MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) _ Dale Earnhardt Jr. seemed on the verge of a big day Sunday, one that would have ended his 31-race winless streak and allowed him to mark the 28-year anniversary of his father's first win with one of his own.

Then came the rain, and his chances at victory flew into his window.

``I got something in my eye before we went back out after the rain,'' he said, referring to a nearly 32-minute rain delay after the race was 357 laps old.

While sitting in his car waiting to resume racing, ``they had a blower going around the top of the race track at 10 mile an hour and he sat there and blew in the right side of my car from the top of the track for a good 15-20 seconds,'' Earnhardt said.

``I got something in my eye and it hurt like heck for a long time. I was just really frustrated that that it how I got it in my eye. That was ridiculous.''

Earnhardt led twice for 137 laps, but finished fifth.

His late father's first of 76 victories came at Bristol, Tenn., on April 1, 1979.

Earnhardt also gave high marks to the Car of Tomorrow, which was used for the second time in the race. The first was last week at Bristol, another short track.

``I think the COT adapted pretty well to this place,'' he said. ``Short track racing, you can put four tires and a steering wheel on anything and figure out a way to get it to go around pretty good, but Michigan and other places, that'd be another answer.''

Virtually every team will be at Richmond International Raceway this week for extensive testing of the COT on the track that races like a mini-superspeedway.

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PIT PROBLEMS: Denny Hamlin started on the pole and had a potentially winning day in the works until troubles on pit road took him out of contention for a victory.

First, he had to guess how fast he was going on pit road because the needle on his tachometre fell off, costing him valuable position in a battle with Jeff Gordon.

``I have never seen a needle fall off a tach before, but ours sure did,'' he said.

Then, during one stop in the middle of the race when he went in as the leader, a lugnut fell off during a tire change and he had to back his car back into the pit to have it attached. But the time he got going again, he left pit road running 10th.

``That was kind of frustrating,'' he said.

Hamlin finished third.

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MARTINSVILLE'S FUTURE: Track president Clay Campbell has heard the speculation over and over _ that Martinsville Speedway is certain to lose a race in the future.

The speculation returned this week when an online site ran a column suggesting that NASCAR's oldest, shortest track is a ``dinosaur'' compared to the newer venues on the circuit, and that like the dinosaurs, the track is destined to become extinct.

Martinsville, Va., hosts two Nextel Cup weekends per season.

``The future looks very bright for Martinsville contrary to some rumours and some ignorance,'' Campbell said at a news conference called to respond to the report.

``We have our own unique atmosphere. Does that make us on the hit list for extinction? I don't think so,'' he said. ``If anybody has any issues, I would expect they would come to me and ask me a question. You see me in here all the time.''

The speculation that a race will be lost always sparks local concerns, he said.

``It's frustrating that we have to continually dispel rumours like that because we've got to live with it for weeks on end. We hear it from our local politicians, local government officials. And we've got staff that I've got to contend with.''

NASCAR is looking to expand, and locations in Washington state, Denver and New York have been considered as locations where a new track would be desirable.

``Who knows what's going to be going on five years down the road?'' he said.

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WEATHER WATCHER: Eddie Wood of the famous Wood Brothers is a huge fan of The Weather Channel, and he had lots of fellow viewers on Sunday at Martinsville, Va.

With overcast skies and forecasts that suggested there was at least a 40 percent chance of rain, Wood said it's tricky trying to decide a race strategy if it rains.

``If it's one of those deals where you think it's going to be rain-shortened, you want to be on the race track at the right spot as much as possible,'' he said.

``You don't want to pit and then it rains, that kind of thing. You kind of do what the majority of people do. It's not smart to gamble on the weather.''

As the race goes deeper, the factors can change, however.

``It's always in the back of your mind, is this shower the last one and that kind of thing, because you can kind of tell by the tone of the way NASCAR is proceeding drying the track,'' Wood said. ``They usually know more about the weather than we do.''

Wood's car, driven by Ken Schrader, started fourth and finished 19th.

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POINTS: Gordon remained the series points leader with a 28-point edge over Jeff Burton, who finished sixth. Johnson, winner of three of six races, is 60 back.