Full Throttle

After today’s Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway only four events remain in NASCAR’s Chase for the NEXTEL Cup Championship. And as you can see by the image at left, only four drivers remain with a realistic shot at the prize.

Carl Edwards, Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace and Matt Kenseth… you’re all history. You’ve all been officially “X”ed, at least by me (J. Mayfield and K. Busch had already been hit by my spray can) . The numbers haven’t caught up with you yet, but they soon will. And BTW, anyone heard or seen anything from that “crowd?” You know the one, all crying in their beer about how Ghengis Roush and his Hoard of Roushketeers would dominate the last ten and everyone else could just mail it in. They’ve become damn silent of late, wonder why?

And that other crowd crying about a winless Champ can also move to the back of the bus and sit down, it ain’t happenin’.

As for the race itself it was a typical Martinsville event. A lot of slammin’ and bangin’ with Tony Stewart dominating but having to settle for 2^ndbehind Jeff Gordon and ahead of Jimmie Johnson. Smoke regained sole possession of the points lead by 15 points over Johnson.

The question now is, is there a new “Hoard” in town? Stewart was joined in the top ten by Joe Gibbs teammates Bobby Labonte in fourth - my pick to win, but as poor as he has run all year I’ll take it as a win - and rookie Denny Hamlin in eigth place.

NASCAR, NEXTEL Cup, Auto Racing, Sports