Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway saw its share of spins and wrecks to contribute the races 18 cautions.

Aside from Matt Kenseth's antics, the biggest crash of the day involved 5 cars early in the 500 lap event. The melee, shown below, involved Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte, Aric Almirola, Scott Riggs, and Martin Truex Jr.


Almirola slid the nose of his No. 8 coming off of turn four into Bobby Labonte on the outside, turning the No. 43 and blocking the track for the rest of the field. Riggs then gets turned by Gordon as the accordion effect takes shape, damaging the nose of the No. 24.

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Kyle Busch finished second Saturday's Nationwide Series race at Daytona driving like a girl, according to Martin Truex Jr.

Truex was heated after finishing 11th in the Camping World 300 despite challenging for the lead late in the race. A block by Busch as Truex tried to take second place killed his momentum and opportunity to challenge Tony Stewart for the win.

Busch wound up 2nd.

From the NASCAR Scene:

"Kyle drives like a girl," Truex said. "I mean, come on. We're out here racing for fun. We had a hell of a battle. I had a lot of fun racing today with him, and then I had a huge run and he just blocked me. I pretty much knew he was going to do it. I had such a run and had to go."

It sounds like Truex is a fan of the movie "The Sandlot", in which one of the most familiar lines is "You play ball like a girl!".

Busch's comeback wasn't nearly as awesome:

"What else you going to do, man? " Busch said "Shoot, he's pushing me through the tri-oval, wanting to spin me out. I'm sorry I saved it and kept it in front of him. Grow up, bud. What do you want me to do, pull over? Next question."

Kyle's comeback lacked mainly because someone younger than someone else can't tell that other person to grow up. That just doesn't make sense.

Busch is 22 while Truex is 27.

If this turns into a nice rivalry, I can't wait for the short tracks.

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Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 11th-place Martin Truex Jr.

Driver: Martin Truex Jr. -- Mayetta, New Jersey
Team: No. 1 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet
Points: 11th (-559)
2006: 19th in Cup Standings
Key Stats: 1 win, 1 pole, 7 Top-5s, 14 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes

2007 was a bit like Christmas Day for Martin Truex Jr. The Dale Earnhardt Inc. driver picked up not only his first career pole, but also his first career win at Dover in June.

With a little more good luck and a whole lot less bad, Truex easily could have competed for the Nextel Cup Series title.

Heading into the Chase, Truex turned in a nice streak of finishes that set him as a potential favorite for the 10-race playoff. The last five races before the Chase opener at New Hampshire saw Truex average an 8th-place finish and move from 11th to 7th in the point standings prior to Chase seeding.

A top-5 at New Hampshire led to a disappointing 13th-place finish at Dover due to a late race wreck. Truex got used to the bad luck quite quickly with finishes of 38th and 42nd at Kansas and Talladega. A finish of 31st at Atlanta dropped any high Chase finish hopes.

Truex rebounded in the last 3 races of 2007 with three consecutive Top-10s but even that wasn't enough to earn him a trip on the stage in New York for Nextel Cup Awards ceremony.

Truex's lone victory in 2007 came in a next-generation race car at Dover, which definitely sets a good precedent as Truex looks to assume the role of top dog at DEI in '08 with Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s departure. 2008 should definitely be a very competitive one for Truex.

Welcome to the first edition of the new AOL Sports NASCAR FanHouse "You Ask 'Em, We Answer 'Em". This is going to hopefully be a weekly feature for the loyal readers of the NASCAR FanHouse that are trying to beat the winter doldrums until Daytona. (Hey, we're trying to beat them, too!) Check each week to see if your question is featured and hopefully answered.

To get in the mix, simply drop us an email at this link. Just click and follow the directions!

Q: Please, tell me why only 10 of the 12 NASCAR Chase for the Nextel Cup drivers are honored at the awards banquet. NASCAR is the one who upped the Chase to 12 drivers, and it seems like to me that the last two were left out for a bad reason. -- Lee from Palm Bay, Florida

A: Well, Lee, thanks for the question. I think the better question in this scenario is why in the heck NASCAR actually upped the Chase number to 12. But that's a discussion for another time.

