Hendrick dominates a dud at Martinsville
It wasn’t just a special-paint-schemed, Hendrick Motorsports podium sweep that had NASCAR fans and drivers seeing red on Sunday.
Yes, there was plenty of burgundy at the front as William Byron, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott finished 1-2-3 while adorning special red paint schemes in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Hendrick’s first win, captured by Geoff Bodine at Martinsville in 1984.
But not even a late restart and NASCAR history could generate drama in yet another short-track event with minimal passing, less tire wear and next-to-no passes of consequence throughout the top 10.
Minor aerodynamic changes aren’t cutting it.
“I didn’t think we could make it worse but by golly, we did,” Kyle Busch said on Saturday.
Denny Hamlin went for the jugular on his podcast Monday.
“The racing needs to be fixed,” he said. “If we sit back and do nothing, then shame on us. We deserve everything coming to us in the long run."
Yet Goodyear and NASCAR seem to be in a staring match with the former seemingly unwilling to build a softer tire that wears and the latter refusing to give in to driver pleas for more horsepower or changes to gear ratios.
And the urgency is building.
Rumors are flying that Richmond may lose one of its two events next year. There’s no telling how many more duds it’ll take for Martinsville to become a victim as well.
As fans continue to pound the table for adherence to tradition, taking events away from such pillars of the sport seems counter-intuitive.
Besides, there's been plenty of great racing on those tracks before. The tracks are not the problem.
And none of that mentions potential ramifications in terms of TV ratings.
Let’s hope criticism from the fans, pundits and the sport's veteran drivers are enough, before some of the cathedrals of American auto racing fall by the wayside.
Let’s go through the gears:
First gear
Boring or not, nobody at Hendrick Motorsports was apologizing.
“You just can’t script it like this,” Jeff Gordon, HMS vice chairman, said. “These three guys ... they just drove their butts off.”
Byron continues to climb the Hendrick wins list, claiming his 13th to move to within five of Larson and Elliott, who have 18 each. Jimmie Johnson (93) and Gordon (83) lead the pack. In total, 20 drivers have gone to Victory Lane driving for Rick Hendrick, including legends like Darrell Waltrip, Busch and … Jerry Nadeau?
Yep. For every Terry Labonte, there’s a Casey Mears and all of them are part of a four-decade run of excellence.
Second gear
Elliott nearly returned to Victory Lane. He tapped Byron getting into the corner after the final restart, but didn’t go full-send. Who could blame him for not risking the ruination of his boss’ banner day?
So, the drought remains for Elliott, who has not won since Talladega in 2022, a span of 42 races.
Third gear
The steady, weekly learning curve for Shane van Gisbergen remains a fascinating watch in the Xfinity Series.
It was on display Saturday night too as the New Zealander grew more and more comfortable with some Martinsville beating and banging, surging late to secure an 11th-place finish.
“I’ve never done anything like that but it was a lot of fun,” he grinned. “There’s people waving at me angry but they’re hitting me too.”
Fourth gear
Yet again, last week’s winner has the best numbers at next week's track. Byron’s average finish of 3.3 is tops among all drivers over the last three events at Texas. Kyle Busch is the active wins leader with four.