It took a gamble, a little luck, and a lot of talent, but the way this season has gone for Mark Martin, the result shouldn’t be a surprise.
In the process, Martin finally found success at a racetrack that for so many years had provided only frustration.
Trusting his crew chief’s call to give up the lead and pit a final time with 57 laps to go - which dropped him to 29th - Martin waited patiently for the cars in front of him to pit, knowing that his position would improve every time they did. When he finally retook the lead on Lap 272 - capping a seven-lap stretch that featured six leaders - he held on for dear life, surviving three late restarts and winning the Sylvania 300 yesterday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Boston Herald
“This is just incredible,” a jubilant Martin said. “I’m sure I am sleeping, I’m sure I am dreaming.”
An incident involving A.J. Allmendinger set up a three-lap shootout to the finish. After the restart, Martin and Juan Pablo Montoya were in a fierce side-by-side battle for the lead. Martin pulled ahead of Montoya with less than two laps to go. Allmendinger spun again on the final lap, which ended the race under caution.
“It couldn’t be easy to run that end with the lead there, and we had three restarts,” Martin said. “It was all kinds of chances for me to mess up, and I did, but I guess not enough to lose.” MiamiHerald.com
With the victory, his first in 26 starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Martin increased his lead in the Cup standings to 35 points over three-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson, who ran fourth at the Magic Mile in the first race of the Chase, and Denny Hamlin, who finished second.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire - Race Results
Hamlin got past Montoya before the final caution to grab the second spot, and Montoya got credit for third. Kyle Busch ran fifth, followed by Chase drivers Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman. Elliott Sadler, Chaser Greg Biffle and Clint Bowyer completed the top 10.
Martin, 50, gave crew chief Alan Gustafson credit for the victory.
“Alan won the race,” Martin said, after climbing from his car in Victory Lane. “Alan’s the man. This is a dream come true. ... We still have the lotto at Talladega [Nov. 1], and [I] think we’ll run OK at Martinsville. We finished [seventh] in the spring, but I don’t run good there—but this is my hardest place. It’s a tough place.
“But it’s just these guys [the No. 5 crew]. It’s Alan and the guys that back him up and all the guys that surround him. He is the superstar [Sunday]. I can’t believe we won that race. It couldn’t be easy. We had to have three caution restarts, and all kinds of chances for me to mess up—and I did, but just, I guess, not enough to lose.” NASCAR
“I didn’t expect that,” Montoya said. “I was expecting him to run pretty hard. He just ran very defensively, and I just got caught by surprise. I think if I would have been prepared I probably would have jumped to the outside.
“You’ve got to learn from it. I haven’t fought for enough wins.”
His first reaction was that it was dirty racing, and he radioed to his crew that it was “not cool at all.” The Associated Press
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