Well howdy and good day and welcome Gabbers and others to my Martinsville race recap and an Anniversary too. It would seem that Zippo lighters is having an 80th year anniversary AND the 500 millionth Zippo lighter will be coming off the line between May and June. 

Sunday night my sister and I were smashing dead Bic lighters to get the flints for her Zippo lighter. My dad kept saying Zippo was going out of business. He had heard something about the company. So off to the laptop we went. We checked out Zippo lighters on EBay and then Googled them. Found this cool story. Turns out Zippo is doing great and will be around a while.

Zippo lighters are produced here in the USA in a north western town called Bradford, PA. It was founded by George G Blaisdell in the fall of 1932. Except for improvements to the flint wheel and modifications to the case finish this product has remained unchanged and based in Bradford, PA. The Zippo Lighter lifetime guarantee remains too. 

                                                             IT WORKS OR WE FIX IT FREE

The actual 500 millionth lighter will be a classic brushed chrome model with 2 tone engraving. This one of a kind lighter will feature a distinctive bottom stamp with the date & time of production and a serialization of #1. It will then be placed on display at the company museum near the Zippo lighter plant. 

500 MILLIONTH ZIPPO LIGHTER FUN FACTS

         A stack of 500 million Zippo lighter would be taller than 14 Empire State buildings.

         500 million Zippo lighters would weigh over 32,031 tons. 

         If you laid 500 million Zippo lighters end to end they would stretch from Bradford, PA to Bangkok, Thailand and    back.

I'm thinking I would like to make a trip to Bradford, PA some time in May or June to see the Museum and maybe buy an AMERICAN MADE ZIPPO LIGHTER even though I don't smoke. I think I may even look up their ticker # and add it to my Yahoo Fantasy Stock Portfolio contest roster. I plan on winning that $50,000 in April of next year. Maybe I'll buy some real stock in that company. 

MARTINSVILLE GOODY'S FAST RELIEF 500 RACE RECAP

This track has become my favorite. It's a .526 mile track with speeds of about 95-100 mph and a pit road speed of 30 mph. Richard Petty did the Gentleman start your engines honor in his trademark black feather adorned cowboy hat and huge dark sunglasses. Kasey Kahne had the pole which helped one of my fantasy leagues with 5 points. WOO HOO!!! Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer and Ryan Newman rounded out the top 5 starters.

The race started out fast and furious. Harvick took the lead and I thought he was going to do a repeat of his win in the truck race this weekend but by lap 21 Jeff Gordon took the lead and Harvick slowly faded. 

Caution on lap 97 came out for Kyle Busch who can't seem to buy a break this year. He couldn't turn and drove straight up the track and into the wall. extensive damage kept him in the pits for repairs to the front and rear of his car. Is Karma pounding on the M&M's wonder?  It would seem so. Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson got speeding penalties during pit stops for this caution. Not a good thing at Martinsville.

The restart on lap 105 saw Gordon once again in the lead. Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne, Brad Keselowski and Clint Bowyer rounded out the top 5. Aric Almirola gave Dale Jr a bump and took the 8th position only to have Dale Jr come back 2 laps later to reclaim it. Such is Martinsville racing.

On lap 175 Gordon is still leading with Hamlin Dale Jr, Bowyer and Kahne in tow.

On lap 179 Kyle Busch returns to the track in 38th and 79 laps down. Gordon still leads with Hamlin, Dale Jr, Kahne and Bowyer in the top 5.

Lap 205 Kurt Busch gets a 2nd flat tire. He and his brother Kyle are being pounded by Karma today. And of course Gordon still leads.

On lap 220 Bobby Labonte is the first to start green flag pit stops. NASCAR is allowing an extra man over the wall to take care of the wind shield and driver.

On lap 229....OMG!!!!!! IT'S DALE JR TO THE LEAD AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!!!!!!!!! And Gordon goes to the pits for his green flag pit stop.

Lap 239 Kahne is thinking he may be losing his motor. Smoke is beginning to puff out of the tail pipe.

