I approached this event with a little more trepidation than most race weekends. With the pending weather conditions and the possibility that those conditions could wreak havoc on not just the race weekend but the travel itineraries of both Shopgirl and myself, there was more than one thing to worry about. As most of the racing public do, I faced it head on and really didn’t fret about it. I figured I’d find a way around whatever problems we faced as they appeared.

I was flying out of LaGuardia Airport in Queens. The airport that was named for one of New York’s most beloved mayors has become the antithesis of his reputation. LaGuardia organized everything and made things happen.

The airport that bears his name is notorious for delays at the drop of a hat. Traffic there is often quite chaotic. The schedule of departures often seem as though it changes because a ticket agent had to comb their hair. Hey, any excuse will do.

Getting to LGA can be a challenge too. For those of you from New England, travel on the Long Island Expressway, through Nassau County and into NYC, often is more exciting and probably more dangerous than a NEXTEL Cup race. It is also one of the most frustrating drives one can make. Just when you’re ready to punt the law-abiding citizen in the hammer lane, you are the one that someone else wants to punt.

Parking is one of the biggest expenses with regard to air travel in New York. There is a car rental company that offers long term parking across the Grand Central Parkway from the airport that I usually use. This place is easy in, easy out and much less expensive than parking at the airport.

The shuttle ride to the airport was interesting. It was probably pretty intriguing to watch me load all of my crap on the bus. I looked like I was taking the contents of my home with me.

The guys who got on the shuttle after I did were special. These two guys both bounced off of me and both of them nearly wound up in my lap as I patiently waited for the bus’s departure. When they eventually got their gear stowed and sat down next to me, it was quite apparent why they were having so much difficulty, they both smelled like they had been in a gin mills for a couple of days.

I was interested in looking at Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTC as we took off. There were well over twenty thousand people in that place just a few short hours ago. I watched what would be Andre Agassi’s final U.S. Open victory live on the tube this morning. I don’t remember the last time a New York crowd was so charged up that late in the evening.

Airplane travel is interesting in foul weather. Our flight left violently. The plane shook so badly that the service cart broke loose and the flight attendant wrestled to keep it from scooting right down the aisle and out the back of the plane.

Most people probably don’t like traveling in turbulence. I don’t mind. It just makes my puzzles look messier.

The rental car I got was a real joy. It was at least three years old with only eleven thousand miles on it. ThE sHaDoW must have bounced this thing off of the chip in front of a dumpster one night. I told the attendant there, “Thanks for the “Classic”” car.

Martinsville Speedway didn’t seem all that affected by the inclement weather that had struck Virginia and the Carolinas. One probably wouldn’t notice that anyway. Clay Campbell’s staff just seems to handle each situation with little fanfare. There are things that are addressed from minute to minute and we just don’t see their Keebler elves that had to do all of the work. The place is spotless. It is amazing.

One of the things that I planned on doing was to visit each of the Whelen Southern Modified Tour drivers to get their profiles up to date. It was a nice idea. Unfortunately, one thing leads to another and the next thing you know we’re a couple of the last people leaving the track, without the updated profiles.

Jaws had sent me a message asking me to eat a pink hotdog for him. People might think the electric red colored, Jesse Jones hotdogs cause indigestion. I figure it is psychosomatic or it may just be all of the things people put on them. The sloppy Joe mix or chili or whatever that stuff is, is quite spicy. He’ll get the picture in the mail.

Vicki told me that the addition of a fifth Musco lighting truck made a big difference Friday night. I had to take her word for it. By the time I had submitted the results from qualifying, the autograph session was over and the lights had been extinguished.

Mike Stefanik took down the pole with a lap of 18.833 seconds. His fast lap happened much the way that most fast laps happen, on the second lap. Martinsville can be a tricky place to take time. More than one third of the competitors had their fast lap on the first pass.

Stefanik had told me back at Thompson that he was disappointed in the performance of the #16 car. Although the team was leading the point standings, had taken down a pole and a win, he felt there were more than half a dozen teams whose performance was far greater than the Flamingo team. Apparently they found their problem.

I asked Mike, at the post-qualifying press conference, “Is this the kind of performance he was looking for?” Mike said, “Absolutely. We learned a crucial mistake that we were making back a race ago. We fixed that problem with the car. We also got a little more educated on a couple of other things and I feel now like I am revived.”

