Double up in ’17
Keselowski overcomes early penalty, wild segment battles for 2nd NASCAR Cup win,
MARTINSVILLE, VA. NASCAR’s still-fresh stage-racing concept was expected to earn a loud endorsement Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, which hosted the first short-track race of the year.
Expectations were mostly met.
Bumping and thumping and wrecking and cussin’ are normal pieces of a long 500-lap day at NASCAR’s smallest track, where physics simply prevents two cars from being in the same place at the same time, creating anxiety.
The new race landscape, featuring stage ends at laps 130 and 260, provided additional opportunities for drivers to engage in the type of behavior that defines short-track, close-quarters racing.
By day’s end, Kyle Busch was irritated at Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Danica Patrick was frustrated by Chris Buescher, and Stenhouse had disturbed more or less everybody.
Both stage conclusions were similar to the tight, crowded racing often seen in Saturday night shows at entertaining local short tracks.
On this Sunday, no one was bashful.
The first stage ended with Martin Truex Jr. clearly in front, but there was crazy racing behind him as positions four through 10 were up for grabs. Clint Bowyer, his fire restored this season upon landing in the No. 14 Chevrolet at StewartHaas Racing, shoved his way into the 10th spot with a last-lap surge, a huge effort for a single standings point (stage positions 1-10 award points on a descending scale starting at 10).
The second stage conclusion put Stenhouse in the spotlight. As the segment neared its end, Stenhouse raced aggressively in an attempt to stay on the lead lap. Stenhouse popped leader Busch side to side on the segment’s final lap, allowing Stenhouse to stay on the lap and opening the door for Chase Elliott to slide by Busch and win the stage.
For Busch, despite recent claims to the contrary, everything wasn’t great. His radio was congested with irritation.
Busch regained his composure, however, and raced to a second-place finish behind Brad Keselowski, the first driver to win twice this season as he rolled to his first victory at Martinsville.
Busch said Stenhouse’s pushing and shoving was OK “if you expect it back. I was rolling into Turn 3 high to give him back the lap. Then he just drove through me. I was hoping to run side by side with the 17 (Stenhouse). I was hoping to be the nice guy, but nice guys don’t finish first.” Expect Busch to be looking for a shot at payback somewhere down the road, a function of the stage racing that can be a multiplier for intense activity from one track to another.
Austin Dillon was in the middle of the zaniness at the end of the first stage. He dropped from seventh to ninth in the crowded dash to the line as drivers tried to claim points.
“It got wild at the end,” Dillon said. “I tried to block the outside and ended up ninth. It definitely got wild.
“But that’s what we’re creating. It was fun as long as you’re not the guy getting wrecked or turned.”
After 3 hours and 45 minutes of fender crunching, the day provided a bit of redemption for Paul Wolfe, Keselowski’s crew chief. NASCAR suspended Wolfe for three races after the No. 2 Ford failed postrace inspection at Phoenix Raceway three races ago.
Wolfe worked on the team’s pit box Sunday while the team waits for NASCAR to hear an appeal of the penalties.