Joshua and Cheryl have been offering up their own personal sets of HeartRacers~HeartBreakers for each race. The moments that stirred them for whatever reason will fall in the HeartRacers category, and anything that makes them wince, cry, or throw stuff will be HeartBreakers. All cawsnjaws readers are invited to add on their own to share with everyone.

Usually Martinsville equals rain, but the precipitation came to a halt prior to the race, and the sun actually ended up peeking through to shine on the fans. ‘Sunshine Yellow’ seemed to be the color of the day, as there ended up being 18 cautions. The day definitely didn’t end sunny side-up for all of the Chase contenders, but a few of them left the track beaming like super novas.

HeartRacers:

• Benny Parsons is not only back in the booth and sounding strong, but he’s writing inspiring words about his experience with cancer (‘Glad to Be Back at the Track’). We’re glad to have you back, Benny, and in such fine form.

• Jared Fogle, Subway spokesperson, gave the command to start the engines with a vitality not always shown by those given the task. Must be all that low-fat eatin’ that he does.

• The guest passenger on ‘Wally’s World’ was Dale Earnhardt Jr., so there were obviously none of the usual squeals or hollers of fright. Earnhardt did a good job of acting like he needed some of Wally’s advice about racing around Martinsville, and Dallenbach feigned superiority well as he offered his pointers.

• Three cheers for the Martinsville High School Marching Band and their rendition of the National Anthem.

• The stats about Ward Burton’s (No. 4 Chevy) return to racing weren’t entirely spectacular (he started 35th and finished 26th), but he was the last car on the lead lap at race’s end. Frankly we are so happy about having him back in racing that he could have crashed out and we still would have listed him under the ‘HeartRacers’. Welcome back, Ward!

• Whatever Tony Raines (No. 96 Chevy) has been sprinkling on his Wheaties, we think he ought to continue doing so. Another good week begins with him starting 11th, riding around in the top ten a lot, and finishing 14th. We offer the same advice to Jeff Green (No. 66 Chevy), who started and finished in the top ten. Great work, guys.

• We are thrilled that Petty Enterprises had such a good race. Kyle Petty (No. 45 Dodge) finished tenth despite an early-race wreck. Driver Bobby Labonte (No. 43 Dodge), started 30th, led laps 401 to 444, and finished third.

• Denny Hamlin (No. 11 Chevy) started third, finished second, and avoided the bad luck that sometimes happens at Martinsville. He also moved up two places in the Chase standings to fourth. That he did all of that on seven cylinders makes it all the more impressive.

• Casey Mears (No. 42 Dodge), Kasey Kahne (No. 9 Dodge), and Jeff Gordon (No. 24 Chevy) all used pit strategy to give them good finishes in a caution-ridden race. Mears started 19th and finished sixth; Kahne started 32nd and finished seventh; and Gordon started second and finished fifth.

• Kevin Harvick (No. 29 Chevy) was caught in a few Martinsville mishaps, and was seen smoking around the track with fender troubles. Despite all of that, he still managed a ninth-place finish, and gave Richard Childress at least a little bit to smile about.

• The biggest HeartRacer has to go to Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Chevy), a driver some had already discounted as a contender for the championship. Johnson wouldn’t let any of the Martinsville mayhem stop him from racing hard, most specifically against Bobby Labonte and Denny Hamlin in the last few laps of the race, and pulling off the win. He moved up four spots in the Chase standings to third, officially blowing raspberries to anyone who said he was done contending this season.

HeartBreakers:

• Robby Gordon (No. 7 Chevy) started 26th and finished 37th. About the only positive thing we are thinking that he left Martinsville with is knowing he was the last car that finished the race running.

• Ryan Newman (No. 12 Dodge) and Casey Mears weren’t showing each other very much love for a while there, and it culminated in Newman getting sent to the back of the pack for aggressive driving. While they still ended up with decent finishes (Mears in sixth and Newman in 13th), we doubt the two of them will be thinking happy thoughts when racing against each other for a while.

• Joshua voted David Ragan (No. 06 Ford) as the ‘spinningest spinner’ on the track on Sunday, saying that if Ragan wasn’t spinning himself he was spinning one of several drivers. After a moment’s thought he gave the ‘second runner up spinningest spinner’ award to Dave Gilliland (No. 38 Ford).

• Was anyone else briefly worried that Ken Schrader (No. 21 Ford) was going to take that piece of his racecar that came off during his wreck on lap 331 and try to shove it somewhere he shouldn’t? Instead, he just gave it a disgusted toss into the pits. You had us going for a moment there, Kenny.

• Kurt Busch (No. 2 Dodge) must be walking under a lot of ladders and breaking a lot of mirrors this season. For Sunday’s race he was the pole-sitter, but after a tumultuous race that included a smack in the wall following a tangle with Scott Riggs (No. 10 Dodge), he finished 27th.

• We think the racing gods tested Mark Martin (No. 6 Ford) to see if for the second week in a row he would vibrantly hop from his car and exclaim how happy he feels, despite a lousy race (he started 25th, finished 24th, and fell three spots in the standings to seventh). We never saw a post-race interview, though, so we don’t know if the gods got a payoff or not.

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 8 Chevy) got bitten by a flat tire, after showing some strength through the race. He started the race seventh, but finished 22nd. At least the Jr. fans can console themselves with the knowledge he only fell one spot in the Chase standings to sixth.

• We sadly award the race’s biggest HeartBreaker to the points leader coming in, Jeff Burton (No. 31 Chevy). Things fell apart early for Burton, as during the first few laps of the race he got into Joe Nemecheck’s No. 01 Chevy. At first it seemed his biggest problem was going to be hood pins undone, but it quickly escalated from that to overheating, to carburetor problems, and then being in the garage. Ultimately the car couldn’t be repaired, and Burton finished 42nd, and fell four spots in the standings to fifth. Ouch.