The Rock 04, Cup races
02/23/2004
Matt Kenseth wins by less than a foot, rooky Kasey Kahne is second and the Jamie McMurray team was at the trailer claiming he won. Mark Martin accused of blocking, Robby goes tumbling down the track and Carl Long walks away unscathed.
It was an exciting day at Rockingham for the cup race. There was lots of controversy at the track with the new “freeze the field” rules. Robby caused the controversial caution as he tumbled down the track, sliding on the drivers side door, slid back over and then hit the inside wall. That boy just pitted and tried to get back into the race. I guess something was broken, after the tumble, he was listed as out of the race finishing 36th. Robby got a lot of TV time yesterday, some of the FOX announcers were whining about him, he is not one of there darlings. (Oh, Fox, watch the microphones in the TV broadcast booth, we heard one of your reporters having a fit, bitching that Darryl was taking all the cut ins and stepping on his leads.)
The field was frozen due to Robby’s wreck with Jeff Green, NASCAR put the yellow flag out. Kenseth and Kahne were on pit road, McMurray was still on the track but the field is frozen once the flag is dropped. The controversy comes in because Kenseth and Kahne were still moving when the pace car picked up the field. NASCAR determined that they were still on the lead lap and realigned the field. McMurray’s owners and crew chief’s claim they should have been the leader at that point and Kahne and Kensth should have been a lap down. From the reports I read this morning there were tempers flaring at the big red truck. Well, its not the big red truck anymore with the sponsor change, some folks are calling it the “oval office”. Anyway, the car owners Felix Sabates and Chip Ganassi headed to The Truck. One report says Sabates threw a water bottle as he exited the truck. Tempers, tempers boys.
Ok, so the race gets restarted with 31 laps to go with a double-file restart. Mark Martin is on the inside and Kenseth, Kahne and McMurray are on the outside. Kenseth gets a good restart and pulls away from the other contenders. Kahne and McMurry are behind him and Mark takes the groove he is looking for. Mark gets called to The Truck after the race and gets accused of blocking Kahne and McMurray on the restart. Mark Martin and Mat Kenseth both race for Roush and Mark is a part owner of the car. Accusations fly about Mark helping his teammate out. I watched the replay a few times, I reran the video and I didn’t see a block move on Marks part. I am upset that an accusation was made against him. He is on of the cleanest racers on the track. He is a respected driver and that just doesn’t fly in my book. I am sure Mark Martin is disappointed with his visit to The Truck.
Ok to Carl Long: He was a fill in car for the race. He is an owner/driver with one car. He was doing well in the race, and then with about 130 laps to go he is airborne. Brendan Gaughn and Joe Nemachek got tangled and Nemacheck gets into the back of Long. Up, over and round and round he goes. 5 flips of the car and he lands, pops out of the car unassisted and walks to the ambulance. Spectacular crash, I am sure it hit all the news highlights. I hope it helps his race efforts.