Stefanik continued, “Our performance hadn’t been what I thought it would be. Even though we are the point leader and getting some respectable finishes but we’ve been fortunate. We know there have been some cars that have been consistently better than we are and we found one inherent problem that we were doing wrong, we adjusted that. I feel like we just pushed the reset button, on our team and we are going to perform at a higher level than we had performed during the course of this year.”

“I felt that way coming down here. We’re starting a fresh season with just six races to go, with a seventy-point lead. [Stefanik and company came to Martinsville seventy-one points ahead of Ted Christopher] I don’t know if our finishes will be any better, because luck had a lot to do with it, but I feel that you are going to see the #16 perform at a higher level than you have seen it performing in the past several months,” said the pole winner. To which I added, “That’s bad news for everybody else.”

By the time we got out of the track, it was past 11PM. We stopped for dinner where we ran into the guys from Hoosier. I guess tire guys get hungry too.

Boy did I sleep. I don’t even remember lying down. I do remember going out for breakfast, just after noon.

I decided that we would walk to one of our favorite restaurants. We passed the TS Haulers guys in the lobby. Who knew that Jimmy and Eddie would be standing there with me in the press box a few hours later?

We walked down the hill to the Ville. People in the Martinsville area sure are friendly. Has anyone there heard the words, “Too much information?” I didn’t think so.

We got to the track just before happy hour practice began. Joe Skotnicki put a new spin on an old phrase. He told me “I don’t know what’s in the water out on Long Island, but you guys certainly drink it.” Apparently I must have said something that sounded less than intelligent.

Saturday seemed like such a beautiful day compared to Friday. Although there were some scattered clouds, the temperature was in the low eighties and it really didn’t look like we were going to get any rain. Considering the gloomy forecast from Thursday, I thought the crowd was better than expected.

Whelen’s Grand Marshall, Geoff Bodine, preached patience at the driver’s meeting, “Just like you taught me Jerry [Cook]”. Reverend Dan was there and he announced chapel service for 5:30PM. That was exactly when we had to head for the press box.

Vicki helped me lug all of the stuff out through the tunnel. There was a golf cart, waiting there to take us to the other end of the racetrack. I kind of thought it interesting that there is a professional elevator operator at the south tower.

We went down for the meet and greet and found those waiting for us limited to Chris and Racer1_NC. The latter was relegated to becoming a spectator when Jay Hedgecock destroyed his car recently. Normally he spots for Jay. Shopgirl and I said our goodbyes and we were off to start the updates.

As we went back to the press box, I noticed a little precipitation. Not rain mind you, just a couple of drops. I got back topside and looked up the weather radar. All of the weather was just south of Martinsville, as is the track.

It started to drizzle and then it rained hard. The track crew did a pretty good job of drying the place out. The rain delayed the start of the race by nearly two hours.

During the rain delay, I got to meet another Walter. Walter Johnston writes for the Long Island Jam. We were keeping TBax and Catfish entertained in stereo.

With forty-three starters in the feature event and fifteen of the twenty-one starters of the Chatlee Boats 50 transferring into that feature, one who would visit a weekly series track might think, “Hey, once they’re down to fifteen cars, run one lap and throw the checker.” The sponsor paid for a fifty-lap race and that’s what they got. Kevin Goodale and Ronnie Silk traded the lead several times. Goodale battled back for the win.

Although the last chance race took forty minutes to run, I understand why some might have been upset. Hey, they had spent almost two hours out in the rain and they wanted to see the feature. The opening ceremonies were then on tap. I know a bunch of folks were upset about that too. Geoff Bodine felt the vibe as well. When he was handed the microphone, he wanted out of there. “Let’s go racing.”

Despite the marching band coming onto the track, the stage being brought out along with the temporary footbridge and the formal driver introductions, the time between the finish of the last chance race and the start of engines for the feature was forty-two minutes. With all of the different things that the NASCAR officials and track management had to deal with in the change over between the two races, it wouldn’t have gotten the feature started much faster had they just shooed the band away and done introductions with the drivers strapped in. Some of the teams that transferred from the last chance race were still trying to locate their pit stalls after the engines were fired.

