Lehman Wins Martinsville. Lee, Griffin, Leahy taken out early.
Ridgeway, VA - "I saw Keegan get taken out and thought, i have a chance to win this thing! YES! lets go!" Said Lehman, who led 104 laps in route to a dominating victory Thursday night in Martinsville. The driver of the #5 RedBull Chevy went on to talk about how he stayed away from the 21 yellow flags. "usually when you stay up front their arent as many cautions up there" Although that is usually true, there was one wreck that had Lehman worried, and also, excited. "i thought my race was going to be done when keegan got wrecked, it was right in front of me and i just dove to the bottom". Keegan Leahy, who was the favorite going into Thursday nights race, went behind the wall and right onto the #5 pit box. "Keegan, was talking to me during the race and keeping me calm" Lehman went on to say if it wasnt for Keegan, he probably wouldnt have been as good down the stretch.
Around the halfway point of Thursday nights race driver of the #41 truck Tommy Lee had some things to say about his incident. "i got F*** on a Damn technicality" said an upset Lee. Tommy had spun in the middle of turn 2 and had nowhere to go unless he wanted to take out his competitors. "instead of pulling back on the track and wrecking the field, i waited until i found a hole to go back onto the track" Said Lee. After some consideration from admins they determined it was just a part of short track racing. Tommy went on to get collected in a few more incidents and finished 22nd and 21 laps down in the race.
Although Lehman lead 104 laps, it still wasnt the most laps led, that crown goes to the yellow flag, who led the most laps with 106. Just barely a half-mile in lengh, thats something you tend to expect with Martinsville. Short track racing usually leads to short tempers, and we saw that Thursday night with a record setting 21 cautions. Theres no doubt that the racing was not on par, but it all starts with the drivers. Patience was not displayed on the track for most of the night Thursday, until the last 80 laps when we saw some green flag runs.
Last years league runner up, Justin Michael finished, well, runner up, while defending Champion Scott Sanderson finished 6th. I dont believe anyone is desperate for a win this early in the year, but if it has to be anyone, its Scott Sanderson. Sanderson is used to winning and im sure its getting old not being interviewed by Rudy Cummings after a long hard faught race.
The haulers will be heading to Kansas City, KS in 2 weeks to tackle the Kansas Motor Speedway. The 4th race of the 2016 Maximum Velocity season. We can guarantee there wont be 21 cautions, we hope theres plenty long green flag runs and plenty of green flag pit stops. We will have more coverage of Thursday nights race coming up in the next few days.