MARTINSVILLE MEYHAM

For the lack of bumping and banging that Bristol Motor Speedway lacked to offer, Martinsville Speedway picked up the slack. Ever since NASCAR put Bristol and Martinsville back to back, the thought from the fans was: if the tempers fly at Bristol, retaliation is almost imminent at Martinsville. We didn’t see much retaliation, but we saw a lot of banging and rubbing at the paper-clip shaped half mile!

Even winner Jimmie Johnson found the bumper useful at Martinsville. He took the lead late in the race by “rattling the cage” of Denny Hamlin out of the way. FOX’s announcers originally didn’t make Jimmie Johnson the favorite, but they also never anticipated JJ to pull an “Earnhardt-esque” maneuver either! However Mike Joy, Larry McReynolds and Darrell Waltrip all seemed to agree that Johnson’s crew consistently makes his car strong at the end of the race. He’s now won 5 of the last 6 Martinsville races! Take a look at the pass below!



I’m extremely surprised that seemingly 25% of the words out of FOX’s announcers’ mouths talked about Martinsville’s famous hot dogs. I watched the race with my cousin, who has been to the track and claims their hot dogs are “awful.” FOX even did a segment about midway through the race featuring many of the drivers sharing their opinions about the hot dogs. I believe it was Kevin Harvick who rounded up the montage saying the hot dogs weren’t supposed to be red. As a producer, I think I would’ve tried to end the montage with one of the drivers saying something POSITIVE about the delicacy. Not only did it make the announcers look bad, but it also hushed the hot dog talk for a LONG TIME.

A few more mistakes in this broadcast than in the past. I noticed some miscommunication with the camera which were focusing on the pit stalls: two cameras would either focus on the same car or be panning all over the place while on the air. Plus, as mentioned before, my race focus was disoriented due to the hot dog discussion. On a scale of 1 to 10, we’re going to give it a 7. Just a few technical errors on a network which expects perfection hurt the rating this week.

Next week, we say “YEE HAW!” as the NASCAR stars head down to Texas Motor Speedway. It’s a mile and a half track which is exactly like Atlanta except a lot newer. The Jack Roush/Robert Yates Fords should dominate here, with Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth being heavy favorites. Can’t wait! 1:30 on FOX next Sunday!