Newman Wins An Unexpected Martinsville Finish

Photo courtesy; bleacherreport.com

What seemed like a Bristol repeat (lacking the beating and banging) turned out to be the most exciting finish of the 2012 season. Hendrick Motorsports dominated the half mile short track, Martinsville, Sunday afternoon. Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson both led most of the race with Dale Earnhardt Jr. staying the the Top-5 all day. The race was slow moving with only a few minor wrecks and very little cautions for the first 3/4 of the race. A late race caution that came out on Lap 498 caused a twist of events to unfold right in front of Ryan Newman. Okay, here's what happened. The first attempt of a green-white-checkered came on Lap 498. The caution with 2 laps to go came at an unfortunate time for the front runners. Jeff Gordon, our leader, along with teammates Johnson and Jr. (and many others) were short on fuel. No one knew how far they could drive it to the end, or even if they could make it to the next green flag. Both Johnson and Gordon made a risky move and decided to stay out, while Jr. pitted. Dale Jr. now would restart in 6th. They approach the green flag double file. The cars were barely across the checkered line when from out of no where Clint Bowyer in his No. 15 machine makes it 3-wide with the leaders. Beating and banging all trying to snatch the lead the 3 cars spun out, taking most of the front pack out with them. Definitely not the outcome Clint was looking for. A perfect window of opportunity opened for Ryan Newman as he slid by the wreckage to take the lead. He found himself leading the 2nd green-white-checkered, only 2 laps away from victory. Penske driver, AJ Allmendinger followed behind Newman. They would restart 1-2. For the 2nd restart AJ and Ryan's cars were stuck like glue down the front stretch. They stayed this way for 2 whole laps, when Ryan finally pulled away from Allmendinger and went on to win the race at Martinsville. It may not have been the first Cup win AJ hoped for, but he did earn his best Cup finish in 2nd. Newman added yet another win to the list at Stewart-Haas Racing. It's the second win in a row for the Championship winning team, after Tony Stewart's rain shortened win at Vegas last week.