Payback City? Martinsville is a great place to finish up any unfinished business

  Now this is the kind of weather we'd like to see at Martinsville Sunday (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   MARTINSVILLE, Va.
   The Payback 500?
   Maybe that should be the line on Sunday's 500-lapper here at Martinsville Speedway.
   If Carl Edwards' move on Brad Keselowski at Atlanta was perhaps a bit over the top, at 190, well, this tight little place, with the slowest speeds on the tour, and the most jammed-up action, looks like the best place to take care of any unfinished business.
   Maybe we should get up a check-list and see who owes who what.
   And, ah, that old bump-and-run. Good short-track fare. And when it comes to double-file restarts, especially those two-lap green-white-checkered finishes, Jimmie Johnson expects to have to play it rough-and-tumble.
   After all, that's just what Denny Hamlin did here last fall to beat him.
   This place, and Bristol, and Richmond, and maybe Phoenix too – all tight short tracks --  are just made for those double-file restarts.
   And Johnson, as he showed at Bristol just a week ago, is a master of those quick snake-like moves.
   "I was watching a Classic of Martinsville 2008, when we didn't have double-file restarts, and I'd forgotten how difficult it was at the end of the race to have a shot at winning," Johnson said.
    "Double-file is really good for our sport, gives guys a chance to win.
    "If you look at Bristol, if I would have started fifth in (single-file) line (under the old rules), there is no way we would have gotten there."
    Under the double-file rules Johnson was stuck back in the third row for the last restart but within three laps he was leading.
    However side-by-side stuff like that at tight tracks, like this one, make everything "more intense," Johnson says.
    "You can hit your marks and do your thing...but other guys can really affect you.
     "They can on the bigger tracks too, but here it's so easy to make contact with someone and not have a huge problem. So people take that opportunity -- they are more aggressive, and not afraid to use the bumper.
    "And if you're going back to the gas and a guy hits your bumper at the right time, it's going to bust your tires loose and you're dead in the water.
     "So there is a lot more stress at the end of a race here.
      "On top of that, you're just expecting it.
     "So it all feeds itself.
      "You just know if it's 'green-white-checkered,' the rear bumper is going to be knocked off, the doors are going to be caved in, and it's going to be pretty rough and tumble."

    Even when you're not expecting something, it can happen at this track. Ask Travis Kvapil. He inadvertently tangled with Tony Stewart during practice.
    "To me it was just Martinsville," Kvapil said. "I was on new tires, trying to get a (simulated) qualifying run at the end of practice, and the track was really crowded.
    "On new tires it takes a lap or two until they get going, and I was still slipping and sliding and trying to get my tires to hook up.
     "Tony was on his last lap, I guess, and had a lot of speed.
     "To cut to the chase  -- I was in his way. My plan was to get down the backstretch and move over to let him go. But I never got good enough traction off the corner to get going and get out of his way.
     "I am sure he is upset. And our guys are upset that the race car got beat up a little bit.
    "But to me it isn't a big deal; it's just a product of things that happen when you go short-track racing."
    Stewart's take: "All I saw was the end of it, when he checked up in front of us. Not sure why that happened."
        
      Hanging over the drivers here is that new rear spoiler, which shouldn't be much of a factor at this track, but which could change up things at Phoenix and Texas the next time out.
    "I predict the car is going to be more difficult to drive in traffic," Johnson says, looking ahead. "I've heard a lot of people mention that's going to make for better racing. And I'm just not buying that as of now.
    "The end plates (small aerodynamics rudders) on the wing allowed the car to get really far sideways and then it would catch you and straighten you back up."

    Also hanging over drivers here – Johnson's amazing run this spring: "We've been taking advantage of opportunities," he insists. "We haven't been the best car in the three races we've won, but we've left with the trophy. And that's because the people on our race team are making it happen when it counts."
    Uh-oh. So when Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus do get their cars in tip-top shape, what to expect?