Weekend That Was: M'ville

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Has Nextel Cup racing gone soft? Are the best stock-car drivers in the world becoming too nice?

Well, as dramatic a finish as it was in the Goody's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, it makes you wonder. Jimmie Johnson held off Jeff Gordon, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, by 0.065 seconds (about half a car length) to win the event.

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And immediately afterward, Gordon seemed none too pleased about finishing second.

"Well, last week [at Bristol], I was happy just to finish third; we didn't have a better car. This week we had an awesome car and I'm really, really upset that I'm sitting here talking to you about finishing second," Gordon said. "I feel like we should be getting another one of those grandfather clocks [for winning at Martinsville] -- but we didn't get it done. Without wrecking him, there was no way I could get it done."

In the old days, you know what would have happened. Gordon had the faster car at the end. Teammate or no teammate, if the guy driving the slower car wouldn't have gotten out of the way, the guy with the faster car would have booted him.

That's just the way it was. But that obviously is not the way it is now.

The question is, which makes for better racing? Gordon tried to bump and grind past Johnson, but it appeared to be a half-hearted effort as he drove along a fine line -- or perhaps it would be more accurate to say he toed the company line -- that he knew had been drawn long ago by team owner Rick Hendrick.

He therefore was careful not to bump too hard.

"I had hit him hard. I hit him really hard and got him way out of shape," Gordon said. "It was one of those things where I knew I had to wait until the last lap because without putting him all the way up into the wall, I couldn't get clear enough of him where he wasn't going to come back and run into the back of me -- and that's not how I want to race my teammate. I felt like he did really what he needed to do, but I think if anybody else had been in second but me, he probably wouldn't have won the race."

The duel lasted much of the last 53 laps of the 500-lap event. That was plenty long enough for Hendrick to communicate to both drivers via their crew chiefs how he expected it to be played out. No matter who was going to win, he wanted a one-two finish for Hendrick Motorsports.

With the memory of Juan Montoya booting Scott Pruett, his part-time Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, out of the way to win the recent Busch Series race in Mexico still fresh in everyone's minds, Hendrick just wanted to make sure all those under his employment were on the same page.

"I was talking to the crew chiefs, telling them to be patient," Hendrick said. "The cars were running together all day. You don't have to say much. I think everybody in the organization realizes that if we have a situation where one of the cars takes the other guy out, it is going to unravel a lot of hard work we have put into this year. So you just cross your fingers and hope everybody keeps them straight."

Gordon overcomes roadblock at M'ville

Jeff Gordon didn't win the race, but he left little doubt about his legendary status at Martinsville.

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Johnson later argued that there wasn't much more Gordon could have done, anyway.

"I don't know how he could have hit me much harder. The way these bumpers line up, I just literally put my head up against the head rest and would just wait for it -- because I knew it was coming and that it was coming real hard," Johnson said. "If we had been on the highway, my airbag would have gone off."

The bumpers in the new Car of Tomorrow machines that were used in the Martinsville race, as well as the Bristol race the previous week, line up in such a way that it is more difficult to spin out the car riding in front, anyway. Some consider that a plus; others consider it a minus because the car in the rear can almost use the lead car as a brake of sorts heading into the turns at a short track like Martinsville.

Once he had a few minutes to cool off, Gordon already seemed to be toning down his anger about how the race played out.

"I race everybody the way they race me," Gordon said. "He did what he needed to do, and if the roles were reversed, obviously I'm going to do what I've got to do to protect that spot as well.

"We're out here to win a championship. And by wrecking him or myself or both of us trying to go for that win -- which Rick Hendrick has seen before -- I've heard about those Monday morning meetings and I don't want to be a part of that."

Johnson said he appreciated Gordon's restraint at the end of Sunday's race, and also understood his teammate's frustration. After all, Martinsville is a place where Gordon had won seven times previously -- and he obviously wanted his eighth career win there very badly.

"I am speechless about out-dueling Jeff Gordon for this win," Johnson said. "I have looked up to him my whole career -- even before I was actually racing. I looked up to him and I knew how good he was at Martinsville.

