Martinsville, Part 4 - Sunshine, the Race is On, and It's Definitely a Kodak Moment!

Ok, this is the final chapter in the Martinsville chronicle (I'll bet you're glad)! ;-) But first. . . a couple of things I forgot in the other parts (besides "the song".  First off, on our drive down on Friday, we stopped at a little gas station in rural Virgina.  You know the kind of place with a store, lunch counter, etc.  As I walk in the station, I see a sign that says: "No pets!  Including snakes."  Seems they must have had a problem with people bringing in a lot of snakes! :-0 Second, when I went into the ladies room (which was very clean), it was a one room home type of bathroom, I notice a gumball machine to the left front of the toilet.  In it are those little plastic containers that normally would hold a tiny toy for children.  Well, this one had condoms in it! :-0  The handwritten sign said "Takes two quarters.  For ages 16 and older."  Hmmm. . . how are you gonna stop a little kid from wanting one of those if it's in a gumball machine???? ;-) Just thought I'd share that.  Figured the trip was gonna be interesting after those two things. :-)

After the storms and assorted warnings of the night before, we woke up to clear and sunnyt skys and pleasantly warm temperatures on Monday morning. :-) Hmmm. . . just like last fall in Martinsville!  Maybe the weather gods don't want any Sunday races there. ;-)

The race was scheduled to start at 11:00 a.m., but David and Shari were anxious to get up to the track early (guess they'd been cooped up in that trailer with their kids for just a little too long. . .).  We agreed to walk up to the track with them at 9:00, so I went to tell the NC contingent we were leaving early.   They had already been joined by the famous/infamous "our Paula," the ultimate Jeff Gordon fan.  She and her husband, Don, drove in from Hillsborough for the day.  Apparently Kdub had already been filling Paula in on my escapades from the night before.  The first thing Paula says is "I hear you tied one on last night!"  Great!  Now everyone at the whole track will know! ;-)

We said goodbye to the NC folks and headed up to the track.  Shari Gregg and the kids were very excited since it was their first live race. :-) We parted ways with the Greggs since we had separate seats and Lou and I climbed up to our seats in the Richard Petty Tower, Row 32, aisle seats. :-) Great view of turn 4 and the entrance to pit road; in fact we were right across from Mark Martin's pit and the infamous water barrels! :-0

The race is probably old news by now and I can't remember a lot of scanner bites anymore (sorry!), but...Rusty was giving Hamilton a run for his money at the beginning and I did hear this from #4:

Spotter - "Let him lead a lap, but don't make it easy for him."  After this Hamilton let Rusty about ½ a car length ahead to technically lead a lap and get 5 pts, but then cruised right back in front of him.

Much later (when Kyle was lined up inside on a restart), Hamilton: "I'm not letting him by me.  I remember last year at Dover, I was a lap down and he wouldn't let me back on the lead lap!"  Hmmm. . . maybe this is one reason BH left the #43 team! ;-)

MM, as he hits the water barrels: "SHIT!!!"

McReynolds telling DE what changes they wanted to make to the car under a yellow flag.  DE:  "So are we pitting or what????"

Sorry, can't remember a whole lot more.  After the race, Paula's husband, Don, did say that Jimmy Spencer was cussing a blue streak at the tow truck operator who was pulling him out of the mud in turn one.  Apparently, Jimmy wanted them to put the car down, so he could get back in the race.

As the laps of the race wound down, both JG and RW dropped back a little.  Didn't hear any whining or complaining from either of them; their cars just seemed to go away on that last long green run and Hamilton's car got stronger.  Later Lou said he'd heard BH, in an interview on Sat or Sun, say that others' cars fell off and his just got stronger on long green runs.  Guess that was true!

As everyone knows, both DJ and DE made great pit decisions and got stronger near the end.  Ted Musgrave seemed to save his car till the end, so he moved up, but no one had anything for Hamilton and it was definitely a Kodak Moment in victory lane that day! :-)  Finally someone in the 43 car that I kinda like.  ;-)

Oh yeah!  DE managed to give Randy Lajoie a not too nice nudge to pass him for 5th (I think) place; I didn't appreciate that too much at the time.  ;-)

After the race, we headed back to the campground and rehashed the race with the rest of the gang.  I damn near had to slap Paula's husband, Don, cause he kept saying a bunch of stupid stuff (not about anyone special-kinda like about every driver that wasn't Mark Martin, including Alan Kluwicki).  :-0  He's the type that gives MM fans a bad name.  :-(

Us Marylanders hurried and packed up our trailers, hitched up and headed back north, saying goodbye to the Dubs, the Browns, and Paula & Don.  The Gregg family seemed to really enjoy their first race, despite the fact they had to wait out an extra day through rain to see it.  :-)

Coming soon, the Talladega Epic. ;-)

Cheryl

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