Katie's Komments: 2nd Edition

Welcome to the second edition of Katie’s Komment’s, a place to find the latest NASCAR news and my opinion on it! All comments are my views only but feel free to leave your own!

Jimmie Johnson: Let’s face it, Jimmie Johnson and the Lowe’s 48 team dominated last weekend at Martinsville. Johnson took top honors of the weekend when he not only took the pole position but he broke the track record.  Let’s not forget that he also led the most laps and won his 8th Grandfather clock. Johnson’s win at Martinsville makes this his second this season following his win in the Daytona 500, making him the first driver this season to reach Victory Lane for the second time. Although it seems like Johnson’s race was nothing but good, there was one instance on the track that left Johnson’s with a lot of hate mail, or hate tweets for that matter, following the race. After contact with Danica Patrick, fellow Hendrick teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr spun out and was blocking the track. Johnson, leading the race, had to slow up in order for Dale Jr. to back up and get turned around. As Dale Jr. backed up, Johnson went forward and around, putting Dale Jr. a lap down. The rest of the field waited for him to turn around before they continued on. Now, the great debate is, was Johnson wrong for going around Dale Jr.? Dale Jr. says no, that he didn’t blame him for going around him at all. JRNation has other ideas. Johnson did what any other driver leading the race would have done. Just because Dale Jr. is a teammate, Johnson had only one thing on his mind and that was winning that race.

Danica Patrick: If you follow me on Twitter, you can probably tell that I am a big Danica Patrick supporter. I do agree that she is over-exposed but that over-exposure is benefiting NASCAR in the long run. I am not here to discuss that, yet. Instead, I am here to talk about her 12th place finish at Martinsville. 12th place may not seem like a great finish but for a Rookie at Martinsville, that is spectacular. Patrick was the highest finishing car for Stewart-Haas Racing which means she beat her boss, Tony Stewart, a veteran at Martinsville. Patrick spun out early in the race and went two laps down but pit strategy put her back on the lead lap halfway through the race. Patrick passed cars all day long and battled Brian Vickers for many laps. Running 11th at the white flag, she, along with Vickers and Kevin Harvick, raced three-wide, leaving her 12th in the end. Many veteran drivers were impressed with her finish and frankly, I was too. Patrick and her team needed that great finish after the rocky road she’s been running on since Daytona. Expect her to carry that momentum into Texas this weekend and considering this is the track she is most familiar with (she has 13 starts here between IndyCar and NASCAR), this could be another great week for the GoDaddy team.

KURT BUSCH: This poor guy can’t seem to catch a break. Kurt Busch started 19th and patiently drove his No. 78 Furniture Row/Serta Chevrolet SS to the front of the field. By Lap 195, he had entered the top-10. Lap 270 saw Busch headed to pit road with a flat left-front tire after a tangle with Joey Logano which put him 2 laps down.  By lap 292, he had gained one lap back and was on the verge of getting the “Lucky Dog” position when a nudge from David Gilliland sent Busch spinning on the track. Lap 351 saw Busch heading to the garage with a fuel pump issue.  Shortly thereafter, he returned to the track and all seemed to be working properly. Busch was running 38th and more than 20 laps down with 14 laps to go when his Furniture Row Chevrolet suddenly shot up into the outside wall and burst into flames. Coming into turn 1, his car lost its brakes and instead of careening into the corner and taking out his fellow competitors, Busch instead turned the wheel the other way and slid up into the wall. Flames bellowed out from under the hood of his car as it came to its final resting place at the top of the track. His entire season seems to be full of as many ups and down as his Martinsville race but one thing is for sure, the older Busch brother isn’t giving up quite yet. He was fastest for most of the first test session at Texas on Thursday and I think Saturday’s race might just be the best race of his season thus far.

That will be it for the second edition of Katie’s Komment’s and remember, if you don’t like mine, feel free to leave your own!