"That was amazing there at the end. That was the hardest driving I have ever done. Then to have my bumper beat off by my teammate in a way that didn't jeopardize either one of us, that was a really class act by Jeff."

Yeah, well, at the end the grandfather clock that goes to the victor was still headed home with Johnson, not Gordon.

"I'm mad, but I'm not really mad at him," Gordon said. "He didn't do anything wrong. Had I hit him any harder and wrecked them, then the blame would have been put on me and we would have had an issue. We don't need that as teammates. We don't need that as competitors going forward trying to win a championship. I just hope we get our share of wins by continuing to race the way we've been racing."

That's just it, folks. As great a driver as Gordon is, he's been stuck on 75 career wins since winning at Chicago this past July. He won only twice last year, his lowest win total since his third year of Cup racing in 1994.

He's playing nice. He's racing clean. But the fact is that it's not winning him more races; it's winning him less.

And now that his Hendrick teammates, Johnson and upstart Kyle Busch, are running up front most every week, too, you have to wonder if maybe it's time for him to start ignoring some of the in-house political correctness and playing a little rougher in tight situations such as Sunday.

If he wants to win lots more races, that is. If he just wants to make sure his Monday morning meetings at 4400 Papa Joe Hendrick Blvd. are peaceful, well, then that's another matter.

One final point: Had Gordon won Sunday, he would have tied Dale Earnhardt for sixth on the all-time Cup win list. What do you think Earnhardt would have done?

Skinner rolling

Toyota obviously isn't having any problems in NASCAR's Truck Series. Mike Skinner won his third consecutive Craftsman Truck Series race for Bill Davis Racing on Saturday at Martinsville, and it was the fourth consecutive win for a Toyota overall in the series.

But the big winner Saturday was Skinner's crew chief, Jeff Hensley, who hails from nearby Ridgeway, Va.

"I went to high school about two miles from here," Hensley said. "I went to college at Patrick Henry Community College, which is about 15 miles north of here. So this is big."

Seven miles at Martinsville

So David Caraviello's column, posted on NASCAR.COM on Saturday, rankled Martinsville track president Clay Campbell so badly that Campbell called an impromptu news conference before the race Sunday morning to basically rip our colleague and address "persistent and unfounded rumors about the demise of Martinsville Speedway."

Well, Caraviello and myself weren't in attendance. We were stuck in what was reported to be a seven-mile-long traffic jam out in front of Campbell's track. And on my way to the press box later during the race, I saw several seven-mile-long lines to dilapidated restrooms and portable toilets.

All of which reinforces the main points of Caraviello's column. As neat a venue as Martinsville is to watch a race, it is pretty obvious that International Speedway Corp. isn't planning to keep holding two races a year there forever -- or they'd sink some money into upgrading some of its basic facilities. Even then it would still be too hard to get to and too far away from the general masses to serve NASCAR's long-range purposes.

Maybe Campbell is the last one to realize that.

Pit stops

• I did have one of the legendary hot dogs made famous by Campbell's track, and I have to say it was delicious. Caraviello won't touch 'em because he doesn't like their "pink, radioactive" look. On that, I admit that my colleague's opinion is shortsighted. But a great hot dog will only get you so far in assuring two Nextel Cup race dates for the long haul.

• Jamie McMurray continued to rebound from a disappointing start to his season with his fourth consecutive top-15 finish. He finished ninth after starting second, and now is up to 12th in points.

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. was upset at the sand and debris that was blown into the cockpit of his car by the jet dryers used to clean and dry off the track after Sunday's 33-minute rain delay. "I ended up getting something in my eye and it hurt for a long time," Earnhardt said.

• Being less aggressive when supposedly racing for wins isn't the only thing that has changed about Cup drivers these days. When did anyone from the old days ever talk about taking a Caribbean vacation in the middle of a season like some of the current guys did when asked what they planned to do during their Easter break weekend?

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.