Nascar Blog

Sorry for the late postings, little league has been keeping me busy.

Was it just me and my friends who watched the Darlington race that thought that Nascar was throwing the caution flags a lot differently than normal? How many times did we see a car hit the wall, that at any other race would’ve immediately called for the caution flag, and keep on going without Nascar throwing the flag? The only reason they wound up throwing so many was because of debris or the cars that hit the wall were wrecking of had tires coming apart.

It was obvious to us that they definitely were calling the race differently and I believe the announcers and even some of the drivers were wondering what was going on. If Nascar is going to have different rules for different tracks, they should probably let everyone know before hand, I know I would appreciate it. I will try to find some videos and post them below when I do.

Have just finished uploading some Nascar videos from Darlington, most of these are from this years race, I did notice a bunch of videos from past years that were not posted yet, so I may be adding some of those later on this week.

• Mark Martin Wins Southern 500 Darlington 2009

  XERB1090 wrote: Darlington, SC. Fifty-year-old Mark Martin gambled on fuel and held off several late-race challenges from his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson to win Saturday's Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Martin, who announced earlier this week he would drive another full season for Hendrick next year, led the final 46 laps after he opted not to pit during a round of stops. He went on to score his second victory of the season, making it the first time since 1999 he has won multiple races in the Sprint Cup Series. "I'm overwhelmed, just totally overwhelmed," Martin said. "This is a little bit more special in some ways than Phoenix, because I was just kind of spun out. I just couldn't hardly believe it at Phoenix. There was so much going on. It's soaking in a little bit better." Martin capitalized on two late cautions to save enough fuel in his No.5 Chevrolet. "We worked pretty hard to save some gas, but I don't know how close it was," he…

  2/15/2010 9:41pm
• NASCAR Crashes 12 by yellow1fox22

  yellow1fox22 wrote: My 12th NASCAR crash compilation. Music-Stroke by Apocolyptica. Enjoy… Crashes 2008-Bristol-Tony Stewart, Sterling Marlin, Joe Nemechek, Jeff Burton. 2009-Atlanta-Sam Hornish Jr., Bill Elliott. 2008-Lowe's/Charlotte-Bill Elliott, Paul Menard, Tony Raines, Matt Kenseth. 2005-Bristol-Carl Edwards, Jason Leffler, Hermie Sadler. 2004-Talladega-Elliott Sadler. 1984-Daytona-Randy LaJoie 2008-Memphis-Brad Keselowski 2003-Homestead Miami-Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman. 2005-Bristol-Jimmie …

  8/23/2009 8:45pm
• 2009 NSCS - Southern 500 at Darlington - Part 25 of 25 (CLOSING)

  daleksecioalo wrote: 2009 Southern 500 - Presented by Godaddy.com - at Darlington Raceway - Saturday May 9th 2009 ***Mark Martin wins his second race of the season and he goes on to win two more at Michigan and Chicago, later in the year*** **Jeff Gordon remains the points leader after Darlington, considering his good top 10 finish.** T *The next stop: The All-Star Race, which I did the Qualifying for and racermac1988 did the Showdown and the All-Star Race as well.*

  8/23/2009 8:41pm
• NASCAR SPRINT CUP darlington 2009 Jeff Gordon starts on the front row

  yacinemomo wrote: NASCAR SPRINT CUP darlington 2009

  5/24/2009 9:06pm
• 2009 Southern 500 Max Papis/Scott Speed Crash

  MotorSportsVideos wrote: 2009 Southern 500 Max Papis/Scott Speed Crash Darlington, South Carolina.

  5/24/2009 9:06pm
• 2009 NASCAR Michael Waltrip goes up in flames at Darlington HD

  skinley218 wrote: Southern 500

  5/24/2009 9:06pm
• Nascar: Darlington 2009 Southern 500 Scott Speed And Max Papis

  Alex3003 wrote: Cars have to avoid Scott Speed and Max Papis as they spin in Turn 1.

  5/24/2009 9:06pm
• 05/08/2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series at Darlington Kyle Busch cause of flat tire?

  Gael78II wrote: Clip of what possibly caused Kyle Busch's right rear tire to go flat after the caution at Darlington with 2 laps to go.

  5/24/2009 9:06pm
• 2009 Southern 500 Starting Grid (presented by GoDaddy.com)

  nadeau1064 wrote: DARLINGTON!

  5/24/2009 9:06pm
• NASCAR SPRINT CUP darlington 2009 A humdinger of a save by Allmendinger

  yacinemomo wrote: NASCAR SPRINT CUP darlington 2009

  5/24/2009 9:06pm
• 2009 Southern 500 - Michael Waltrip Fiery Crash

  MotorSportsVideos wrote: 2009 Southern 500 - Michael Waltrip Fiery Crash Darlington, South Carolina.

