The Frontstretch: Making the Grade: Martinsville Hot Dogs by Dennis Michelsen -- Tuesday April 4, 2006

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Making the Grade: Martinsville Hot Dogs

Dennis Michelsen · Tuesday April 4, 2006

 

Pace Laps

Television never does Martinsville justice. Repeat after me, "NASCAR needs more short track races!"

Am I the only one that makes imitation Martinsville hot dogs on a race day here?

Race Grade: A-
OK, so I admit I am biased towards the short tracks, but this one was very entertaining! The twists and turns to the plot were fantastic, even if Fox didn’t do as good of a job as usual bringing us the stories.

F for Fox Sports
This was the worst effort of the year for everyone at Fox. This is a short track with lots of cautions, so why take so many commercial breaks during the racing? Also, can we just once have a race without a missed restart too!

D for Matt Kenseth’s Bad Break (Brakes)
Matt is not rough on his equipment, so it was just bad luck the brakes didn’t make it the last few laps. That was a hard hit by short track standards, and put a dent in Kenseth’s great start this year.

C for Mark Martin
Mark also gets extra credit for perseverance. This was one of those "could be worse" days and shows that Martin is in championship form during his second victory lap for his career!

B for Tony Stewart
Tony gets a "B" for his gym-class grade for fence climbing! The race performance is an "A" effort all the way!

A for Hendrick Racing
They couldn’t get what would have been an emotional win on Ricky Hendrick’s birthday, but the team was super. Placing all four teams in the Top 10 is an awesome performance!

Extra Credit for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and the Bud Team
Junior looked a lot like his Daddy this week! Battling back from adversity with a car that looked more at home in the Modified circuit up at Stafford Speedway, Dale, Jr. was in championship form. In the past, Dale, Jr. might have settled for a 10th to 15th place finish on such a day, but this week, he showed his hunger to win it all!

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AJ Lewis
04/04/2006 06:55 AM
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Short track racing (although panel damage happens invariably) doesn’t require a lot of wind tunnel calibration beforehand. NASCAR should captilise on this fact and run and more short-track venues (perhaps at the expense of the mutiple-visit mile-and-half tracks, like Texas) which surely would be more popular with the fans, and potentially with the team owners who don’t have to hire a wind tunnel to ensure they are competitive. What do people think?

Barbara
04/04/2006 06:04 PM
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I always preferred FOX over NBC but this was the worst coverage I have ever seen by the FOX network. If it continues the ratings will go further down!!!!

 

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