There has been a lot of speculation over what happened in turn four on lap twelve. We were watching from the press box, which is at the top of the stands between turns one and two. It kind of looked like everyone drove down into turn four and ran into each other from up there.

One of the biggest delays in getting the race going after that caution had to do with the SAFER barrier. Apparently, the SAFER equipment and personnel are kept on the outside of the track at Martinsville due to the limited space in the infield. One of the cars punctured a hole big enough that the SAFER folks determined that it needed to be repaired.

Unfortunately for all of us, the communication that there was SAFER damage was not communicated until the accident scene had already been cleared. Welders had to be brought in and a plate was welded by the dew patch adjacent to the turn-four exit gate. That was the first time that the SAFER barrier had to be repaired at Martinsville. I’m sure that this will be less of an issue in the future as the analysis and repair procedures will be reviewed and amended as part of the track safety meetings.

That incident wrecked the hopes of many of the top competitors. Some like Eric Beers, Robbie Summers, Reggie Ruggiero and the top WSMT competitor Junior Miller were damaged too badly to continue. Others like Tony Hirschman and Jamie Tomaino made repairs but finished many laps in arrears.

Brian Loftin was having a pretty good run until he pitted after a caution on lap ninety-six. The #23 team had a miscommunication and sent Brian back out sans a few lug nuts. It looked pretty scary on pit road from my vantage point. The reason out was “Shock”, which he may have left on the backstretch after losing a tire and wheel on pit road.

There were several things that contributed to delays in getting things going during a few of the caution periods. The first, in my opinion, was that the race should have gone red a couple of more times. Several times tow trucks were trying to hook up to wrecked cars and couldn’t get a break in the line of competitors circulating the track. Martinsville is different from a place like Stafford where there are alternative paths to circulate away from the affected areas.

Secondly, when the race was red flagged, the competitors did not keep their cars in line single file. That blocked the track crews from doing much of what they had to do. Thirdly, several of the competitors were not very cooperative with the race director.

Although the race director made fair calls, it took way to long for the spotters and crew chiefs to get their drivers to obey the rulings. The sanctioning body is running the show. If a team or driver doesn’t respond to a directive, post [black flag] them. If they don’t respond to that, park them and limit that team and driver to fifteen minutes of practice at the next event. When a scorecard is collected, keep it. Once that is done on a regular basis, I feel it will be amazing how quickly some folks hearing and the quality of the races will improve.

The halfway break could have been a five-minute stop. However, that wasn’t just going to change at the last minute. If there were even the possibility of doing something like that, it would have had to be announced at the drivers meeting. I wish it could have been just a five-minute stoppage; they probably wouldn’t have lost the track.

We did lose the track briefly at that point. The track drying efforts worked remarkably well. It took about seven minutes for the track to be dried from the time that the leaders told NASCAR they had lost the track. Engines were fired and we were back under way.

The big race on pit road was after a caution on lap 147. Todd Szegedy, Tim Brown, Jerry Marquis, Ted Christopher and Donny Lia all pitted. Lia appeared to win the battle off of pit road and NASCAR agreed. However, the adjustments that were made to Christopher’s car seemed to yield better results.

Tim Brown failed to exit quickly enough and ran the stop sign at the end of pit road. He was recalled and held a lap. Brown got a free pass later and finished ninth.

Throughout the race, Mike Stefanik made good on what he had said Friday night. The #16 was performing at a very high level and he was fast despite having opted not to change tires when others had.

There was one thing that was noticeable. Those who had pitted for tires were coming through the field quickly. Jimmy Blewett got the best of Stefanik on the last double file restart. The two raced side-by-side but Blewett couldn’t quite close the deal.

On the subsequent single file restart, Blewett got into the back of Stefanik. It looked like Jimmy could have lifted after the contact and the two would have held their positions. Blewett kept his foot in it and the next five drivers freight trained the man who had dominated the event.

Christopher was throwing the kitchen sink at Zach Sylvester. It was clear that Ted’s car was faster than Zach’s. In fact he was arguably the fastest car on the track. Christopher pulled to the inside of Sylvester on the front stretch and had a wheel inside of the #15 as the two entered turn one.

