In true short-track form, Martinsville provided us with four hours of fender bending, wheel spinning, car crashing excitement. There were so many crashes this Sunday that they ought to run the whole Martinsville race under yellow. The caution-causing standards like Nemechek, Irvan, and Benson were in rare form, crashing two and three times each. One thing I've noticed by our good buddy Joey Joe Joe Nemechek is that he rarely initiates a crash. He just comes along after it starts and finds someone to hit. Amazing.

Speaking of amazing, how about me? I toyed with you about John Andretti last week. I asked if you thought he was a short-track or a long-track driver. Few of you were up to that question, although Nathan took a Clinton-esque stab at it: "No, John Andretti is not a short track driver. However, he's not a long track driver, either." I guess it depends on what your definition of "is" is.

 A few of you even went so far as to make Andretti your surprise. But only Sean and I were heroic enough to pick Andretti to win. Yes, we turned aside the easy points of the surprise pick and made the kind of moves that only living legends can make. If any of you haven't figured it out yet, the answer to my taunting Andretti question is yes, he's a great short-track driver. I left out a tidbit in my story about Hamilton winning this race last year: Andretti was a lock to win that race until he ran out of gas in the final laps. This year, Andretti made up almost three seconds in the last 20 laps to steal the victory from Jeff Burton. That's what I like to call a Sandrotastic performance.

 I didn't win the points race this week because y'all did a good job with your picks, especially Nathan "You can find me waiting in line for the Star Wars movie" S. He did great. I love the Mike Skinner surprise pick. That got several of you 15 points. Some of you are starting to show signs of cracking under the intense pressure of the points race, however. Kevin K. made a startling revelation:  "I obviously don't have a clue about what I'm doing here. For all I know, I'm picking Kentucky Derby jockeys instead of NASCAR drivers."

Can Kevin hang on? He started the season in great form. Can he return to his former glory? Several of you should be asking yourself the same questions, with your names in place of Kevin's. Unless your strategy is to somehow hack into the Geocities network and steal my amazing picks, you might want to take a look at I Chris "Metroboy" G's plan:

Nice work, Chris. Let's try to improve that punctuation. And that Labonte comment ain't winnin' you any friends (or frynds).

 Sean F. gets more arrogant every week. But when you're consistently topping the points, I guess you have the right to crow. This week Sean focuses his disdain on Ryan "Now I DRIVE the schoolbus" S., but Frenchy manages to spread around his insulting words:

I like this idea, and I'm going to try to do it. Some players, such as Duncan, didn't get involved with NASCAR's most controversial web page until the season was underway, so he's played fewer weeks than other players. Then there's some chuckleheads that have been pulling a Darrell Waltrip: they play every week, but they do so badly that it looks like they're battling it out with players who haven't entered since Daytona.

Another player who made some great comments and some great picks is Will "I got carsick in your office" P. Unfortunately, Will is now embroiled in scandal, because he stole the first couple paragraphs of his comments from the nascar.com website. The NASCAR officials have yet to report on what punishment Will must endure, but it's sure to involve public nudity.

Race 8 Points Board

Cumulative Points Standings