Allgaier and Elliott win at Martinsville

There were a few interesting standouts from NASCAR’s Martinsville weekend.

Short-track legend Lee Pulliam is one of those guys who spent his career working on racing instead of schmoozing and therefore never got a big break. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. cannot resist such a story and gave Pulliam a great Martinsville car, and Pulliam almost pulled it out. He led confidently throughout the race, but the unfamiliar equipment got the better of him. He missed shifts and spun wheels on restarts, eventually making the wrong kind of headlines by stacking up the field into a huge wreck. Don’t let that overwrite the fact that he got a top-five finish and took responsibility for the mistakes, which is a good teaching for O’Reilly Series drivers. Pulliam’s teammate, Justin Allgaier, pulled out another win. He really is the last of the Busch Series legends.

As for the Cup race, here are my headlines:

• Shane van Gisbergen qualified fifth. Get your affairs in order, Cup drivers.
• Chase Elliott got a win so early in the season that he surprised himself. It is very interesting to see him have an upturn in results now that people actually have to run consistently all year, because last year he showed that few of them can do that as well as he can.