Sunoco Pit Move: M'ville

Before rain stopped the Goody's Cool Orange 500 on Lap 358, Dale Earnhardt Jr. had the rest of the field seeing red. But when the gray went away over Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, Junior was the one left singing the blues.

With bad weather approaching and Junior holding a comfortable lead over Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer, none of the frontrunners were willing to trade track position for fresh rubber and fuel, despite cautions with 165 and 147 laps remaining. So when the skies opened up, forcing NASCAR officials to throw a red flag to halt the race, it appeared the No. 8 crew had made the right decision.

However, the shower passed fairly quickly, allowing the track to dry within minutes. As the cars were fired, No. 48 crew chief Chad Knaus made the decision to have Johnson come in for service. Johnson and Denny Hamlin both pitted on Lap 360, dropping out of the top 10.

"I didn't really feel like I had a chance to run with the No. 8 car or win the race right before the rain red flag," Johnson said. "Once again, Chad had amazing pit strategy to get us track position and get us up front."

When Tony Raines hit the wall 15 laps later, Junior and the other cars in the top 10 dashed for the pit entrance for what would be their last stops of the day, leaving Kyle Busch -- who was out of sequence with the rest of the lead-lap cars -- Johnson and Hamlin in the first three positions on the track.

Six laps after the green waved on Lap 382, Johnson got around Busch and then was able to maintain track position at a place where passing is difficult.

"Once we were up front, I picked up a lot of time," Johnson said. "And then the guys that were leading like Junior had to come through traffic, just didn't have the speed and one reason is, it is really tough to pass here.

"It does seem like you do lose a little bit of front grip in traffic as you are racing people. Clean air does help these cars a lot."

Earnhardt, who led a race-high 137 laps, had to settle for fifth instead of celebrating what would have been his first Martinsville victory.

"If it wouldn't have rained, we would have been hard for the rest of the field to handle," Junior said. "It's disappointing to come to this place and run so well year after year and lead so many laps and still not have a win. (Continued)