Rough Road in Martinsville

The boys of NASCAR are back from Easter break and took to the track on Sunday afternoon in Martinsville, VA. The race lasted over 5 hours, thanks to approximately 90 minutes under the red flag. On lap 290, the leader, Dale Jr., kicked up a piece of the concrete track and launched it into the right front of then second-place Jeff Gordon. NASCAR repaired the track with epoxy. After a lengthy delay, the epoxy was dry enough to resume racing. In the end it was Rusty Wallace in his Miller Lite Dodge who took home the checkers. This was a popular win with the 90,000+ fans in attendance because it marked the end of a 105-race winless streak for the veteran Wallace. The win moved Rusty Wallace into eighth place in the Nextel Cup standings. Dale Jr. finished in third place. This was good enough to move his Budweiser team back into first place in the series standings. Kurt Busch finished in eleventh place on Sunday and dropped to second in the standings. Matt Kenseth finished in eighth but slipped to third in the championship standings.