NASCAR at Martinsville Speedway

More than two years living in the heart of NASCAR country, Charlotte, NC, and I still haven't been to a race down here - I still make the two-a-year trips to Pocono, but haven't attended anything more than an open test session in the South. I changed that the week before last, heading up to Martinsville Speedway, about two hours away, just into Virginia. Martinsville is one of the oldest tracks on the circuit, and at just over 1/2 mile, the shortest.

I started out on Saturday, for Sprint Cup practice and the Camping World Truck Series race.

1 - Green flag for the truck race. Darrell Wallace Jr, in the light blue truck to the right, carried a special paint scheme honoring the late Wendell Scott. In 1963, Scott, from nearby Danville, VA, was the first African-American driver to win a NASCAR national-series race, and was elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame this year.

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2 - When you are turning that far to the right heading into the turn, it usually doesn't end well. It didn't...

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3 - As Wallace (34) and Johnny Sauter (98) fight for the lead to the outside of a lapped truck, German Quiroga (77) sees an opening to the inside.

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4 - Quiroga would discover that four-wide in the corner doesn't work at Martinsville.

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5 - Wallace celebrates the win - he won this race last October, the first NASCAR win by an African-American since Scott. Bringing Scott's colors home first, Wallace scored his fourth career truck series win.

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6 - Joey Logano leads a gaggle of cars down the front stretch during Cup Series practice.

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7 - Kasey Kahne (5) and Brian Vickers took turns running each other into the wall, until NASCAR told them to cool it.

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8 - Joey Logano leads Tony Stewart out of Turn 2.

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9 - Petty Blue is a familiar sight at Martinsville.

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10 - Dale Earnhardt, Jr. passes Tony Stewart late in the race to take the win.

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