Gordon wins from the pole at Martinsville

Jeff Gordon had a very good week at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia. He had a blistering qualifying lap for his first pole of the 2003 season and dominated early in the race, serving notice that he was looking for his first win of the season too. Martinsville Speedway is the shortest track the Winston Cup series races on, and the track’s configuration makes for very tight racing to say the least. The end of the race usually show many scars on the sides, fronts and backs of most of the competitors, and if you don’t have any marks on your car, well you just didn’t race. Jeff Gordon showed the field early that he was there to race. He jumped out to an early lead and stayed there as the only leader for over one hundred laps. The only reason he relinquished the lead was to pit as the race went for 236 laps before anyone would see a caution, almost unheard of on a short track. While Gordon enjoyed the lead, and eventually putting much of the forty-three car field a lap down, others fought for position behind him. The two stories of the day were how bad points leader Matt Kenseth ran, going a lap down after only thirty laps and how Bobby Labonte worked his way through the field to challenge late for the win. The pit strategy of the day included four tires on the tight track, but Labonte took a gamble on a late caution and took only right side tires. Labonte’s crew clicked off a great stop and put the Interstate Batteries Chevrolet out on the track in front of Gordon, Earnhardt Junior and Tony Stewart. When they went back to green flag racing with only thirty-eight laps to go, the wick was turned up and the sparks started to fly. Labonte, in a great show of how to get around Martinsville, held off Gordon for twenty laps, using the high side of the track and making the experts ask the question of how he could be so fast on just a two tire stop. Gordon finally got by Labonte with a “bump and run” pass, one he seems to be getting famous for. While the two cars raced along side of each other, Earnhardt Junior tried to make it a three-car race. It looked like the last few laps would be a great one, but Kurt Busch spun with four laps to go and a caution flag came out, causing the race to finish under yellow conditions. Gordon was the first driver to win from the pole this season, and Labonte’s team got the boost that they needed with the second place finish. Dale Earnhardt Junior took his third straight top-three finish and moved to within 51 points of Kenseth in his quest for his first championship. Jeff Burton, Elliott Sadler and Tony Stewart had an altercation as the three raced and Stewart tried a block on Sadler, Stewart got lucky with the caution, because the contact caused a flat tire. The three finished in that order. Sterling Marlin had another great run in the top ten with seventh and Rusty Wallace had a good day, but remains without a win for over fifty races now as he brought the Miller Dodge around for eighth. Jimmie Johnson again ran in the top five for most of the day, but a late race struggle caused him to drift back to ninth right in front of Kenny Schrader who had his best finish of the year rounding out the top ten. The Winston Cup Series if off next weekend, but will back in action at California Speedway in Fontana, California, on April 27th.