Ryan McGee
The Martinsville granfather clocks, in all their majesty.
One year ago, I wrote about the real reason drivers want to win at Martinsville. It's not the check, the points or even the history behind NASCAR's oldest racetrack.
It's the grandfather clock.
When the track rolled its version of Victory Lane out onto the frontstretch (there's no room in the tiny infield for an actual Victory Lane, so the officials use a flatbed trailer) on Sunday, all Denny Hamlin wanted was to get a look at his new $10,000 Ridgeway Clocks masterpiece.
Speedway founder H. Clay Earles started giving away the timepieces in 1964 with the aim of presenting a trophy that was representative of the local area, long known for furniture manufacturing. As soon as he presented the first clock to "Fast Freddy" Lorenzen, drivers started stepping up their Martinsville game to try to score one. For Hamlin, a Virginia native who started racing at Martinsville as a youngster in the Allison Legacy Series, his clock quest has been borderline obsessive. On Sunday, he won his second.
During the victory celebration, Hamlin and his crew put the traditional champagne spray on hold until they could find someone to stand in front of the clock and shield it from the sticky rain. Team owner Joe Gibbs happened to be the man standing closest to it, so they designated him as the human shield.
"I kind of fell down on the job there," the Pro Football Hall of Famer said with his trademark squawk of a laugh. "Instead of protecting the clock, I got behind it and let it protect me. It's kind of wet now, but tell Denny not to worry. I'll have it cleaned up when we get it home."
Top Five Cup Series Trophies
1. Martinsville Grandfather Clock -- "I have 16 of them," Richard Petty says. "Won 15 as a driver and one as a car owner. It gets a little loud around the Petty house at noon and midnight."
2. Harley J. Earl Trophy, Daytona 500 -- "First off, it's just cool looking," says Kevin Harvick, pointing to the silver replica of the Firebird I prototype racer, designed by Earl, a former GM exec and NASCAR commissioner. "Second, it's the damn Daytona 500."
3. Brickyard 400 Dipped Brick -- "The one you take home is topped by one of the actual original bricks they paved the Indy speedway with," says Harvick, who won there in 2003. "It's like a museum piece."
4. Bristol Motor Speedway Gigantic Wooden Cup Thing -- "The thing is like 4 feet tall," says Kurt Busch, who owns five. "It's a giant cup. You work hard to win a race, so you should get a giant trophy."
5. Nashville Guitar -- "Cup guys go run the Nashville Nationwide Series races just to win the custom hand-painted guitar," says Carl Edwards, who has three axes at home. "Some of us should learn how to play them."
Also cool:
6. Dover's Stone Monster
7. Texas Hat and Guns
8. Atlanta Bass Pro Shops Fish Jumping Out of River and Bear Sculptures
9. Memphis Elvis Trophy
10. Richmond Chevy Rock and Roll Flaming Guitar Sculpture
Now On The Clock
Some of the local flavor Clay Earles wanted to infuse with the grandfather clock was lost in 2004 when Ridgeway was bought by the Howard Miller Clock Company. Although the Ridgeway brand survived, the actual clocks were manufactured in Miller's Zeeland, Michigan-based plant. The remaining Ridgeway workers based in Virginia were relegated to making curio and wine cabinets until the facility was shut down in 2007.
Starting with the track's next race, the Martinsville grandfather clock becomes local again. On Sunday morning, track president Clay Campbell announced that the track has entered into a partnership with the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center, based in nearby South Boston.
"This thing is going to be true work of art," Earles said Sunday as he stood in front of an artist's rendering of the 2010 model. "And, more importantly, it's going to truly be local. Designed and produced right here in the mountains of Southern Virginia."
The Martinsville Speedway Clock Project will be part of the SHVEC's Wood Product Design and Development Program. And don't think we're talking about some old guy whittling images of ivy and bluebirds into the trunk of a tree. This will be college and high school kids across three school systems, backed by local private-sector businesses, rendering designs in a room full of servers and hard drives.
"The final product will be made at Wooden Creations Incorporated," Earles said, beaming with pride. "They are right here in Martinsville. My grandfather [Clay Earles] would be so, so excited about that."
Do You Smell What The Shrub Is Cooking?
Hamlin's Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano, boarded a plane early Monday afternoon headed to Buffalo to make an appearance on WWE's "Monday Night Raw", 9 p.m. ET on USA. According to the official description from USA, tonight's storyline is "Bragging Rights pay-per-view results. Is John Cena the new champion, or has he been banished from RAW?!" Sounds dramatic, huh?
The JGR guys are going up on behalf of sponsor GameStop, which will help launch the new "WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010" videogame. Cena, a longtime race fan, will return the appearance favor at the Texas Motor Speedway in two weeks.
So, can we expect Kyle "Shrub" Busch to flatten Joey "Sliced Bread" Logano with a Sam Bass signature guitar? "I'm not sure what the plan is," Logano said Saturday. "I'm just hoping "The Undertaker" doesn't break me in half."
Season's Tweetings
What does a Cup driver have to come home to the night after holding off the three-time defending NASCAR champion to earn an emotional win on a home-state track? On Sunday night, Hamlin used Twitter to show us.
@DennyHamlin Just pulled up at my house ... LOL http://pic.gd/488541
Ryan McGee