Sylvester had done a masterful job of protecting the bottom to that point. Christopher just had the bite that he needed off of four to get inside. I don’t think anyone told Zach that Ted was there because when Zach tried to get to the bottom; Ted was there, the two made contact and that spun the #15.

Stefanik pitted on the ensuing caution. I don’t think the Flamingo team realized how many teams were on the lead lap or that the race was going to end if the weather picked up. With fifty laps to go in the scheduled distance, it wouldn’t have been out of the realm of possibility that Mike could have come right through the field and taken down the win. Unfortunately for the #16 team, the rain picked up as Stefanik hit pit road.

It was almost one o’clock in the morning. There were fans that had been in the stands dealing with weather and delays since 3PM. The call came to throw the white flag and at that point there were more than enough people who would have thrown their own white flag up in surrender.

For a moment in looked like Jimmy Blewett was going to blow it. When the white flag was thrown, it looked like he was going to stop on the finish line. He circled around and took the checkers.

Jimmy Blewett spoke in Victory Lane, “I just want to dedicate this race to my car owner and Charlie Jarzombek. He was a good friend of my car owners and this race is for you too.” Moderator asked, “What does this race mean Jimmy to win here at this racetrack Martinsville Speedway, this historic half-mile?” It means a lot, because my car owner pretty much came out on a limb to give me an opportunity to drive this car. Not many people would give me a chance. He’s seen something in me I guess other people didn’t.”

Although we were told that we would hear from the top three finishers, Todd Szegedy participated in the post race press conference. Todd said, “I guess we got pretty lucky we finished where we did. We got a little bent up in the beginning. Something happened with the lead cars and I caught the right front. We were a little messed up and the car wasn’t quite right. I kind of wish the race was over about half way. It definitely took too long to clean the messes up.”

Ted Christopher spoke, “I want to go back out racing again. It didn’t end right. Well, what are you going to do? You can’t control the weather. We were messed up from the start. I re-indexed my wheel like five times tonight. It kept moving on its’ own. We had a lot of issues after that first wreck with the front end.”

Ted said, “To come back to second…one sense it was a disappointing deal where we had a good enough car, I think, to win. We pitted and we had four [fresh] tires. In another sense, we gained we gained a bunch of points on [Stefanik].”

When asked about the incident with Zach Sylvester, Christopher responded, “He was loose like crazy. He kept getting loose, getting loose and you know I tried a couple of times. I mean I was pretty far in there and I had the brake locked up pretty hard to not really get into him but he come down on that. He was “loose” like crazy. It was just a matter of time but it was an unfortunate deal, almost like the #12 dumping the #16. It was a pretty wild race tonight.”

I asked Ted, “Was your car as strong as you thought it would be?” Christopher responded, “It was pretty good. We had to make a lot of changes. It got pretty bent up. It was a good car. Our pit stop came out just right. We put four tires on and got by a bunch of guys. In one sense you’ve got a lot of laps left to do and you know that the guys in front of you didn’t pit. So you say all right, we will wait. Then it sucks that the rain happened. That’s the way it goes.”

Jimmy Blewett was asked about the contact with the #16. Blewett replied, “Well when we went back to green on that restart, I went down into turn one and the brake pedal faded on me and I got into him a little bit. He got out of shape and the door opened so I took the hole. It wasn’t intentional, I didn’t mean it; apology goes to him.” “That’s racing you got to keep on going.”

How frustrated did you feel at certain points during the race when it took so long to get it done on account of the weather? Blewett said, “I wasn’t really too frustrated in the beginning. We were just concentrating on getting to the halfway point. We made some adjustments on the car. When we went back green, we were just trying to get as many spots as we could on the double file restarts. We put ourselves in position to be in second place there on that last restart when we went double file. I thought I had him when we went into turn one but [Stefanik] slid up a little bit and got into me and I got out of shape and had to settle for second. When we went back green under single file, like I said, the brake pedal faded and I got into him. The opportunity was there so I took it.”

The moderator asked, “When the race started you were number nine, at the half way mark you were number five, were things kind of going according to your plans?” Jimmy said, “Yeah, they were going according to plan. We wanted to wait it out to pit. A lot of guys pitted and we’d seen the rain on and off and we were debating whether to come in. We said let’s wait and see what Stefanik was going to do. Stefanik went in on that last caution there and it was raining so we stayed out. I guess we made a good call.”

