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Hey what do you know, looks to me like Mark Martin is not done yet!

Another win by an old guy at the oldest track on the circuit.

Welcome to alll of you who are new to both Pipe Smoke and Motorsportsnews.net . Last week I had the chance to talk to Jim Vicevich on his radio show which broadcasts from 9am-noon on WTIC 1080 in Hartford Ct. While racing is not normally one of Jim’s topics he was nice enough to let me get in some plugs and added a link to the site. I would like to welcome Jim and his listeners to the PS family.

The bodyshops will be busy this week! Was that 18 cautions?

Photo by Icon Sports Media

Am I awake yet? Is this race over yet? Far too many yellows, even for Darlington. But the Old Geezer won another one………

Geezers: OK, so SirMark’s gonna take a poke at another full time ride in ’10. Goodie for him, but this leaves a promising driver (BradK) out on his ear. One way they can make this work (under the max 4 car rule) is if Jr. gets a car into Cup next year. He’s been toying with the idea, but now the Markmeister is pushing his hand. Could there be some back room negotiations with Rick? Hmmm.

Photo by Steve Langley

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had better be stepping it up a bit, or history is going to repeat itself and he won’t be making the trip to the banquet in Las Vegas.

His year has not gotten off to a great start for one reason or another, but mostly simple mistakes in the pits lately have been the cause of his bad finishes. Bad pit stops, loose lug nuts, missing his pit stall… all have led to many of the problems with the finishes that could have been much better.

In ten races, Dale Jr. has only three top tens and one top five for the season. He’s currently 18th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup points, after loosing three spots last week in Richmond.

Now it’s time for some real racing, real close, and real fast. This is the race the veteran fans look forward to each year. Talladega is rich in history for some of the most exciting racing of all the tracks. One small mistake out there and, let’s just say, don’t make any mistakes.

Talladega Superspeedway completed its fourth repaving on Sept. 19, 2006. The new surface should be ready for some better grip and hopefully tires won’t be an issue at this race. Hendrick Motorsports has won 10 races, more than any other organization. Mark Martin has been of fire with pole positions lately so watch for this team to do well this weekend.

Track Tough On Even The Best

Four former champions make up the top four points positions in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings.

For that to continue into next week, the four champions – Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart – must tame the unpredictable Talladega Superspeedway.

The statistics suggest that’s easier said than done. All four have had their difficulties at Talladega. The track ranks near the bottom of each driver’s statistical success list.

Jeff Gordon

Lowest Avg. Driver Ratings

                            Driver

Mark Martin broke his winless streak of 97 races by overtaking Ryan Newman, who stayed out after a late race caution for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s wreck. Newman took a chance on older tires but was no match for Martin, who overtook the #39 Newman, and passed him for the final time claiming his 36th career win. He started on the pole.

Mark has had a good start of the season, and now has a win with Hendrick Motorsports and three poles in the #5 Chevrolet. “No burnouts for me,” he radioed his crew. “Just a backward Polish victory lap for my man Alan Kulwicki.” Many drivers and crew members were anxious to congratulate Martin on his win on pit road and in the winners circle.

Jeff Gordon ended a 47-race winless drought with his victory at Texas two weeks ago. Now the statistics suggest it could be Kevin Harvick’s or Mark Martin’s turn to do the same.

Both drivers are solid at Phoenix International Raceway – site of Saturday night’s Subway Fresh Fit 500 – and both carry a hefty winless drought with them into the desert.

(Photo by ICON Sports Media)

Harvick’s last win came in the 2007 Daytona 500 – 78 races ago. Martin has gone 97 starts without a victory (121 races). His last win came at Kansas in 2005.

FastCar Newsdesk for week of 4/9/09
A.J. Allmendinger will have at least have a shot at making The Chase this year and Hunt Brothers Pizza is the latest company he and the No. 44 team have to thank. Richard Petty Motorsports officials announced this week that the pizza chain will sponsor the team for six races, giving RPM’s fourth Cup team sponsorship through the September 12th race in Richmond, the last race before The Chase begins.

David Reutimann showed his muscle taking the pole position on the fastest NASCAR track on the circuit, Texas Motor Speedway. Reutimann said the car felt great in practice and he knew he had a good car right “out of the box”.

Jeff Gordon, in his DuPont Chevrolet, took the other spot on the front row. Gordon missed the pole by .048 of a second from the number one spot.

Matt Kenseth, David Regan, and Paul Menard fill the top five positions.

Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, and Joey Logano rounded out the top ten. Mark Martin, who was fastest in the first practice, slipped on his qualifying lap ended up in the twenty-third starting position.

Bristol used to be about tempers and pay backs… not so much this Sunday.

What happened to the sheet metal hanging off of cars that barely resemble anything drivable?

No fights or angry words…what has become of this track?

Our ruthless Racing Maniac leader is out this week and I am but a pathetic substitute.

So…until I sub again,

Southern Tundra aka Carolyn Brewster

Camera or Super Star: How ‘bout neither. Digger, NASCAR’s most annoying rodent, is selling his junk not only on Fox.com but also on DW’s website. That makes two more cyber stop I’ll never make.

Kyle Busch takes the checkered flag coming out of turn four, winning the Food City 500 in Bristol Tennessee, with a commanding victory. He led 378 of the 503 laps ran due to the green-white-checkered flag.

A late race yellow flag brought out by #20 Joe Gibbs driver Joey Logano n lap 394 for a blown engine didn’t stop the charge by Denny Hamlin to try for a win, but Busch was determined to stay in front and take his second victory of the 2009 season.

Photo taken by Steve Langley, and not to be used without written permission

#5-Mark Martin won the Coors Light Pole Award for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway with a lap of 125.773mph for his 2nd pole in as many races and 43nd career pole. It was the first tine on 634 races that Martin had won back to back pole, last time in April 1989 at Darlington then Bristol. #39-Newman will start 2nd followed by #48-Johnson, #16-Biffle, #9-Kahne, #00-Reutimann, #43-Sorenson, #66-Blaney, #26-McMurray, and #24-Gordon. #88-Earnhardt Jr. will start 35th.

The Go-or-go homers that made the race: #66-Blaney, #71-Gilliland, #14-Stewart, #64-Bodine, #28-Kvapil, #44-Allmendiner, #87-Nemechek, and #09-Marlin.

Missing the race: #36-Riggs and #41-Mayfield.

NASCAR powerhouse and uber team Hendrick Motorsports has fallen on hard times. Or so it seems in the early part of the season.

If not for Jeff Gordon, Hendrick would be having an embarrassing start to the season. Coming off of his third title in a row, the newly bearded Jimmie Johnson sits thirteenth in points thanks to a ninth place run at Atlanta.

(Photo by Icon Sports Media)

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is mired at 24th in points after an 11th place finish at Atlanta.

Mark Martin sits even further back in 34th after a DNF and 31st place finish at Atlanta.

The MotorSportsNews Net(work)’s own photographer, Steve Langley, was at Atlanta last weekend, and took this great photo of Mark Martin with the pole award.

Mark Martin had a great weekend going for him, in the top with practice speeds, winning the pole, and running up front during most of the race. Then, the unexpected happened, hurtling his car into turn one at the Atlanta Motor Speedway during the Kobalt Tools 500 race, his car took a slide into the outside retaining wall that left his car crippled from the damage sustained when he backed his car hard into it at top speed.