Keselowski Picks Up win #2 of the season at Martinsville (3-24-19)

By: Becca Cottingham

Deadline Photo Credit: mrn.com

Martinsville is a track where you have to come with your best car. You also must bring your patience because it is a track that can make you lose your cool quickly. This is shown when drivers are trying to get down into the turns or trying to pass. The ”Bump and Run” is is a huge move in this type of race. There is also what is called diamond cutting in the corners.

Today’s race is no different. In stage one, we got to watch Chase Elliot diamond cutting all around this track. But we also got to see a lot of bumping entering into the turns. Brad Keselowski showed us this as he was trying to get around traffic during the race. We watched Brad Keselowski just dominate the first two stages of the race. With Chase Elliot staying with him through all of the laps.

We watched Denny Hamlin have an uncontrolled tire on pit road. As well as two pit road penalties by Clint Bowyer, who are both former winners at Martinsville. Clint was penalized in section ten of pit road. Ty Dillon was also hit with a pit road penalty for being too fast. We also had a caution for debris, in turn, four when Ross Chastain lost a rear axle in his car. But Brad Keselowski still showed his dominance of the track, while everyone else was trying to come back from penalties or spinouts. Tires have also been a huge factor in this race. Having fresh Goodyear tires have been extremely important on this track.

Teammates Chase Elliot and Jimmie Johnson absolutely seen two different kind of days. Jimmie Johnson struggled the entire race, going multiple laps down. While Chase has been running in first or second almost all race. Chase Elliot has been one of the few drivers along with Ryan Blaney to give Brad some competition. They only had a few overall issues is race with vehicles. Overall, Brad Keselowski raced a great race and it showed in his dominance of all three stages, leading 446 of the 500 lap race. This win earned Brad his second Grandfather clock from Martinsville.

Next Race:

O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway

Sunday, March 31 at 3pm EST