WINSTON SALEM, NC :: As I sit here four days after the greatest race in America, I just wanted to share some feelings and adventures the weekend had in store for me and others. Martinsville is an “event” as much as it is a race, and the fellowship and good times go hand in hand with the racing.
I started my day off on Saturday with practice and qualifying. I had some yard work to do so I got there a little later than I wanted to, but still in time for practice to start. Or so I thought. I rolled up to get credentials and cars were already on track over half an hour ahead of schedule, which is not a bad thing at all. As I walk into the tunnel and emerge in the infield, I’m surrounded by the sweetest sound one could ask for, a plethora of race cars zooming around as teams bustle in the garage, to me, the greatest place on earth.
Practice went along with not many surprises, although it was a bad deal seeing Quinn Houff hit the wall and have his weekend over before it started, these guys work all year just to get to this race. The fast guys that we all knew would be fast were just that, and it came down to the top two dogs this year, Lee Pulliam and Peyton Sellers. While both drivers would run nearly the same exact times, Sellers would edge out Lee to start on the pole for Sunday. Of course that was not without controversy as they do the group qualifying, or European qualifying, if you will, and both drivers had to pass slower cars during their pole attempts. We need to go back to regular single car qualifying like we have always had; it is much more exciting and a lot fairer to the drivers.
As we wrap up qualifying and depart the track I tried to decide what to do. I only live 50 minutes or so away, but I was tired and didn’t feel like driving so I got one of the last rooms at the little motel right at the track, and it was a surprisingly nice room. Some friends from the Virginia hills were camping in the campground and wanted me to come up, so they sent someone to get me and the night began.
Now, I didn’t expect many people to be camping, it was a Late Model race and not like Cup weekend. I guess being in the pits all day, I didn’t notice all the big RVs on the backstretch, and when I got up there you could see the scope of all that had come, so many were hidden by those big RV’s. There were tons of people camping and we made our rounds through the mess of people. The biggest group was at the Ronald Hill campsite, Ronald wasn’t racing this weekend but is a weekly competitor at South Boston Speedway. His shin-dig had about 5 big RVs in a square, and the party was live to say the least. Tons of drivers and crew members there, and the laughs and jokes were non-stop. I went back and hung with the Franklin County crowd, and they topped it all, just tents and a campfire but it was wild to the core, I used my better judgment and got a ride back to my room at about 1am and proceeded to crash, only to get into another conversation as another one of my VA buddies was staying right next to me. My eyes were heavy and I was out finally.
The next morning, I head out for breakfast and Wal-Mart, only to see another person of the racing community in front of me, Jimmy Hardin, brother and crew-chief of Maryland racer Michael Hardin and we shot the bull and headed out. I was almost out of the store when I saw one of the guys from the crowd around the campfire, “You won’t believe what happened after you left” is what he said… you’ll get that on drinking nights at the campground from a race track. The rest of the story can’t be said here, but let me stress, if you have never camped for the Martinsville Late Model race, make it a point to do so.
As I walked into the track on Sunday morning, you could feel the excitement in the air, race day at Martinsville was finally here. The media center was full and we had our crew already hard at work, I think we had a small army but the coverage reflected the major efforts everyone had put in. I go out and make my rounds and talk smack and tell everyone good luck, that’s when I see Jamie Yelton. He informs me that one of his drivers, Payton Ryan will not be racing because he is sick and had to go home. I hated that for Payton as he is one of the up and coming drivers in Late Model racing. We tried to get Jamie to just drive the car, but he refused. In his old age he probably has lost his touch anyway and was acting somewhat scared of the competition. And I wrote that last line just to hear his mouth later, and rest assured, I will.
The autograph session was a hit with tons of fans on the track. As the fans are cleared we start to realize, it’s getting close, all we have worked for this week at RACE22 and what the teams have worked for all year was upon us. I head to the media center to get my stuff ready, when, in walks Yelton’s other driver, David Garbo Jr. and sits down beside me. Now when I first met him, I thought he was some arrogant kid with a lot of talk. In reality, after getting to know him, he is a pretty cool guy that can drive a racecar… with a lot of talk. Almost as much as me, which is why we get along well, as was just ragged each other for half an hour and laughed so hard I about cried. I finally had to remind him that his heat race was starting and that he needed to go race and we all head out to get this thing going.
As I take my place on the pit wall in turns one and two, the field for the first heat race gets rolling. I am then informed of something that I did not know by a crew member, that the caution laps in the heat races will count. To me, this idea makes me very mad, as the heat races are rough enough but now all the drivers know with the multiple cautions they produce, that they will only have 7-12 laps of racing so they will drive like maniacs knowing they don’t have much time. And so they did, from lap one entering turn three as Kres Van Dyke and Jamey Caudill make contact… for second… (yes, I’m shaking my head) and nearly the entire field wads up into them. This was not Van Dyke’s last run-in of the day, actually by the end of the racing he had a list of people wanting to converse with him.