  5/24/2009 9:06pm
• waltrip fire ball Darlington inferno 2009

  androwranger wrote: After blowing an engine Michael Waltrip's car catches fire in Turn 3.

  5/24/2009 9:06pm
• Boyer Crashes Hard At Darlington 2009

  MotorSportsCentral wrote: AJ Allmindinger hits Clint Boyer and he goes hard into the wall.

  5/24/2009 9:05pm
• 2009 Southern 500 Michael Waltrip on Fire

  CheckersOrWreckers wrote: The 2009 nascar sprint cup series heads to darlington for the southern 500 where Michael Waltrip's car bursts into flames going into Turn 4 to bring out the caution. He disconnects himself and pulls out of the car.

  5/24/2009 9:05pm
• Nascar: Darlington 2009 Southern 500 Mears Hits Wall

  Alex3003 wrote: When Casey Mears comes up the apron in traffic, he hits Brian Vickers and sends himself and AJ Allmendinger into the wall.

  5/24/2009 9:05pm

Another great race with the [tag]COT[/tag] car, even if I am a little biased there, Jeff won his 7th race at Darlington and 3rd so far this year, and he extended his points lead to 203 over Jimmie Johnson. Denny Hamlin was coming fast at the end but he ran out of time, he had been up front until a bad pit stop, and he wasn’t too happy that they didn’t throw a caution at the end because of debri.

“We gave away another one to Hendrick Motorsports,” Hamlin said. “It’s a shame. This has got to end. We have to win a race sooner or later. Everybody will talk about how Hendrick won another race, but this was our race.”

Hamlin was also critical of NASCAR for not calling a caution for obvious debris in the closing laps. Had the yellow flag waved, Hamlin was confident he would have beaten Gordon.

“Somebody’s entire fender and underbody was on the racetrack,” Hamlin said. “I literally pumped my fist in the car ’cause I knew a caution was going to come out. And of course, if caution comes out, it’s game over. Instead, Hendrick gets another break.” Source: Gordon remains hot, wins another race at Darlington

Jeff Gordon was also surprised they didn’t call a caution at the end, but was surprised that they did the previous caution, and again a driver mentions Nascar not being consistent.

“There absolutely should have been a caution there at the end — but there shouldn’t have been one before it,” Gordon said. “There at the end — debris, oil, everything you can imagine — was on that racetrack and that comes back to the inconsistency. I am glad they didn’t throw it at the end, but I didn’t understand why they threw it earlier.

Gordon never felt confident that his engine would go the distance. He got terrific jumps on every restart, needing the air to cool down his motor, and said he didn’t pit with his teammate because he worried the engine would overheat during the stop.

Near the end, Johnson and some other front runners pitted with about 20 laps to go, Gordon and Newman did not, and it paid off for them. Johnson said new tires always pass of there and would probably do it again the next time. He was coming fast, had he not been held up for awhile, he could’ve made it back the front as well. Here is how the finished:

1 24 Jeff Gordon
2 11 Denny Hamlin
3 48 Jimmie Johnson
4 12 Ryan Newman
5 99 Carl Edwards
6 20 Tony Stewart
7 17 Matt Kenseth
8 8 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
9 07 Clint Bowyer
10 31 Jeff Burton
11 1 Martin Truex Jr.
12 2 Kurt Busch
13 14 Sterling Marlin
14 01 Mark Martin
15 16 Greg Biffle
16 26 Jamie McMurray
17 29 Kevin Harvick
18 18 J.J. Yeley
19 43 Bobby Labonte
20 9 Kasey Kahne
21 19 Elliott Sadler
22 66 Jeff Green
23 42 Juan Montoya
24 78 Kenny Wallace
25 45 Kyle Petty
26 88 Ricky Rudd
27 6 David Ragan
28 13 Joe Nemechek
29 70 Johnny Sauter
30 38 David Gilliland
31 15 Paul Menard
32 22 Dave Blaney
33 00 David Reutimann
34 40 David Stremme
35 25 Casey Mears
36 84 A.J. Allmendinger
37 5 Kyle Busch
38 7 Robby Gordon
39 96 Tony Raines
40 41 Reed Sorenson
41 21 Ken Schrader
42 37 Kevin Lepage
43 83 Brian Vickers

And here are the top ten in points after Darlington Speedway:

1 — Jeff Gordon 1881 Leader
2 — Jimmie Johnson 1650
3 — Matt Kenseth 1582
4 — Denny Hamlin 1539
5 — Jeff Burton 1486
6 +1 Tony Stewart 1375
7 +2 Kurt Busch 1325
8 — Kevin Harvick 1315
9 +1 Clint Bowyer 1302
10 +1 Carl Edwards 1291