Martin Wins

Were there any on-track passes for the lead? It looked like whoever was up front stayed there until a pit stop. Too bad you missed the best part of the race. Casey and Junior put on a pretty exciting show during the cool down lap.

 

Lap 220—LEAD CHANGE: Tony Stewart passes Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the lead, the first green-flag pass for the lead during the race.

Lap 238—LEAD CHANGE: Mark Martin drives around the top of Tony Stewart as they get a little loose in Turn 4.

Lap 255—LEAD CHANGE: As they navigate slow traffic, Mark Martin dives below Dale Earnhardt Jr. to take the top spot once again.

Lap 307—LEAD CHANGE: Mark Martin blows by Ryan Newman on the outside to take the lead. Newman falls quickly as Tony Stewart takes second.

Source: Lap by Lap Yahoo sports.

Two thirds of the race is over before there is an on-track pass for the lead. The 88 car was running on tires 10-12 laps older that Stewart's. Lap 238 was arguably the only pass for the lead without extenuating circumstances. The 5 car was fast and handling well. By Lap 255 the wheels were coming off the 88 car in more ways than one. Eleven laps later Martin passed Earnhardt again putting Junior a lap down. Ryan Newman had the lead because he didn't pit. New tires were beating old tires by a second or more in lap times. Newman didn't not hold the lead past the entrance to Turn 1.

Eury, Jr is a 15th place crew chief. Who was it that said insanity is doing the same things over and over again expecting different results?

 

It's not that I don't care about Junior, because I do, but I've completely lost faith in that team, especially after this year's Daytona 500. Until somebody else is on top of the pitbox running the show, Junior's going nowhere. I'm tired of watching my driver run in the back all the time. He's good enough to be leading and winning races.

It annoyed me a few weeks ago when I heard DW talk about how Junior needs to get up on the wheel more and drive harder. Really, DW? That's what it is? Do you expect us to believe that the guy who put his entire career on the line by going to Hendrick Motorsports isn't driving hard enough? Come on.

Junior can drive as hard as he wants, but a piece of junk car isn't going anywhere. A good/great driver can't win driving junk. And when it's a Hendrick Motorsports car, you know it's going to be the best equipment. So, either Dale Jr is a bad driver (and I'm not ruling that out yet), or his crew chief is a bad crew chief.

What I can't figure out is why Rick Hendrick hasn't made a crew chief change already. Tony Eury has had plenty of time to figure it out and the team isn't getting any better. It's long past time to make a change.