earnhardt and Petty -- might fall under the same banner in the near future in the latest sign of how NASCAR's middle-of-the-road teams are struggling to keep pace with multi-car and mega-supported teams in the Sprint Cup Series.

While Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty never were true rivals on-track, the competition between each drivers' stats always persisted. Earnhardt never matched Petty's incredible 200-win total, but in 1992, he reached seven championships in NASCAR's top division to tie "The King".

Knowing that, it seems especially weird that at least one team representative acknowledge this weekend that Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Petty Enterprises have had discussions about joining forces.

"I think in this time, in this sport, anybody running from one team to three teams is talking to somebody, and anybody with four teams is trying to get to eight teams," said Loomis, vice president of race operations for Petty Enterprises.

Loomis likened it to what has been taking place throughout the financial world in recent weeks. Organizations such as Petty Enterprises and DEI, which are short on sponsorship dollar commitments for next season, are trying to align themselves with larger companies that are on more solid financial ground.

So there you have it.

NASCAR might as well just forget to schedule qualifying-day activities after rain knocked out all on-track activity Friday at Martinsville Speedway for the eighth time this season.

That's got to be some sort of record, though I don't know for sure. (Brownie points to the first person to get the right answer!)

You know the drill -- Jimmie Johnson will be starting out front, Jeff Burton second, Greg Biffle third, and Carl Edwards fourth -- thanks to their position currently in the NASCAR owner point standings.

Who got the chopping block thanks to the unending precipitation? Well, that would be 1990 Daytona 500 champ Derrike Cope and Sterling Marlin. Both will be headed home after NASCAR's system of determining who races and who doesn't kept them out of the 43 car field.

The red color scares off some, and the remnants of it may find their way to a poor soul's shirt, but the "Famous Martinsville hot dog" is a true relic of the "good ol' days" of NASCAR racing.

The hot dog, a trademark at the half-mile paperclip track since who-knows-when, is one thing you don't mess with at a track known for heated tempers and bent sheet metal. The dog even has a Youtube video about it, which you can catch below the jump.

After all, $2 will get you a hot dog that easily clears most of the major food groups.

The dogs start with boiled Jesse Jones hot dogs, wrapped into what is more of a roll than a hot dog bun, and then topped with chili, mustard, onions, and vinegar-based slaw. The concoctions are then then wrapped in some wax paper and left in a steamer to keep in their warmth.

Fans, drivers, crew members and -- most naturally, of course -- media members dig the famous creations and a few years ago, disdain over a change to the normal recipe caused the top levels of NASCAR to get involved.

Five races into the 2008 Sprint Cup season, the Fanhouse recaps the Top-5 lessons learned in 2008. Check back each day to get revved up for Sunday's Goody's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

Five weeks into the first full season with the next-generation race car in the Sprint Cup Series, and its hard not to surmise that the reaction is still quite mixed.

At Daytona, it was a great race car, creating more drafting and passing opportunities while also returning much of the handle to the drivers.

Since then, there really hasn't been much difference in the way the car races with the exception of Atlanta. However, the tire combination was also a significant factor in the race car there, so defining its performance at AMS would best be described as a "crapshoot".

Otherwise, "bland" might be a little better of a word for the car.

Due to the fact that Sprint Cup Series was off last weekend for Easter, the Fanhouse is digging deep for some past highlights from Martinsville Speedway, site of this Sunday's Goody's Cool Orange 500.

In this one from 1999, Tony Stewart and the late Kenny Irwin have their share of run-ins on the half-mile paper clip. Apologies in advance for the European broadcast commentary, I couldn't find the ESPN version.



The conflict got started early in the day when Stewart spun out Irwin in turn 4.

Tony would later call that a mistake, and with good reason.

Five races into the 2008 Sprint Cup season, the Fanhouse recaps the Top-5 lessons learned in 2008. Check back each day to get revved up for Sunday's Goody's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

Can we blame probation? Toyota? Subway commercials? A new girlfriend?

I don't know which one to pick exactly, but for some God-awful reason, Tony Stewart has given up on his barber.

As you can see to the right, Stewart's hair has gotten to unbelievable levels. It looks waxy, unkept, and straight out of an Italian crime drama. And it could very well be part of the Tony Stewart we've seen in 2008.

One week, he's ripping Goodyear for its tire selection at Atlanta. He's the only one, so he says, that is willing to take such a decisive stand on a issue in the garage area.

The next, he's giving one of the oddest interviews of his career after getting out of his wrecked race car in Bristol. Instead of being livid, mad, and otherwise Tony Stewart-like, Driver No. 20 had a strange sense of sarcasm and a cool head, despite being wrecked with 2 laps to go.

For once, Stewart wasn't snappy with a reporter, didn't throw anyone under the bus, and played off a disappointing finish with a cool approach.

What does that have to do with his hair?