Mark Martin went from first to last in seven days.
Last week’s winner at Phoenix had a short run Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, a track he loathes so much he left it off his schedule the past two seasons when he ran only 24 races a year. Back in a full-time ride this season for Hendrick Motorsports, he couldn’t skip Talladega, but didn’t have to stick around very long. The Canadian Press
The accident started just seven laps into the race near the front of the field when Matt Kenseth appeared to make contact with series points leader Jeff Gordon.
The bump made Gordon’s car slide toward the top of the track, and the drivers running around them couldn’t avoid the wreck.
“It was a little bit of aggressive driving, but everybody’s jockeying for position here in the early laps,” Gordon said. “I got squeezed and didn’t have anywhere else to go. I saw an opening, went for it, and it closed up in a hurry.”
Six of the drivers caught up in the wreck are Chase for the championship contenders. They are Gordon, Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne, Clint Bowyer and Mark Martin, winner of last week’s race at Phoenix.
“It’s Talladega. You expect it,” Gordon said. “You just hope to survive it.”
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Kevin Harvick, Casey Mears, Jamie McMurray, Scott Riggs, AJ Allmendinger, David Gilliland, and Brian Vickers were also involved. The Associated Press
“I forgot how cool racing at Daytona was, because handling really does separate the cars more than it does here,” Martin said. “It’s not like a normal race track, but it’s a lot more than it is here.
“Here, having a great car doesn’t do you any good, because you can’t separate yourselves from the other cars.”
Martin had broken a 97-race winless streak last week, becoming the third-oldest winner in NASCAR history. The Phoenix victory moved him to 13th in the standings and on the verge of a spot in the Chase for the championship, but Sunday’s accident dropped him to 18th. The Canadian Press
“I told you I wasn’t racing for points,” Martin said. “I got a win last weekend. I’m fine. Maybe we’ll go do that again at Richmond.”
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