Stewart rolls at Martinsville
MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson weren't involved in the beating and banging at Bristol that left several NASCAR drivers nearly enraged.
On Sunday, they put on a clinic in short-track racing with Stewart banging on Johnson's bumper for four laps, then finally beating him out of the second turn on his way to a surprisingly anticlimactic victory at tiny, testy Martinsville Speedway.
"I knew as soon as I went by him that if he could get back to me, he was going to do the very same thing," Stewart said after his second Martinsville victory.
"I wasn't going to have a problem with it."
Johnson jabbed at Stewart for finding nothing wrong with his tactics because they worked for him, but also allowed that his car wasn't good enough to win anyway.
"I was fading so I don't really have any complaints," he said.
What a difference a week makes.
Last Sunday, Jeff Gordon was so upset with Matt Kenseth for on-track contact that he shoved him on pit road at Bristol, drawing a $10,000 fine and probation. Kenseth was upset with Kurt Busch for banging him out of the way for the victory with four laps to go.
But there was none of that vitriol Sunday.
"To have guys that don't whine, carry on and complain and go on and on definitely makes racing here more fun," Stewart said. "But trust me, there aren't a lot of guys like Jimmie. Jimmie is a class act and that's why I like racing with him so much."
He also likes racing on the smallest track in the Nextel Cup circuit, even though he once got so frustrated with Martinsville he suggested turning it into a bass pond.
Improvements to the track — and Stewart's success here — changed that.
"The racing here has been awesome since they've done everything," he said about resurfacing and other improvements. "They could still fill it up once a year with water, we could put dirt on it once a year. Just let us still run two Cup races."
Stewart last season led 530 of the 1,000 laps at Martinsville, only to fall short each time as Jeff Gordon swept the season's races, extending his victory total here to seven and giving Hendrick Motorsports five wins in six races on a .526-mile oval.
This time, Stewart was determined to end the run of dominance.
Stewart and Johnson dueled nose-to-bumper and side-by-side for four laps beginning with 30 to go Sunday, bringing the 65,000 fans to their feet. After being rebuffed three times, Stewart finally banged his way around Johnson with 27 laps to go.
