For the second week in a row and the second time this season Mark Martin was a victim of a multicar accident. The U. S. Army driver got collected in a seven-car wreck and the incident shoved Martin to a 34th-place finish in Sunday’s Dickies 500 Nextel Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway.
While running 16th, Martin was unable to avoid the Turn 2 pile up, which occurred on Lap 220 of 334. He took a good hit from behind that severely damaged the car’s rear-end housing.
Martin brought the 01 Chevrolet to the garage where the Army team repaired the damage. When he returned to the track, Martin was 54 laps down.
“That’s just a shame, ” said Martin, who qualified 10th. “Once again, we were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It didn’t feel like I got hit that hard, but the damage was enough to make the car not drivable. We had a good shot at a top-10 finish, but sometimes you just can’t avoid those types of things. ”
“I just hate it for these guys on the Army crew, ” added Martin. “They work really hard on these cars and this is the second straight week that we got caught up in something that we couldn’t avoid. ”
Last week Martin suffered the same fate in Martinsville, Va. when a multicar accident ended his day prematurely.
“We’ve had some adversity lately, but when you wear the Army uniform and drive the soldiers’ car you don’t sit back and pout, ” stated Martin. “You suck it up and battle harder. And that’s exactly what this Army team will do in the final two races. “
The U. S. Army team will return to action Sunday (Nov. 11) in Phoenix with rookie Aric Almirola driving the 01 Chevy. The grueling 36-race schedule will come to an end the following week at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Martin is slated to drive in the season finale.
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