I complained loud and long about the racing at Bristol last weekend and called it not so much beating and banging as touching and feeling.

This weekend in Martinsville, we definitely saw RACING.  Although there were two dominant cars throughout the race, they were not so dominant that no one else could touch them.  In other words, this was the kind of racing that made me a NASCAR fan, and why I STAY a NASCAR fan.

The race started on a virgin track, meaning that whatever rubber there might have been on the track had been washed away by the rains yesterday.  Consequently, NASCAR announced that they would throw a "Competition Caution" if there wasn't one early on in the starting laps.  They didn't need to worry about that at all, as the caution flag flew early and flew often.

Jeff Gordon jumped out to an early lead and in the process of leading most of the first half of the race, broke Fred Lorenzen's record for laps led at Martinsville.  Early cautions were the result of the heat of the brakes at Martinsville.  Because the drivers rely on the huge brakes they run here, there is a lot of heat generated in that right front.  Unfortunately, that results in the bead being melted right off the rim and tires go down....frequently.  Robby Gordon, Eric Almirola and David Gilliland all had multiple tire issues during the day and all three finished out of the top 35. 

Kyle Busch caused one of the early cautions by diving into the corner too hot and spinning around, taking Scott Speed with him.  Scott managed to lead eleven laps in this race and probably could have had a better finish than the 39th he ended up with.

Just before the halfway point  Denny Hamlin was able to get by Jeff and he continued on to lead the rest of the race, right up until a dozen or so to go.  On lap 205, Kyle Busch had more tire issues and shredded his right front.  He narrowly missed the wall and had to pit, going two laps down in the process.

Hendrick cars stayed in the top ten all day, and Jimmie Johnson was right there beating and banging with the rest of them.  Denny, Jeff and Tony all wanted that top spot and none of them were giving an inch.  Even Dale Jr got into the mix, for once having a car better towards the end of the race than it was at the beginning.

With 11 laps to go, Jimmie moved Denny out of his way.  They both went up the track and Tony seemed poised to move under and take over the top sport, but Jimmie gathered the car back under him and took off.  Denny pulled back in behind him and they raced that way to the checkers.  Jimmie Johnson won his fifth race in six tries at Martinsville, an awesom feat, but even better given that again, he was not much of a factor during the race.  Denny Hamlin again was the bridesmaid, unable to defend his win of last year.

Top ten of the race:  Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer , Ryan Newman, Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt Jr, AJ Allmendinger, Jamie McMurray.

The win for HMS came on the 25th anniversary of the team's first win here, with Geoff Bodine.  Celebrations back then included the toilet papering of Bodine's house.  I think it's unlikely we'll see that kind of celebration this year.  Dale Jr has recently started eating healthier food and working out and yes, I mean actually working out, not just lifting a beer can or bottle.  It's paying off early.

Both of Stewart-Haas' cars finished in the top ten, all of HMS cars also were top ten and the Rousch cars were surprisingly absent.  Carl Edwards had also had tire issues, as did Matt.  Additionally, the Toyotas were not prominent as they usually are.

Jeff Gordon retains the top spot in the standings and leads the field off to Texas Motor Speedway next weekend.  It's one of the Cookie Cutter tracks, but the racing there is also usually pretty good, so maybe we finally have the season underway.  Let's hope the "racing" continues and the we have no more single file lap killing.