Caution on lap 244 for Dave Blaney wreck in turn 2. Kahne goes to the garage. Gordon comes out of the pits first followed by Dale Jr, Bowyer, Kenseth and Keselowski.

Gordon takes the lead on the restart.

Caution on lap 263 brought out by Montoya spinning after he bumps into Schader. Says something in his steering is broken. Newman gets the lucky dog pass. Aric Almirola and Bobby Labonte are the only ones to pit. 

Gordon again takes the lead with Bowyer, Dale Jr, Keselowski, and Kenseth.

Cation on lap 315 for Kahne. He came back out onto the track but on the back stretch his motor goes up in smoke and as he enters pit road he spins out. Pits are closed till lap 323 for lots of speedy dry and sweeping up. Keselowski gets pit road speeding penalty. 

It's Gordon, Johnson, Dale Jr, Hamlin, Bowyer and Kenseth on the restart. Gordon takes it but Johnson is still fighting with him in a side by side battle till he takes the lead 21 laps later.

Carl Edwards informs his crew chief Bob Osborn that his transmission has broken. Ha Ha Ha....APRIL FOOLS!!!

Caution on lap 361 for Travis Kvapil's spin off turn 2. Doesn't hit the wall. Edwards gets the Lucky Dog Pass. During pit stops Johnson is held up. There's some confusion about if all the lug nuts are on or not.

Hamlin takes the lead on the lap 368 restart. Gordon, Johnson, Stewart and Kenseth follow. 

For 33 laps Johnson fights side by side with Hamlin for the lead and on lap 393 he takes lead from Hamlin with Gordon following him to 2nd.

With 50 to go there's only 15 cars on the lead lap. 

With 20 to go crew chiefs for Dale Jr and Gordon are saying they may be 2-3 laps short on fuel so try to save. Dale Jr is a bit PO'd he wasn't told sooner. 

With 8 to go David Reutimann has a flat tire but misses pit road. In fact he keeps missing pit road till 4 laps to go when a second tire goes down and he stalls on the track. BOOOOOOOO!!!!!! It's Geen/White Checker time. Gordon takes the lead from Johnson in turn 4 just before the caution flies.

Stewart gets the Lucky Dog Pass and everyone except Gordon and Johnson go into tyhe pits for fuel and tires. Can you say sitting ducks on the front row? NASCAR has called Reutimann and crew chief to the hauler after the race to explain the decision not to pit. Apparently he had a broken sway bar with the flat tires and chose not to pit for whatever reason.

GREEN/WHITE CHECKER #1 on lap 503. Our 2 sitting ducks on old tires Mr Gordon and Mr Johnson can't get away. Newman bumps into Bowyer who dive bombs to the bottom of the track, hits the curb and bounces into Gordon who slides up into Johnson and around they go. Newman shoots through to the lead. Bowyer has to pit for fender damage. Johnson too. Gordon runs out of fuel and a wrecker has to push him to the pits. 

GREEN/WHITE CHECKER #2 on lap 513It's Newman, Allmendinger, Dale Jr (w/fender damage), Truex Jr and Kenseth on the restart. Newman and Allmendinger are side by side for the lap till they reach the white flag. Newman takes the lead and the win. 

Gordon led 328 laps and got the most laps led points but 14th 1 lap down. OUCH!!!

The top 12 finishers were...Newman, Allmendinger, Dale Jr, Kenseth, Truex Jr, Hamlin, Stewart, Almirola, Keselowski, Bowyer, Edwards, Johnson. There were only 12 on the lead lap.

The top 12 in points are...Biffle, Dale Jr, Stewart, Kenseth, Harvick, Truex Jr, Hamlin, Newman, Bowyer, Johnson, Edwards and Keselowski

No Nationwide race this week so there's no Danica up date. She needs a rest any way. Next race is Texas Motor Speedway on the 14th for Cup drivers. It's a night race and I have 2 weeks to set my outdoor antenna up so I can watch on the couch instead of chasing the signal around the living room with the indoor antenna. Quite the marathon during the Daytona 500. But any way... thanks for stopping by and you all have a great day......