It rains in Martinsville. It seems to be a constant that a cloud that hates racing will make its way to Virginia just to spread a little Spring shower on the historic little racetrack.
Fortunately, it cleared off enough to get some practice in for the STP 500 and the Kroger 250. Qualifying may be pushed back a bit but that should happen also.
With nothing else to do quite a few made their way in to talk about racing at Martinsville. Like so many other tracks in the wake of some hard hits Martinsville is also adding some cushion to the barrier walls. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. acknowledged this and the forward momentum NASCAR has been taking with track safety. He said there may be some way to go but it is so different than just a few years ago.
Jeff Gordon talked about his last two visits to Martinsville and that it has always been a favorite and a challenge to race and win there.
Aric Almirola spoke a bit about the Petty family and the Victory Junction Gang Camp for children with illnesses and special needs.
Then there were hot dogs and that seemed to lighten things up a bit. Gordon said he never had one of the old ones. Dale Jr. said he was gonna have a couple of the new ones. Everyone seemed to thing it was much over nothing as they still look and taste the same and let’s go racing.
Practice was put off a bit for the rain but they got some laps in. A.J. Allmendinger came off the track with the fastest laps of the Friday session. We can only wait to see if that holds into qualifying.
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