Obviously, it sucked for Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. fans to not have their drivers on stage for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Awards Ceremony in New York City. But, other than the fact that NASCAR said so at the beginning of the Chase is the only reason they weren't officially honored. It's simple, finish in the Top 10, and you go to New York. Finish 11th or 12th?

Find your own way to New York. (Click to Continue)

The Essentials
Coverage: ESPN on ABC @ 3:00pm/ET
Green Flag: 3:45pm/ET
Distance: 312 laps/312 miles/500 kilometers
Other: Follow it on ESPN360 if available
Venue: Phoenix Int'l Raceway, sold out

Keep These in Mind...
1) Chasing Dreams - The second-to-last round of the Jeff and Jimmie Show: 2007 gets underway with the green flag. It's simple, Jeff Gordon has to overcome a 30-point margin in the next two races to win his fifth Nextel Cup title. Johnson has to beat him to claim his second.

Johnson averages a finish of one spot higher than Gordon at Phoenix, but Gordon was the last to win at the track in April.

2) Three-peat? Kyle Busch could become the first driver in NASCAR history to win in all three divisions on the same weekend. Busch took the victory in Friday night's Craftsman Truck Series race and followed that up with a Busch Series win Saturday night at PIR.

He starts 38th Sunday at Phoenix in the Nextel Cup race.

3) A Flavor of Indy in the Desert - For just the third time in history (thanks, Jayski!), three former winners of the Indianapolis 500 are in Sunday's race. Sam Hornish Jr., Juan Pablo Montoya, and Jacques Villeneuve all made the field.

Add in former open wheel drivers Patrick Carpentier, Casey Mears, Robby Gordon, and Tony Stewart and you see very quickly how quickly NASCAR has become the all-around proving ground for drivers.

4) Truex Strong in Practice - Martin Truex Jr. starts second at Phoenix but had the car to beat in Happy Hour practice yesterday. He ran the fastest lap of the session, followed by Kasey Kahne, Casey Mears, David Stremme and Jeff Gordon.

Chase point leader Jimmie Johnson was seventh on the time sheet.

Carl Edwards has quietly allowed the brouhaha with fellow Roush driver Matt Kenseth to slowly disappear in the media in good fashion.

Quietly enough, in fact, that he won the pole at Phoenix and no really seemed to care -- nor bring the topic up. After all, there are two races left in the "Hendrick Motorsports Trophy Deciding Circus" and three former winners of the Indianapolis 500 are in the show.

But yes, Edwards did in fact win the pole with a lap of 132.773mph. It's his first of the season and guarantees the No. 99 Ford a spot in the 2008 Budweiser Shootout at Daytona. Edwards bested Martin Truex Jr. for the top spot by just three one-thousandths of a second.

"I told them after that lap, I said, 'That was a blast.' The guys did a great job with the car -- everybody," said Edwards.

The pole for Edwards was his first since he started on the point in the 2005 Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

As for "The Jeff and Jimmie Show", Jeff Gordon will start right behind Edwards in third while Johnson will roll off the grid from the sixth position.

The list of past Indianapolis 500 winners is indeed well-represented in the Nextel Cup grid. Juan Pablo Montoya starts 14th, Sam Hornish Jr. made his first Nextel Cup race and starts 26th and fellow '500' winner Jacques Villeneuve lines up 27th.

The going home list includes all three Michael Waltrip Racing cars, A.J. Allmendinger, John Andretti and Ward Burton.

Martin Truex Jr. scored his first career pole at Texas Motor Speedway and he's got a reservation for #1 in the 2008 NASCAR All-Star race oops Bud Shootout to show for it ... Not to mention a spankin' new rifle for his next hunting adventure.

All Bud Pole Awards are definitely not created equally. I do believe this one comes from Beretta's Gold and Diamond Pigeon Series of field guns, placing its value somewhere between $4,500 - $8,500. Not a bad score for the Bass Pro Shops sponsored outdoor enthusiast.