I asked Jimmy, “That’s a big grandfather clock, what are you going to do with it?” Blewett said, “It’s not what I’m going to do with it, it’s what Eddie’s going to do with it. Eddie [Partridge] pays all of the bills and he gave me an opportunity of a lifetime. I thank Eddie for everything. That’s Eddie’s clock. I don’t need anything for driving his cars; Just having the opportunity to drive is good enough for me. I don’t need anything else.”

I stated, “Arguably this is the biggest win of your career. “This is the biggest race win of my career. We got the win at Speedweeks where we won the Richie Evans Memorial. That was our biggest win to date. This will probably be the biggest win ever for me.”

I asked Eddie Partridge, “What does this win mean for you?” Ed said, “This place owed me one, with Charlie [Jarzombek] getting killed here and all. I wanted to come here and win this race without a doubt. I told Jimmy that, I told the whole crew that. It did work out. It’s great: it’s our first Tour win. We’ve won some Modified races at Riverhead and won some SK races and they were all good but this is a big one a real big one.”

The gentle giant almost seemed surprised that his team had taken down the victory he had so coveted. He was welled up with emotion. It really meant everything to the burly car owner.

I don’t know who was happier about the win, Jimmy, Eddie or yours truly. I’ve been acquainted with Ed for nearly as long as I’ve been involved in racing. Several members of the winning team are former teammates of mine, two from the 7ny and my first crew chief, Mark Tooker.

Few remember that Ed was actually the owner of the car that Chargin’ Charlie drove for the last time. The TS Haulers paint scheme is reminiscent of the colors that Ernie Wilsberg brought to NASCAR racing. This win will mean more to some than others and may even bring some closure for a few.

Vicki and I waited on the finish in the press box until nearly 2AM. We packed up and were about to leave when Mark Mockovak burst through the elevator door with the finish. I set up again to post the results.

The golf carts and their drivers were gone. I kind of hoped that someone would have been there because Vicki was having a problem with her toe. We decided to walk back and Mike Smith gave us a lift the final couple hundred yards. The seat in that car was designed for the Travelocity Gnome. Someone call a chiropractor.

We took a tool through the infield. There might have been some food left on ThE sHaDoW’s grille. No chance. We gave Denis Morgan a lift to his truck and went back to the hotel.

We visited Thomasville, NC on Sunday. We stayed at my favorite hotel and ate at a seafood restaurant where one might have thought I spoke a different language. The waitress couldn’t quite understand why I would want soup before my meal. We encountered the whitest people I have ever met in that town.

I started writing this article while Kasey Kahne went to his fifth Cup victory of the season. After that I wrote with the Jerry Lewis telethon in the background. Jerry looks great and I hope everyone supports Jerry’s kids.

My rental car was so dirty that I wrote “wash me” complete with the date on the inside of the glass. That’s just so that the next person that gets that car can appreciate how poorly maintained it is. At least the gas was cheap.

The personnel at the Triad Airport counter are different from those in New York. In New York there are three people screaming at each other and at the travelers. They have to. They’re trying to ticket bags for dozens of travelers at a time, travelers who know how to use kiosks and check themselves in.

At Greensboro, there are three people there that seem to take all day to check four people in. They sure are polite. Hey! Could someone get a tag on this bag before my plane lands at LaGuardia?

We never really got stuck out in the rain the whole time we were in North Carolina and Virginia. Just after we got to the airport, the heavens opened up again. I couldn’t tell whether my trip home was going to be a flight or a swim.

I’m home. It’s almost Tuesday. I’ve got another story to write. I’m just sorry I took a nap before I finished this one. It probably would have been funnier had I written it under sleep deprivation again.

Before I conclude, I have to echo Vicki’s sentiments of the Martinsville staff. Mike, Clay and everyone at the track really did everything they could to make this weekend an enjoyable experience for everyone. The whole staff was polite to a fault. Thanks for showing us a great time.

Next week is Modified Madness at Thompson. People may want updates from all of the touring series races. We will see how things go on Saturday first. It’s the Sunoco 150 for the Whelen Modified Tour that we will definitely cover. We will see about the rest.