Tommy Lemons would win the first heat after a great battle with Garbo. Coleman Presley would come home third and Kyle Dudley, one of the underdogs of the day would finish ninth to put him into his first ever Martinsville Late Model feature event. The other two heats would be much of the same with carnage, with Matt Bowling and Kaz Grala taking home wins in impressive fashion. Then we get to the last chance race.
And this race is another one that counts caution laps. Silly to me seeing that most of the field in this race were the causes or side-effects of cautions from the heats from people driving over their head knowing they had very little time. So let’s put them all in one race with the same rules, what’s the worst that could happen? We make it to lap two and everyone loses their minds, we all saw this coming.
And it went that way until the end, and one more big one coming across the line as Jake Crum beats Van Dyke across the line for 10th, but get violently turned into the wall ending his day for good. Now the opinions vary, but we had three storylines as this point, one was whether Crum would confront Van Dyke because the Crum’s have been known to throw some knuckles before, two was whether NASCAR was going to penalize Van Dyke for his actions, and three would be if they didn’t penalize him, how are they going to fix that car? Well one and two never happened, and three was NASCAR telling them it had to be repaired to the point that all the body had to be on it and looking nice, and this car looked totaled. I laughed when they said they could fix it in the 18 minutes before the feature started and I walked off. They had me amazed 18 minutes later.
As the race started, it was usual Martinsville. A quick caution then everyone pretty much acted like they had sense. To the point that it surprised me, the first 100 laps were pretty much green and produced some great racing as some drivers came and some went as they all got sorted out. I had my place on the wall in between the Garbo and Grala pit so I had two front runners around me with their crews giving me info. Garbo was strong and was just riding but Grala was going all out, and it showed.
Grala was driving a car out of the Garrett Campbell stables and all weekend Garrett had told me the car would be one to watch. He wasn’t kidding as Grala caught the early leaders of Pulliam and Sellers and made short work doing so taking over the top spot from Pulliam at lap 36 and steadily pulled away. I leaned over and asked Campbell if he was going all out and he said “Yes, we get tires at halfway, why wouldn’t we?” As he pulled off Pulliam was fading just a bit. I asked car owner Travis Kiker what the deal was and he said that the car was not perfect, it was close but no need to run it to death stay up so they started playing the strategy for the draw at halfway, not a bad idea since track position makes more difference every year.
While Pulliam was fading and Grala was going, Timothy Peters was flying and Philip Morris was struggling. Peters would flex his muscle late in the first half taking the lead away from Grala only to have a great side by side battle with Grala taking home the $2000 halfway leader bonus, by a nose. Behind them, the former national champ and three time winner at Martinsville, was doing all he could to get to the front. I saw something I have never seen out of the #26 car, mistakes. And maybe not so much mistakes as just him over driving the car to compensate the lack of speed it had, it for sure was not the same Clarence’s car we had seen in the past. But only running one race a year in a car puts you behind the eight ball already, the days of showing up and doing well are over, you have to race nearly every week to keep up with the times. Morris would make his way into the top ten bumping and grinding but would find trouble early in the second half.
At halftime it was pure pandemonium. Teams scrambling to make adjustments and i ran to the media center for the 100th time of the day. Martinsville may be the smallest track on the Cup circuit but it’s still a lot of moving around. I usually get interviews with all the front runners but this year was different, every driver was working on their cars, kind of refreshing to see that since the days of “kids with money that don’t work on jack” have fell heavy upon us. After a tame first half I knew business was about to pick up.
Grala would draw nine to the disgust of the Campbell patriarch Don Clapp, who scoffed at me about the draw. I admit, it’s a little much, if anything limit it to the top five, the field is so competitive now that track position is a premium. Mike Darne would be the lucky guy to start up front, and while not being talked about much all weekend, the #14 machine was a bullet. But he was being chased by the baddest kids on the block in Late Model racing right now, Garbo and Dillon Bassett. Garbo would try his luck on the outside numerous time to no avail, but the fact that he was so persistent was exciting to watch, he wanted the lead badly.
He would never get it and the carnage we knew was coming finally happened. First Todd Gilliland with a right front into the wall, then a big mess with Clint King, Gary Lewis and others causing a red flag. Former race winner Barry Beggarly is taken out along with Joey Mucciaccioro. During the red flag I pass by Travis Kiker again coming back from the crash scene. He says they had got into Morris right before that caution but didn’t mean to, said he was wondering if Philip would get them back. He was hoping not. He obviously was wishing for the best because he should know better.
When you mess with the bull you get the horns. That can be said a lot of most drivers, and Morris is one of them. On the restart, he jacks Pulliam up so bad in turn one, I have no idea how he didn’t wreck it. But he didn’t, matter of fact Morris didn’t even get around him as the crowd was on their feet screaming as they went door to door beating and banging (respectfully) for the next four laps. Pulliam was finally able to get around on the outside and it was over, sadly for Morris it would literally be over as the banging cut down his left front tire a few laps later and his race was done.