Mad props to A.J. Allmendinger, too, who also posted a career-best qualifying effort and will start in the 5th position in Sunday's Dickies 500.

Missed the Mark
John Andretti, Ward Burton, Burney Lamar and Kevin Lepage and Michael Waltrip will be sitting this one out.

Dickies 500 lineup

Dale Earnhardt Jr. may have lost what was his best remaining chance at a Nextel Cup race victory Sunday after blowing his engine with 52 laps to go in the UAW-Ford 500.

But his teammate Martin Truex Jr. and engine program partner Jeff Burton might have lost so much more.

The Dale Earnhardt Inc.-Richard Childress Racing engine partnership had seven cars on track Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway and only two of them finished under full power. Three of them actually finished.

Burton lost his motor off of turn four on lap 92 and 21 laps later Truex blew his coming into the tri-oval.

Burton knows that he can pretty much stick a fork in his title chances.

"Obviously, this about wraps it up for us for the championship. We will keep fighting," Burton said. "We will go next week and strap our boots on and go fight and see what we can make out of it."

Truex now finds himself 300 points out of first in tenth while Burton sits further back -- in 12th with a 331 point deficit.

Kevin Harvick also started engine trouble late in the event. With 44 laps to go, Harvick was sitting on pit road with the hood up, but his crew could do nothing to fixed what ailed his Chevrolet engine. He would finish on seven cylinders in 20th place, some 202 points behind race-winner and point leader Jeff Gordon.

New DEI'er Aric Almirola also finished with a DNF because of his engine.

Only Clint Bowyer and Paul Menard would finish without a hitch in the engine.

7th Seed Martin Truex Jr. (12/1)
Points: 5,010
Bonus: 55
Wins: 1
Top 5s: 5
Tops 10: 10
DNFs: 2

12th Seed Clint Bowyer (11/1)
Points: 5,000
Bonus: 50
Wins: 0
Top 5s: 2
Tops 10: 12
DNFs: 0

The dark horses of the season, both Nextel Cup sophomores and first-time Chasers have their work cut out for them. Both are long shots to win the championship, but either is capable. Having two teammates in the Chase could work in Bowyer's favor, but he needs to lead more laps and find more top 5 finishes. Truex needs DEI engine magic. Slight advantage: Bowyer.

Question? What was the rule in last year's Chase for ties? This year following Richmond, Truex was tied for points with Kurt Busch in 10th. Under the previous rules, would Truex have been the 11th driver in the Chase or was there a tie-breaker of some sort?

Handicapping the Rest of the Chase Field
Gordon and Johnson
Stewart and Hamlin
Kenseth and Edwards
Harvick and Burton
The Busch Brothers

Sitting on the pole isn't a bad way for the winless Clint Bowyer to start his first Chase for the Nextel Cup championship. He was the 45th of 49 drivers to qualify and knocked his fellow first-time chaser, Martin Truex Jr., out of the starting spot to score his second career pole.

Truex almost had hist first career pole ... instead he got beat by 0.035 seconds and got his second career front-row start. Bummer. He really wants in next year's Bud Shootout.

Four more chasers qualified in the top 10 ... Matt Kenseth is the rear chaser starting in 30th.

Dave Blaney qualified 10th, well ahead of Ken Schrader in the #21 car in 34th. If they finished that way--or close--Blaney would be back in the top 35.

Penske Racing's IRL driver Sam Hornish Jr. failed in his first Cup qualifying event.

Winners of the Week
Ray Evernham and Boris Said. It might be the last spot, but who cares? The fourth Gillett-Evernham Motorsports Dodge entry is in the field. Ditto for Said. When is someone going to give him a full time job? He's got better records than some current full-timers. GEM? CGR? BAM? Any takers?

Losers of the Week
Michael Waltrip and Jeremy Mayfield both scored their 15th DNQs of the season, Dale Jarrett his 10th. Kevin LePage, who holds the record for most DNQs this season, claimed his 20th. John Andretti is batting 0.500 after failing to qualify for the eighth time 16 attempts.

Sylvania 300 Starting Lineup