Martinsville Results - Hamlin gets Ideal a 2nd Win!!!! We have a new Leader!!!

Happy Easter Racing Fans!  Or should I say Hoppy Easter???

Lots of action this week in Martinsville... we have a new leader, Ideal gets a 2nd win, some new members of the top 8 club, some members get ejected from the top 8 club.... Let's get to it.

TOP PICKS:

Ideal took Hamlin (1st) and gets his 2nd win of this young season and looks to be a lock for the postseason.  Ideal jumps up 4 spots into 3rd place.  He has finished in the top 5 in 5 out of the 1st 6 races this season.  The odd finish was a BSOTW, so it just goes to show you that you can stink it up and still stay in the mix.  Nice job Ideal!

Graziano chose 4th place finisher Kenseth.  Graziano cracks the top 8 club after getting off to a slow start in the 1st 2 races.  4 top 5 finishes in a row have given Graz some nice momentum and has him sitting in a nice spot in the early part of the season.  Well done Graz!

A shitload of teams (8 of 15) took 9th place Gordon.  Gordon could have finished in the high 20's in this race, but battled back for a nice 9th place finish.   This was a great pick for some and an eh pick for others.  

• Empty for example moves into 1st place Skidmarks right on his bumper in 2nd.  Both of those teams move up 1 spot.  Empty has been steady in the 1st part of the season; his lowest finish has been 12th and the rest have all been top 10's... including a win and two 3rd place finishes.  Skid is almost identical with his lowest being 14th.  Let's see if they can keep it going.  Dust stays in 4th and Kiss moves into a tie for 5th (up 1 spot).  Dust has had 1 stumble in Atlanta (26th), but has surrounded it with four top 5's and a top 10 finish... no wins yet though.  Kiss has a similar path to Ideal so far this year.  2 wins, 1 BSOTW, and the rest in the top 5 and top 10.  Nice job guys!    

• Beef took Gordon, but actually fell out of the top 8 club.  Beef has recovered nicely from the Daytona BSOTW and sits in 9th just 3 points out of 8th.  Asleep gains a spot and moves to 10th.  Asleep has rebounded nicely from a slow start... 4 top pick finishes in a row have him looking to make some noise as we move forward this season.  Shepard stays in 12th with this pick.  It has been an up and down year for Shepard thus far, but this seasoned vet will be in the mix at the end for sure*.  Chonk has been laying the sod over the golf ball so far this year.  But 2 nice finishes in consecutive weeks has shown that he has not thrown his clubs in the pond and driven his cart through the putting green on his way to the parking lot.  69 points back from 8th and no wins is not Ideal (pun intended), but it is still Sofa King early.

*Hopefully for sure...

EH...:

Piston took 17th place Edwards.  I'm sure this feels like a DOOTW to team Piston as they fall 3 spots to 11th and out of the top 8 club.  Piston recovered from a slow start and worked their way up the leaderboard... hopefully this does not break their momentum.

Pursuit took 20th place Stewart.  Pursuit stays in 14th with this pick.  2 BSOTWs so far and a couple of Eh's/DOOTWs have him off to a rough start.  But this is the only team in the bottom 5 with a win under their belt, so it is not as bad as we think.  

DOOTW:

Penguin gets a nice top 27 finish from Mr. F*cking Consistency (Newman)... Penguin drops 2 spots to 7th.  But 4 top 5's with 2 DOOTWs have him sitting in the top 8 for at least another week.  Penguin hates talking about himself in the 3rd person.   

BSOTW:

Rasta takes Johnson 35th and Rusty takes Dale Jr. 36th to grab the BSOTW honors this week.  Rasta remains in the lucky 13th spot... 1 DOOTW, 2 BSOTW including a DQ, but 2nd, 3rd, and 10th place finishes are keeping him out of the basement so far this year.  Rusty has the most poo this week... he loses his grip on the top spot and falls 4 spots into a tie for 5th.  However, Rusty has been solid so far this year posting 4 top 5 finishes including a win and  a top 10.  This week's BSOTW being the only blemish to his record in the early part of the season. 

Other Ramblings:

We got the week off this week with the TEXAS Duck Commander 500 next Saturday night.  If Phil Robertson starts preaching about homos (no offense) during the invocation I vote we secede Monroe, Louisiana from the union.    

I need to come up with a better name for the top 8 club... Elite 8?  Primo Ocho?  

As we cross the 1st checkpoint of the season, it looks like we will have to perform at a high level to take the Championship this year.  A couple of teams already have 2 wins, the league is pretty well bunched up in the top 11 to 12 spots, and a few teams have stalled in the pits.  Our next checkpoint will be in 5 races, we have 3 Saturday races over those 5 races...  Will there be any DQs?  Will we see any strategy changes this early in the season?  It has always been interesting to watch it unfold, and I think this year will be no different.  Good luck fellas!

Happy Easter... wishing you and your families all the best.

Cheers!