Southern 500 Race Review

Darlington Raceway -- 05/9/2009

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Monday May 11 2009 12:36am

During the offseason, I contributed to a national NASCAR 2009 Preview magazine. One of the requirements of the job was to predict the top-30 finishing order for the season. I picked Mark Martin for the championship.

Currently 11th in points, Martin may not ultimately win the title. But winning two of the last four races and moving up from 34th in points – where he was in March – to his current standing in the top 12 is making my pick look a little wiser than it did a few weeks ago.

Martin won Darlington Saturday night, though he was not the overall lap leader. But, he was a smart racer all night, staying out of trouble and taking the lead at lap 322, where he stayed through the checkered flag at lap 367.

Although Martin was happy about the win, he was not happy about the racing conditions, which have changed drastically here since a repaving project in 2007. “Tonight was a very frustrating night for many, many other drivers, including myself,” he said after the race. “My car felt like I was trying to race on ice. I didn't have the option to slide the car, and I like sliding the car. I like making the car do things by pitching it and slipping it and all that stuff. But if you slip this thing, you're gonna get a piece of that wall.”

It seemed like just about everyone on the track got a piece of the wall to one degree or another. The race had a record number of cautions, 17 in all, for 73 laps. Out of 367 laps, that means 20% of the race was run under caution. Just 22 cars finished on the lead lap, seven cars were 20 or more laps down, and there were eight DNFs – the most notable being Clint Bowyer, who was involved in a wreck and ended his 83-race streak without a DNF.

As has been the case so many times since NASCAR introduced the COT, the car that got out front at Darlington stayed there, with most of the passes for the lead taking place on pit road. Greg Biffle was the overall lap leader with 117 laps out front throughout the middle portion of the race. He lost the lead after a slow pit stop and finished 8th.

Other double digit lap leaders included Martin Truex Jr. with 61, Ryan Newman with 48, Kasey Kahne with 45, Joey Logano with 19, and Matt Kenseth with 16.
The top six finishers all drove Chevys, and the top five were in Hendrick Motorsports affiliated cars, including Mark Martin (1), Jimmie Johnson (2), Tony Stewart (3), Ryan Newman (4), and Jeff Gordon (5).

Rounding out the top 10 were Martin Truex Jr. (6), Brad Keselowski (7), Greg Biffle (8), Joey Logano (9), and Matt Kenseth (10).

Jeff Gordon’s top-5 finish was enough to keep him in the overall Cup series points lead, but Tony Stewart took over second-place from Kurt Busch, who slipped to third.

The biggest climber in the top 12 was Mark Martin, who moved up four spots to 11th and is now above the 12th-place cut-off for Chase contention. Clint Bowyer fell five spots to 13th, though he is just seven points behind Carl Edwards in 12th.

This week, the Cup series steps away from points racing for All-Star weekend.

Check back with Nascapper.com for my All-Star race preview later this week.

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