CupScene.com

(By Sarah Farlee Managing Editor, CupScene.com)

Posted: Sunday,October 30th, 2011

Martinsville, Va., - Tony Stewart wins the Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway were it was a day full of wrecks and rallies. The win gives Stewart a boost in the Chase for the Sprint Cup points standings to second, only eight points behind leader Carl Edwards.

“He better be worried that’s all I got to say,” Stewart said of Edwards and the points shift. “He isn’t going to have an easy three weeks.”

With three races left in the 2011 season the Chase for the Sprint Cup will head west to Texas Motor Speedway.

Tony Stewart was able to get around Jimmie Johnson for the win. Johnson settled for second, Jeff Gordon was third and Kevin Harvick was fourth. (Getty Images)

Carl Edwards, leader
After qualifying was rained out on Friday, Edwards started the race on the pole but didn’t stay there long. Edwards fell back early, had a pit road issue, and was a beneficiary of the lucky dog twice. Edwards was able to finish ninth.

“That’s a gift to have finished in ninth and have the day we had,” Edwards said. “We were going to do the same thing we did last week and just cruise around the back and wait for everything to work out – it was a lot of work. Bob (Osborne, crew chief) did a good job keeping me calm and now we go to Texas, I’m really excited about Texas.”

Tony Stewart, second place (-8 points)
Stewart was upset most of the day and struggled with the car throughout the race, and was in danger of going a lap down. Stewart had contact with Kevin Harvick at the front of the field early in the race and Stewart decided to pit for a flat tire—that wasn’t flat.

“I swore I had a left rear flat,” said Stewart. “We had changed so much stuff during the race that I didn’t think it was flat but I thought it was going down. You know, we had contact with (Kevin) Harvick and I felt a ‘clunk’ and I didn’t know if it broke something or if we had a flat, but at that part of the race you couldn’t take a chance. But (crew chief) Darian Grubb saved us and got us the great pit strategy there at the end that got us the track position back.”

Kevin Harvick, third place (-21 points)
Harvick said the race was definitely a battle with everyone driving hard. Harvick was able to lead laps nabbing a valuable bonus point, and finish fourth.

“I know the guys did a good job making the cars better and we got good track position,” Harvick said. “The No. 31 (Jeff Burton) helped us on that last restart there to get down, I really appreciate that. Just the top was tough for me to get going on the restarts. The No. 14 (Tony Stewart, race winner) was really the only one that could make any ground on the restarts and that is what won him the race.”

Brad Keselowski, fourth place (-27 points)
Keselowski continues to hang on to a championship chance, even after a disappointing 17th place finish after running consistently in the top-10 throughout the day. An incident on the final restart when several cars were bottled up on the restart caused Keselowski to spin up into the outside groove, there was no caution called as NASCAR determined Keselowski was high enough on the track and drove away quickly.

Matt Kenseth, fifth place (-36 points)
Kenseth’s championship hopes aren’t completely gone, but have slipped further from reach following a 31st place finish. Kenseth was involved in two altercations; the first on lap 464 involved Juan Pablo Montoya and Kyle Busch that resulted in significant damage. The accident started when Kenseth locked up the brakes going into the corner.

“I felt like I left him (Kyle Busch) some room on the outside, but everybody was kind of slow and checked up,” said Kenseth. “I had a run under him and I was almost to his door and all of a sudden we just got together. I must have had a flat tire and didn’t know it, because I went into three and couldn’t steer or couldn’t stop it and wrecked all those guys. I feel bad about that.”

Kenseth finished off the wrecked car on lap 492 bringing out the 18th caution of the day after a run in with Brian Vickers.

“Brian (Vickers) just kept hitting me in the door,” said Kenseth. “I mean, we’re at Martinsville and I gave him the bottom. Obviously, I’m not going to roll over and let him go. He just kept driving in harder and harder and he slammed me in the door at least five times and just ran me up in the marbles and I was just tired of it, so I spun him out.”

Jimmie Johnson, sixth place (-43 points)
Johnson wasn’t able to hold off race winner Stewart and settled for a second place finish. Johnson said Stewart was strong on the outside and couldn’t get away from the No. 14 on the restart.

