Anatomy of a rain delay: Junior hurt by clear skies

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- When the raindrops arrived in full force Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his No. 8 Chevrolet were in the lead, giving him, his crew and his legions of fans donning various degrees of red garments in the sellout crowd plenty of reason to root for a downpour that would have rained out the remaining 143 laps of the Goody's Cool Orange 500.

Alas, it ended up being only a mild and brief shower that delayed the race a mere 33 minutes -- long enough to spoil Earnhardt's designs on winning. Here is an anatomy of the rain delay:

4:33 p.m. -- Denise Maloof, manager of communications for the Nextel Cup Series, is sitting upstairs in the press box when she spots a troublesome green patch on the weather radar. The track is marked with an X on the image that dances on the screen of her laptop, and she keeps diligent watch. The rain system identified by the green, though apparently on the small side, is no doubt headed right for Martinsville Speedway.

"The question isn't if it's going to rain, but when ... and how much?" she said. "Plus I don't know what's behind that system we're seeing now."

Lap-by-Lap

For every move Jeff Gordon made, Jimmie Johnson countered in a thrilling finish at Martinsville. But before that, the first 499 laps had to play out.

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4:48 p.m. -- The rain begins. Very quickly it goes from a light mist to a fairly hard downpour.

4:50 p.m. -- The red flag is thrown, sending cars scurrying to pit road, where the drivers climb out and sprint through the rain while crew members scramble to throw covers over their cars.

4:53 p.m. -- Even as the rain begins to slow, the conspiracy theorists are out before the sun shows itself again. One public relations man was asked how long he thought it would be before NASCAR makes a decision on whether to start the race again.

"I don't know. Junior is leading, so it might be quicker than anyone thinks," he said with a smile.

4:55 p.m. -- David Stremme and Juan Montoya, teammates at Chip Ganassi Racing, exchange information on pit road as the rain already begins to lighten to the point where it's just spitting. The track, however, has been soaked and with dark clouds still looming all around, there is no guarantee that the race will go green again.

Montoya, the rookie and former Formula One driver who was supposed to struggle badly on NASCAR's short tracks, is running a very respectable 11th.

"If we get back out there, great. If not, points are points -- and 11th is not bad," Montoya said.

Soon the trucks with jet engines mounted onto them that dry the track begin to slowly move by, drowning out everything else Montoya has to say. He shakes his head as he places his hands over his ears and moves away.

4:57 p.m. -- Earnhardt talks on pit road about how awesome his car is. But by now the rain has completely stopped, and he senses that he won't be able to call it a day -- and a win. At least not yet.

"I got to give [crew chief] Tony [Eury] Jr. [and] the Budweiser guys all the credit for this car. It's been fast since we unloaded it and they've made it even better during this race -- so a lot of credit goes to my team," he said. "It rained, but it's probably not going to rain enough to call the race. We might as well look forward to getting back there and then we'll figure out what we got to do to win the 500-lap race. That's kind of the mindset you got to have; we can't count on this rain to save it for us."

Then Earnhardt climbed up into the tower atop the No. 8's pit box to confer personally with Eury.

5:02 p.m. -- Drivers Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart get involved in an animated conversation on pit road. Soon they are joined by a smiling Clint Bowyer, indicating that no one is mad at anyone, at least for the moment.

Bowyer, running third when the rains came, tells a radio interviewer that he won't be disappointed with that finish if he doesn't get to go back on the track -- but adds that he believes he "might have something" for the No. 8 of Earnhardt if they do get to finish.

5:12 p.m. -- Word comes down from NASCAR that the track is dry enough to begin preparations to resume racing. Earnhardt jumps down from his perch atop the No. 8 pit box.

5:14 p.m. -- The drivers begin climbing back into their cars.

5:17 p.m. -- A television interviewer sticks a microphone into the cockpit of Denny Hamlin's No. 11 car and asks if he would rather call it a day or finish the race. Running fifth at the time and with a strong car, Hamlin answers that sometimes he might fantasize about going home early -- but since he's running pretty close to the front with a solid car under him, he's glad this one is about to continue.

5:21 -- The command is given for the drivers to fire up their engines again.

5:23 -- The pace car driven by former driver Brett Bodine rolls off pit road, followed by the No. 8 of Earnhardt.

The crowd roars its approval -- but when a caution comes out 20 laps later following a mishap between Montoya and Tony Raines that causes Raines to spin out, Earnhardt loses the lead when he and the rest of the leaders opt to pit and others stay out. Kyle Busch takes over the lead.

Thirty-three laps later, the crowd roars again when Earnhardt passes J.J. Yeley. But this time it's to move into fifth place, and it's as high as he gets on a day when he at least earned his first top-five finish of the season. Not bad, but not what it would have been for the No. 8 if the rain had kept on coming.