Mark Martin must be a fan of The Carpenters, because it seems like he’s only just begun. The 50-year old Arkansan won his fourth race of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season and did it in dominating fashion by leading 195 of the races 267 laps.
Martin had a bad qualifying draw, the driver of the five car went out first, in the heat of the day, and still managed to turn in a performance good enough for fourteenth place. From the green the Carquest/Kelloggs car was quick. Really quick. Before the first caution flew on lap 39, Martin found himself in third place and closing quickly on second place Clint Bowyer.
His pit crew did the rest, getting the Old Man off of pit road first, and he set sail from there. “This is easy bud,” he radioed to crw chief Alan Gustafson. He even pedaled back a little on the runs in order to save his stuff.
Who said being old was a bad thing?
Even as the double file restarts bunched the field up late Mark tried to hold off teammate Jimmie Johnson. And, even though Johnson pulled by the “Old Man” on lap 224, Martin never gave up. After a particularly dangerous restart on 251, Mark Martin still sat in third.
Some guys have all the luck it seems. And tonight, even though Martin had the best car all night, he needed some racing luck to pull off a win. After his first win of the season at Phoenix Mark said, “It’s hard to make a car good enough to win, and it’s ten times harder to win one. We didn’t fall into this one, we took it.”
And he could say the same thing this evening.
After a hairy restart on lap 250, Martin ended up zooming by Denny Hamlin and Brian Vickers to take the lead and he once again set sail. “The double file restarts are made to mess up the best car so he doesn’t win for the fans” he said in Victory Lane. More on double file restarts tomorrow, but the only fact that remains is the #5 car in Victory Lane at the end of the day.
Martin had a bad qualifying draw, the driver of the five car went out first, in the heat of the day, and still managed to turn in a performance good enough for fourteenth place. From the green the Carquest/Kelloggs car was quick. Really quick. Before the first caution flew on lap 39, Martin found himself in third place and closing quickly on second place Clint Bowyer.
His pit crew did the rest, getting the Old Man off of pit road first, and he set sail from there. “This is easy bud,” he radioed to crw chief Alan Gustafson. He even pedaled back a little on the runs in order to save his stuff.
Who said being old was a bad thing?
Even as the double file restarts bunched the field up late Mark tried to hold off teammate Jimmie Johnson. And, even though Johnson pulled by the “Old Man” on lap 224, Martin never gave up. After a particularly dangerous restart on 251, Mark Martin still sat in third.
Some guys have all the luck it seems. And tonight, even though Martin had the best car all night, he needed some racing luck to pull off a win. After his first win of the season at Phoenix Mark said, “It’s hard to make a car good enough to win, and it’s ten times harder to win one. We didn’t fall into this one, we took it.”
And he could say the same thing this evening.
After a hairy restart on lap 250, Martin ended up zooming by Denny Hamlin and Brian Vickers to take the lead and he once again set sail. “The double file restarts are made to mess up the best car so he doesn’t win for the fans” he said in Victory Lane. More on double file restarts tomorrow, but the only fact that remains is the #5 car in Victory Lane at the end of the day.
Even though he won, in almost true Mark Martin fashion, he doubted his abilities and told the media he wasn’t ready to claim himself the favorite to run for the title. “Let me tell you about points. I leave the track 13th in my mind and that’s fine with me,” he said. “It’s weird. I’m not going to let myself get sucked into that. No matter what happens going forward I’m leaving the track the same points position I was coming in.”
Mark Martin has been called a pessimist, and tonight, even in victory he showed that negative side once again. “I’m racing for my job,” he said, gazing at Rick Hendrick, his car owner. Hendrick countered back, “Alan and I said—and Mark you probably don’t want to hear this—we said we can win a championship with Mark Martin this year. We were confident we could win races.”
“Mark drove his tail off,” Gustafson said.
It was an exciting night, and now we look forward to Indy with a very particualr excitement. Mark will be riding a wave of momentum into Indianapolis, and he knows the #5 team’s M.O. must be this; “We need to lead the most laps and win the race. That’s what we need to do at indy as well.”
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Check back tomorrow for more thoughts on the Lifelock.com 400. It’s been an awesome night, and it could only get better with a win at Indy. I’ve said it more times than I can count, I don’t know what I’d do, but I might just be the happiest guy on earth if I saw Mark Martin win one at the Brickyard. Pinch me because this just can’t be real.
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