Complete Analysis: Martinsville

6. Matt Kenseth, No. 20 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing
While his mix-up with fellow Chase driver Kevin Harvick left his competitor’s No. 4 Chevrolet with heavy damage, Matt Kenseth was able to recover from the incident well enough to nearly muster a top-five finish. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver even absorbed an intentional hit from the SHR driver: “(Harvick) tried to knock our radiator off. Check the nose for any damage.” Get more driver audio with RaceView

7. Clint Bowyer, No. 15 Toyota, Michael Waltrip Racing
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a Clint Bowyer sighting. Having led just one — one! — lap since he led all of three at Indianapolis in July, Bowyer looked like his old self on Sunday, leading 33 laps on his way to a seventh-place finish.
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8. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing
At times, it looked like Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 car were the combo to beat — he led 68 laps — and that the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was back to honing his Martinsville prowess. An eighth-place finish is still good, especially considering an early pit stop flub where the car was too close to pit wall and the temporary jack man couldn’t get the handle down all the way nearly derailed him, but Hamlin still sits on the wrong side of the Chase bubble.

9. AJ Allmendinger, No. 47 Chevrolet, JTG Daugherty Racing
A solid top-10 finish for AJ Allmendinger and crew, which should go a long way toward solidifying another of the JTG Daugherty Racing driver’s strong suits as they turn their focus toward 2015. He may be out of the Chase, but this team won’t forget that they made it via the Watkins Glen win. If Dinger has road courses and short tracks nailed down, look out.

10. David Ragan, No. 34 Ford, Front Row Motorsports
If you were told that in two races at Talladega and Martinsville, David Ragan would’ve finished 30th and 10th, there’s no way you’d think the top-10 came at the short track. Alas, that’s the case, as the Front Row Motorsports driver recovered from a spin on Lap 207 for his best finish of the season.

11. Kyle Busch, No. 18 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing
Early in the race, Kyle Busch struggled with some steering issues into the turns, telling his team, ‘Won’t turn. Won’t leave,” later asking crew chief Dave Rogers to free up the car. Whatever changes the No. 18 team made must’ve worked, as Busch worked his way through the field for a near top-10 finish. Get more driver audio with RaceView

12. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing
Austin Dillon was caught speeding on pit road on Lap 391, a penalty that normally would’ve derailed the rookie and saddled him with a poor finish. The RCR driver rallied, however, to improve upon his spring Martinsville finish of 15th.

13. Greg Biffle, No. 16 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing
Not much is expected of Greg Biffle when the veteran driver hits the Virginia short track — after all, he’s never finished in the top five and has just five top-10s in 24 starts. That said, he’s been much better at Martinsville lately, averaging a finish of 12.0 since the start of 2012, so his 13th-place finish is right in line with his recent results.

14. Paul Menard, No. 27 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing
Paul Menard has finished inside the top 10 at Martinsville once in his career, placing exactly 10th this spring. In that race, he moved up 11 positions from where he started. In Sunday’s contest, he started 14th and finished there, too.

15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was involved in a late-race mix-up, but recovered enough for a 15th-place finish. Considering he missed last week’s race at Talladega completely, a mid-teens finish has to be considered a success for the second-year driver.

16. Jamie McMurray, No. 1 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing
For a good portion of the race, it sure looked like Jamie McMurray was going to play the part of Chase spoiler — a role that instead was filled by Dale Jr. — as he led 84 laps from the pole. In this year’s postseason, McMurray has shown serious speed and a competitive nature that wasn’t seen much in the regular season, so he could be a guy to watch as a 2015 Chase sleeper.

17. Justin Allgaier, No. 51 HScott Motorsports Chevrolet
Much like Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Justin Allgaier missed the Talladega race because of a qualifying gaffe, so his 17th-place finish is a solid return to the track for the No. 51 driver. Plus, he improved upon his starting and finishing position from the spring race.

18. Cole Whitt, No. 26 Toyota, BK Racing
Partly due to the overwhelming success of Kyle Larson and the hype around Austin Dillon, Cole Whitt hasn’t gotten the attention he deserves in 2014. The rookie has shown marked improvement over the course of the season and finished inside the top 20 for consecutive races for the first time this season via his 18th-place Martinsville result.

