Martinsville

Take that, angry Chase Elliott fans! See? I told you Alan Gustafson was the greatest crew chief in NASCAR history. It goes him, Larry Mac, and then everyone else. Easy list. And good luck telling me otherwise, because I've already gone back into our system and deleted last year's MMPS where I called for him to be fired and then sent to the moon. It no longer exists! God, I love the internet. You can just erase things and BAM, they're gone forever. No more accountability. Perfect. Heartbreak for Denny Hamlin, revenge for Chase and Alan. Just like Martinsville drew it up after the infamous 2017 race. Chase was owed one, and he finally got it. The sireeeeeeeeeen is sounding in Dawsonville. NASCAR is happy. All is well. Let's roll. What else do y'all want to talk about today? Well, how about Bubba Wallace calling himself an a--hole and then absolutely demolishing Carson Hocevar and causing a huge crash? Yeah, thought so!I've also got Kyle Busch being just miserable (again!), NASCAR fans calling Chase's win "rigged" because of that final caution, and, speaking of Larry Mac, are y'all ready to "buckle them f--king belts" today? You are? Good!Because I've got Rajah Caruth getting a STERN talking to from Jesse Love's crew chief after Saturday's Busch race. What a confrontation. What a liner from Danny Stockman. Amazing. Four tires, just a drop of fuel because oil is EXPENSIVE at the moment, and maybe an extra pull of the belt for Rajah … Monday Morning Pit-Stop – the ‘Everyone Left Martinsville ANGRY, Which Means It Did Its Job' edition – is LIVE!Finally, a race where I can talk about the winner! No offense to Tyler Reddick, but he doesn't exactly pay the bills. But Chase Elliott? Yeah, the internet likes Chase Elliott … or hates him. Either way, he's good for business, and he's good for NASCAR. Was he the dominant car yesterday? Nope. Did he back his way into a win? Probably. Does the sireeeeeeen know the difference? Hell no!Music to our ears! It's beautiful. Anyway, Alan Gustafson made amends for absolutely screwing Chase last summer at Dover when he not only pitted him from the lead late in the race, but then only gave him two tires. Amazing. Sunday, Alan short-pitted … everyone … on Lap 262 with Chase in 10th. He intended to make the final part of the race a two-stopper, which is sort of unheard of at Martinsville. But, Chase was a 10th(ish) place car all day, so what the hell? Naturally, Austin Dillon's brake motor blew to hell about 40 laps later, bringing out the caution, and giving Chase the track position – and break – he needed to win the race. Credit to Alan … that call took nuts. Fair is fair, and he deserves his flowers today. Unless, of course, you're one of those NASCAR fans who thinks the whole damn thing was RIGGED for Golden Boy Chase Elliott!If that's that case, you hate Alan, Chase, NASCAR and anyone else associated with that group!What do we think? Good yellow? Weak yellow? Mellow yellow? Yeah, I mean, look … I'm all for a good conspiracy when it pertains to NASCAR. Lord knows I write about them plenty. But come on. I've seen my fair share of phantom flags in the series over the years. Ask Carl Edwards about 'em. He literally quit because of one. This wasn't one. Austin Dillon's brake blew up on pit road. NASCAR threw a caution of debris. Yes, I know, that's the go-to line for NASCAR when they want to bunch the cars back up. I get it. That wasn't the case here. Was it odd to throw a caution for something that happened on pit road? Maybe. But Martinsville ain't Daytona. That place is tiny as hell. When something blows up on pit road, there's a good chance it's getting on the track. And that wasn't the only caution that helped Chase! This one didn't hurt, either – and there was NOTHING fake about this yellow:Amazing. Bubba just absolutely had enough of Martinsville, and Carson, and then punted him to the sun for good measure.Sort of hard to defend that, isn't it? I know Bubba said he didn't mean to wreck him – duh – but it's a funny visual when you pair that interview with the replay of him just wrecking the shit out of Carson going into the corner. Part of it is the type of racing Martinvsille lends itself to, by the way. People get booted all the time at that place. It's sort of how you move them for a spot. But, there's a balance, and 'ol Bubba really walked the line here. It also pairs well with his comments before the race;Like a fine red wine and a steak! Hard to argue, Bubba! Maybe not less, though. The same. Definitely the same. OK, let's get to a couple quickies on the way to Bristol. Kyle Busch, how was your 24th place finish yesterday?!Nobody has had a more miserable career arc than Kyle Busch. The guy couldn't be beat for a stretch at JGR, and now he hasn't won a race at RCR in years. YEARS. At one point, there was chatter about him at least catching Earnhardt on the all-time wins list. That ain't happening now. Next? Let's head on down to the Busch Series and check in with defending series champ Jesse Love, and Rajah Caruth!"You better buckle them f--king belts tight" is such a hilarious line to use in this spot. Could you imagine just walking up to someone and saying that to start off the conversation? I'm gonna try it this week and see where it gets me. PS: unreal job of de-escalation by Jesse Love and Rajah. I figured there was no coming back from "you better buckle your belts f--king tight," but they figured it out. Bummer for us, though. The #content out of that would be amazing. SportsCenter would have made it their lead story. CNN would've sent Big Js to Martinsville to investigate. USA Today would've called for Jesse Love and Danny Stockman to be publicly hung. Would've been incredible. Oh well. OK, off to Bristol we go! Jesse's girlfriend, Georgia Kryssing, takes us there!