Chase Race No. 7: Earnhardt Jr Scores Major Martinsville Victory; Harvick, Keselowski in Trouble

Dale Jr poses with his first Martinsville grandfather clock (Photo: Google Images)

After 14 years of trying to capture a Ridgeway Grandfather Clock trophy, Dale Earnhardt Jr finally accomplished that feat Sunday afternoon. Junior scored his first win at the Virginia short track and held off one of the best at the track, teammate Jeff Gordon to do so. Unfortunately, as far as the Chase is concerned, it was too little too late as a wreck at Talladega last week ended Earnhardt Jr's bid for the 2014 title. But clearly he and crew chief Steve Letarte could have still been contenders with how they ran this weekend.

Jamie McMurray started on the pole, starting outside of Chaser Joey Logano. McMurray was strong all day, but on lap 85, Gordon grabbed the lead and established his role as the dominant car in the race. The event would prove to be a battle between Gordon and Earnhardt Jr for most of the day when the No. 88 grabbed the lead from his teammate on lap 192. But just because there weren't that many different leaders, the Goody's Headache Relief 500 was not without it's controversy.

On lap 229, Matt Kenseth wheel hopped his No. 20 car going into turn one. When his rear wheels locked up, he slid up the track and spun the No. 4 of fellow Chaser Kevin Harvick into the outside wall. After the accident, Harvick declared to reporters that he would personally see to it that Kenseth would not win the championship. So with three races left and some bad blood between these drivers, next weeks event in Texas could prove very interesting in who makes it to the final four championship eligible drivers in Homestead.

The race also saw last week's winner Brad Keselowski have trouble. After narrowly avoiding elimination with a win at Talladega, Keselowski broke had a rear end issue in his No. 2 Ford (a faily common issue at Martinsville). The only problem is that his car decided to break off of turn four, which led to a pileup that collected Casey Mears, Kasey Kahne, Danica Patrick and Martin Truex Jr. It also led to a ten minute red flag so Nascar could clean up the frontstrech.


Kevin Harvick after his Martinsville wreck (Photo: Google Images)

The next caution was also really bizarre. McMurray got into a shoving match with the No. 9 of Marcos Ambrose. Ambrose bumped the No. 1 car back and that appeared to be the end of it. But McMurray's teammate, Kyle Larson decided to spin Ambrose out in thorn four. It was almost like he was trying to defend McMurray caused another ten minute red flag to remove Larson's stalled car from the track.

In the end, it was series of late race pit stops that saw Tony Stewart stay out in an effort to steal his first win of the year. But he was passed by Earnhardt and Gordon, as both were on four fresh tires, and Earnhardt scored the grandfather clock trophy, the first of his career. Now it's on to Texas Motor Speedway, the track where Junior scored his first win in 2001. It will be interesting to see if he can ride this momentum and score another win in the Lone Star State. It will also be interesting to see if the Penske drivers can rebound. But with how Keselowski and Logano have run at the mile-and-a-half speedways all year, they will be a force in Texas too.

Everything is bigger in Texas, and this will be one of the biggest events of the year with only two races left till the season finale.