19. Landon Cassill, No. 40 Chevrolet, Hillman Racing
While it’s unlikely another one of his fans will get a tattoo to commemorate his 19th-place Martinsville finish like one did after his top-five at Talladega, Landon Cassill matched his career-best “Paperclip” finish in nine races.

20. Carl Edwards, No. 99 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing
Given how many of the remaining Chase drivers finished inside the top 10, Carl Edwards‘ 20th-place finish could’ve been a lot worse had Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick not imploded and scored 31st and 33rd-place finishes, respectively. The Roush Fenway Racing driver battled grip and water temperature issues all day and ended up being involved in Keselowski’s wreck on Lap 436, but remains in the Chase hunt because of his slight recovery.

21. Aric Almirola, No. 43 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports
Proof that the new Chase format is doing its job: Aric Almirola, who made the Chase via his July Daytona win and was knocked out almost immediately when he blew an engine in the opener at Chicago, has averaged a finish of 26.9 in the seven postseason races thus far. This team made plenty of improvements this year, but it’s clear they aren’t ready for the big stage yet.

22. David Gilliland, No. 38 Ford, Front Row Motorsports
With no top-10s under his belt in 2014 and only eight to his name in his career, it’d be irresponsible to expect one to come at Martinsville for the veteran driver, given that his career average finish is 29.6. Still, a 22nd-place result is better than he’s been, and he improved on his spring finish by four spots.

23. Marcos Ambrose, No. 9 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports
Marcos Ambrose had a quiet race until he and Kyle Larson got into each other with 11 laps to go, sending both drivers sideways into the wall. It’s possible that Larson was protecting his teammate, Jamie McMurray, as the No. 9 and No. 1 were beating and banging mere seconds before this happened, but it isn’t the kind of race a driver bowing out of the sport in three weeks was looking to have.

24. Michael Annett, No. 7 Chevrolet, Tommy Baldwin Racing
There was a five-race stretch in the middle of the season in which Michael Annett seemed to be closer to “getting it”, when he averaged a finish of 22.0. It was respectable for a rookie, but he hasn’t shown much since then. Perhaps his 24th-place showing at Martinsville will kick off a strong finish to his 2014 campaign.

25. Josh Wise, No. 98 Chevrolet, Phil Parsons Racing
Josh Wise has run more laps at Martinsville — 2,103 — than any other track on the circuit, and it shows. The 2014 All-Star has steadily improved his finishing position at the short track since his 2012 debut there, culminating in Sunday’s top-25.

26. Mike Wallace, No. 49 Toyota, Jay Robinson Racing
Mike Wallace ran back-to-back races for just the second time this season and it resulted in his best race of the year. After starting dead last, Wallace marched through the field for his best cup finish since 2007.

27. Brian Vickers, No. 55 Toyota, Michael Waltrip Racing
Brian Vickers had an entertaining race. He traded shots back and forth with Kasey Kahne, at times blaming his car (“The car just went straight when I got down to (Turn) 1. Be sure and check that splitter. Something has to be wrong.) but then later wanting to take part in the melee, saying “Alright, we owe him another. We can do this all day long.” Get more driver audio with RaceView

28. Kyle Fowler, No. 32 GO FAS Racing Ford
For a driver making his Sprint Cup Series debut, Martinsville is no easy task. It showed on Lap 75, when the 22-year-old spun and drew a caution. Still, he battled hard all day to recover for a respectable 28th-place showing.

29. Alex Bowman, No. 23 Toyota, BK Racing
Alex Bowman had a really difficult race from the get-go. He spun on Lap 5, making contact with Aric Almirola and later crunched his hood on Lap 207 when traffic in front of him stopped abruptly. To make matters worse, he couldn’t even unwind the way he wanted to, tweeting, “So to top today off they’re holding the driver owner lot for an hour. Which means missing the walking dead tonight.”

30. Kyle Larson, No. 42 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing
It’s clear that Kyle Larson will need to make one of his priorities over the offseason focusing on short track racing, because Martinsville always seems to eat up the otherwise super-talented rookie. He was involved in a bad wreck with 11 to go after he tangled with Marcos Ambrose and has yet to finish better than 27th in three races.

31. Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Ford, Team Penske
Brad Keselowksi must like racing as the Chase underdog, because he didn’t do himself any favors at Martinsville. His No. 2 started running hot on Lap 95, then he was caught speeding on Lap 163, and finally lost an axel on Lap 436, causing the biggest wreck of the day. At one point, team owner Roger Penske chimed in, “Lot of time. You’ll be fine.” He wasn’t.

32. Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports
It’s a good thing for the No. 48 team that they were eliminated last week at Talladega, because otherwise they’d be in a serious hole right now. Johnson’s race was bad the whole way through, saying in the early going, “Weird vibration in the front. Feels like maybe some rubber on the tire that won’t come off. … Might be a loose left-front. Getting worse.” He later ran into Casey Mears, prompting a testy crew chief Chad Knaus to say “Try not to run into anything else.” The HMS ride was later leaking oil and limped to the garage for a poor finish. Get more driver audio with RaceView

33. Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing
Luckily for Kevin Harvick, he’s magnificent at Phoenix and should contend for the win there. For now, Martinsville presented a nightmare race for the SHR driver, getting into a mess with Matt Kenseth that sent him to the garage with damage and a faulty oil cooler and radiator. He came back out around Lap 268, but it was too late.

34. Danica Patrick, No. 10 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing
At times, Danica Patrick looked to be putting together a second-consecutive competitive race, but later traded shots with a feisty Martin Truex Jr. that resulted in her No. 10 Chevy wrecked beyond repair. Her thoughts? “That 78 (expletive) took me out. If he thinks there’s a problem, he better look at what he did first.” Get more driver audio with RaceView

35. Reed Sorenson, No. 36 Chevrolet, Tommy Baldwin Racing
Reed Sorenson was another guy who was happy to see the checkered flag, since it signaled that his horrible day was over. The TBR driver spun in Turn 2 on Lap 188 with a blown tire and later spun again and smashed the wall on Lap 386.

36. Kurt Busch, No. 41 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing
In his final race with crew chief Daniel Knost, Kurt Busch certainly had a fast car, but his engine caught on fire late in the race while in seventh place. It ended a day in which they already had to overcome a tire issue, “The right rear is already kicking out on us.”

37. Casey Mears, No. 13 Chevrolet, Germain Racing
Casey Mears was the unlucky meat of a Brad Keselowski and Kasey Kahne sandwich, getting squashed between the two on the Lap 436 wreck. After he was released from the infield care center, he lamented the fact that he couldn’t be back on the track, because he was having a good time.

38. Martin Truex Jr., No. 78 Chevrolet, Furniture Row Racing
It’s tough to say exactly why Martin Truex Jr. and Danica Patrick were so mad at each other; if it all stemmed from this race (which it might’ve) or if there’s history there. Either way, the pair traded shots until the No. 78 was eventually wrecked for good in Keselowski’s big wreck on Lap 436.

39. J.J. Yeley, No. 83 Toyota, BK Racing
Yeley has only run 15 Sprint Cup Series races in 2014 and none of them has been particularly good, including Martinsville. He’s yet to finish higher than 29th this season, with only three races to go.

40. Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports
Of course, he was involved in the late wreck on Lap 436 like plenty others, but it was his drama with Brian Vickers that was the most entertaining part of Kahne’s race. Both drivers knew what was going on, with Kahne’s crew chief Kenny Francis saying “I’d say the ball is in his court now,” after Kahne knocked the No. 55.

41. Travis Kvapil, No. 33 Chevrolet, Circle Sport Racing
Travis Kvapil struggled on Sunday, getting into the wall on Lap 16 after contact from Josh Wise. He later said on Twitter, “Tough day for the @Circle_Sport 33. Got turned around early, then it went downhill from there. Car wasn’t 2 bad. Engine broke to end our day.”

42. Timmy Hill, No. 44, Team XTREME Racing Cheverolet
Timmy Hill had one of the shortest races of any driver, going over the wall on Lap 37 with smoke billowing from his engine. His take: “Out early today. Had a small fire under the hood. Track staff did a good job putting the fire out. Will take the car back & diagnose at shop.”

43. Clay Rogers, No. 93 BK Racing Toyota
And finally, Clay Rogers made just his second career Sprint Cup Series start, finishing 43rd again after he did so at Loudon a few weeks back.

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