“I was more worried about clipping a curb when he was running me tight and not take him out of a championship situation, minding my P’s and Q’s,” Johnson said. “I just wanted to do the right thing and unfortunately got beat in the process. Thought about going in there and leaning on him, move him up but that is just not the right thing to do. I just wished that prior to that the No. 83 was a part of every caution. I wish he could have just driven around the race track and we could have won this thing, but whatever, we will move on.”

Kyle Busch, seventh place (-57 points)
Busch was involved in the incident with Kenseth that caused significant damage to the No. 18. Busch finished 26th and crew chief Dave Rogers was pleased with the race overall having led laps and ran at the front of the field. Rogers was also happy with how Busch handled the adversity.

Kyle Busch spun into the wall after contact with Matt Kenseth. Mark Martin (No. 5) was able to drive through. Busch finished 26th, Kenseth finished 31st. (Getty Images)

“The 17 (Matt Kenseth) got into us coming off turn two — I don’t know if he cut his right-front (tire) or not,” said Rogers. “Then got into turn three and 17 (Matt Kenseth) had his tires locked up and drove into our left rear quarter. I’d like to think it’s good, hard, clean racing at Martinsville and we’re a victim of circumstance at a short track.”

“It caught Kyle by surprise and he didn’t know he was going to take a shot in the left rear and he did,” Rogers added. “Unfortunately, we backed one in and then we made some errors on pit road. Our day was done as soon as we made contact, but we were trying to salvage as many laps as we could.”

Kurt Busch, eighth place (-58 points)
Busch had an eventful day on the way to a 14th place finish. Busch was involved in the lap seven incident when Earnhardt bounced off the curb and into Busch causing both to spin and bottled up the field. On lap 398 Busch made contact with Jeff Burton after contact with Ryan Newman, on lap 427 an incident with Paul Menard sent Busch for a spin, and on lap 475 Busch nudged Newman into a spin.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., ninth place (-73 points)
Earnhardt admitted he was probably “a little too excited” at the drop of the green flag, but had fun driving to a seventh place finish in one of the more aggressive displays by the driver of the No. 88. Earnhardt was involved in a lap seven caution, got into Joey Logano, and David Ragan, and challenged Burton for position. Earnhardt wasn’t worried about other drivers being upset.

“I mean everybody that I think I ran over even got me back accidentally in one shape or form today,” said Earnhardt. “I don’t know if they think we are all even but I ain’t really worried about it. If they want to come at me, come at me.”

“I had fun today and this is short track racing and we don’t do as much short track racing anymore so when you see this kind of thing, you are like ‘whoa, what’s going on’, because we run on these mile-and-a-halfs and you don’t see that kind of crap,” Earnhardt added.

Jeff Gordon, 10th place (-76 points)
Gordon’s day went from interesting to typical as the No. 24 found a way to the front. Gordon leads active drivers with seven wins at the shortest track on the circuit, and finished in the third position.

“I got caught up in that incident early on,” said Gordon. “It looked like Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. got into the curb a little bit getting into (Turn) 1 and we just had nowhere to go. I probably should have went low, but I chose to get out of the way of the guys behind me and I center-punched him. We’re pretty lucky. That right-front brake duct was tore up pretty good and at this place, cooling those brakes is pretty important. And I beat it up. I ran it as hard as I possibly could.”

The Chase drivers brought the field to green after qualifying was rained out. The Chase standings got a shake up after Martinsville. (Getty Images)

Denny Hamlin, 11th place (-80 points)
Hamlin was bottled up with in the melee on lap seven, but had no damage and was able to get a fifth place finish. Hamlin was happy to be competitive and said the race was crazy—even for Martinsville.

“People just have no regard,” said Hamlin. “I would get into guys and then I know it’s coming — I’m going to get slammed in the next corner. It’s just one of those things where it’s frustrating to watch because you see some of these cars getting torn up on accidents. Accidents happen and some these drivers need to realize that.”

Ryan Newman, 12th place (-89 points)
Ryan Newman spun late after being nudged by Kurt Busch, but rebounded for a 10th place finish.

“We had fresh tires and got spun out there and had to go to the back and drove back up to the top-10,” said crew chief, Tony Gibson. “I don’t know what else you can do, you know. We led laps. Disappointing, that’s all.”