Martinsville Awakens The Force In Arthur!!!

Ahhh……Martinsville! Home of the “Marty Dog” and short track racing. It was a beautiful late afternoon Sunday for he Sure Fire Racing drivers, After a 1 hour hot-laps session, it was time for Qualifying. As usual Justin Anderson would grab the pole……usually that is. Fellow R-n-J Motorsports driver T.J. Christ would shock everyone and take the fast time away from Anderson turning in a time of 20.025. Besting Anderson by almost a tenth and a half. Anderson would turn a 20.171 Followed by Clifton Cockrell with a 20.201. Mark McFadden recorded a 20.236. Mark Koschik would turn a 20.263 to round out the top 5 in Qualifying.

The green flew and they were off. Justin Anderson got a great start and edged Christ through 1 & 2. Anderson threw it hard into 3 & 4 and came out with the lead. Christ at this point, would just concede it not tearing his tires up this early. There were only 6 cautions. For a short track, that isn’t too awfully bad. The real problem was that 5 of them were in the 1st half. The first yellow would fly on lap 7 for the #48 of Mark McFadden who would lose it out of turn 2. Christ gambled early and only took right sides to get out ahead of everyone else. This would hand the lead to Jim Whaley Jr in the #46 Hot Wheels Ford Mustang. Michael Palmer in the #99 Bass Pro Chevrolet Camaro would be alongside Whaley for the restart. Palmer would drive into turn one waayyyy to hard and head towards the wall. Anderson would jump to the outside of Christ allowing Whaley to get away ever so slightly. It only took Christ and Anderson a few laps to get around Whaley to once again wage battle for the top spot.

The next yellow would be for Anderson in his R-n-J Motorsports Raybestos Ford Mustang looping it out of turn 4. The green would fly again and for the next 8 laps Mark Arthur and Christ would battle it out with Arthur taking the point. Christ would fight back on the outside fiercely trying to get his spot back. His tenacity would pay off, as the yellow would come out for another self-spin involving Mark McFadden. When the yellow would come out he had just a nose on Arthur, awarding him the lead once again. Entering the pits normally isn’t exciting or eventful…….normally. Having brake issues, Paul Cohen would blast into the #27 of Terry Walters who had no idea that he was about to be plowed into. Both continued on albeit Cohen suffered heavy damage. Mark McFadden’s miserable race would continue as he would again self-spin on lap 40. The 5th caution would come out from Cohen self-spinning out of turn two. However, at the same time Anderson would get into Christ into turn 3 and turning him. This had been developing for a lap however. Christ would dive low on Anderson and slide up and door him in the middle of turns 1 & 2. Anderson would return the favor into turn 3, but wasn’t as far up as Christ was.

The final caution would see once again McFadden’s nightmarish night continue as he once again self-spins out of turn 2. Arthur would receive a speeding penalty exiting the pits. This would set his hopes back as he would restart in 9th. Over the next 65 laps Arthur would just hunt down the leaders. He would finally accomplish the task as he took the lead for good on lap 139. Congratulations to Arthur in his #12 Force Awakens Chevrolet Camaro on his win at Martinsville Speedway.

Winner: Mark Arthur

2nd: Clifton Cockrell

3rd: Justin Anderson

4th: Thomas Christ

5th: Trevor Malone

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Whaley needs to sit down with his drivers and wrangle them in, and remind them that they are teammates, and not rivals with other teams. Over the last couple seasons, Brasfield, Anderson and Christ have driven like they’re with other stables. They are competitive. No one is denying that. But they need to start acting like teammates or risk losing their powerhouse team rides!