Garbo would follow the same fate of Morris as he breaks a hub and is out of the race as well. Too bad, the Jamie Yelton entry was a real threat for the grandfather clock and if the #8 had been up front at the end, who knows if he would of won but I’d bet my paycheck we would be talking about it today. Meanwhile, Darne is stout, but Sellers is pressing the issue.
Grala would try to come back through the field but his car was not as good as the first half. After a restart he gets contact from the Joch Berry machine and sends him in a loop. From there his race was done, the crew wasnt sure if the motor over revved or what, but he is forced back to the garage. It is looking like a three horse race with Darne, Sellers and Peters.
Lap 162 sees Sellers take the lead from Darne but the action is behind them. Pulliam and Basset are putting on a show, Pulliam is pushing causing him to back his corners up, and Basset is rotating the center like a champ so he drives in every lap three cars deeper than Pulliam. That makes for great racing. These guys went after it lap after lap, clearly the best battle of the day. Matter of fact there was great racing everywhere… then the caution comes out for the mandatory ten lap sprint. And I begin to fume. Timothy Peters was probably madder than me as he was running second and comes to pit road, the alternator belt had come off, that’s just crap luck right there.
Now in any another race, this would be fine with me. But this is Martinsville, one of, if not the biggest race in the country. It is exciting enough; we really don’t need to artificially add excitement. Years ago maybe, but now the cars are so close with technology, they are already on top of each other and passing is tough, bunching them up with ten to go makes the guy in 7th or 12th think he Superman and they try to make a middle of the pack car a front running car. And we did, Dillon Basset made me flash back to Ace Speedway years ago when he drove Limiteds, he had a ton of messed up restarts, and it reared its ugly head once more Sunday. The field scatters to miss him but by the time they get to turn one, they are four wide with cars wrecking everywhere. Red flag again, and a surprise to me.
In years past, the rule was that the final 10 laps had to be green flag laps. This usually worked well, we had people that shouldn’t have had their cars there anyway get taken out in the first few wrecks, then we can finally race. This year they deciding to count caution laps, that left us with a green-white-checkered and a lot of questions when it was over.
Did Pulliam jump? Did Sellers not go? Well it was a little of both, this whole “restart zone” thing is crazy to me, just start at the line across the track off turn four. Everyone go then, if you don’t go it’s no one’s fault but your own. Pulliam is ahead by five car lengths before they even get to turn one, I thought I was going to see a classic battle between the two best cars, but that was not the case. While Pulliam was on his way to the win, Sellers had a hungry and defending winner Tommy Lemons Jr. to his outside as the entered turn one with one to go when, out of nowhere, comes Sam Yarbrough… where did he come from? No one knows but he was there at the end trying to make it three wide into turn one for second. Of course that didn’t work and Sellers spins, Berry takes his nose completely off and “National Champ” Anthony Anders never hits the brakes and drills Sellers in the door. One of the scariest wrecks I’ve seen in a while but all were ok.
And there sits Pulliam. He is the winner once more, amid controversy. He did what he needed to do; now NASCAR needs to step up to the plate as well, and do what THEY need to do. These crazy rules need to be toned down and dumbed down a bit, make it simple and leave no room for confusion. This is a major event, the Daytona 500 for local racers, no need to send people going home asking “what if” for the wrong reasons, they need to be asking that about something in the racing, not the rules of the event. Rant over.
We all head back to the media center as tech goes on and darkness falls. Mike Neff from Fronststretch.com gives us the laughs and we all begin to head out to tech to see what is up. And nothing is up, the days of the big motors and illegal suspension parts are pretty much gone, people know that Martinsville is the most teched race and Lynn Carroll and Shane Laws and the crew do a great job seeing that everything is on the up and up. And the addition of Hickory Motor Speedway head tech man and former legendary Late Model racer Scott Kilby added to that even more this year. It’s just formalities and we’ll shoot the bull and talk about the next race or what could have been that day. Then I have to find Peyton Sellers, and that changed my mood. It was his race, he had the best car and it just went away with one restart. Undoubtedly the nicest guy in racing, it was heartbreaking to see him lose that way but in the end I was just glad to see he was ok, the wreck honestly scared me and that doesn’t happen much.
I pack up my stuff and head out, saying goodbye to Martinsville Speedway’s Mike Smith until next time. Our time there was great as always, no track on earth treats us as well as Martinsville and they genuinely enjoy us being there. Mike Smith will lie and say he doesn’t but he really likes me, he really does. I hop in the car with Chris Owens from Popular Speed and we take a lap around the track in the dark before we head out the gate. I feel like I was when I was a kid leaving the beach and knowing I had to go to school the next day, but now it’s just work but the feeling is the same. I wish Martinsville was every weekend, and at the same time I’m glad it’s not. The race is something that we all wait for, it’s the big one, the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the World Series and the Daytona 500… with all my friends involved and being the stars. This is why I love this.
