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The Hot Pass: Martin stays level despite decisive win

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Lee Spencer

Lee Spencer is the senior NASCAR writer for FOXSports.com. She has provided award-winning coverage of auto racing over the last 15 years. Spencer has lent her expertise to both television and radio and is a regular contributor to SiriusXM Radio and the Performance Racing Network.

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Updated Jul 12, 2009 2:00 PM ET
     
 

JOLIET, Ill.

Mark Martin had the dominant car in Saturday night's LifeLock.com 400, but he warned his crew not to become overly optimistic in the closing laps. And even after scoring his fourth win of the season and his first victory at Chicagoland Speedway, the veteran still had to ask over the radio: "Tell me we won? I can't believe it."
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Martin, 50, led 179 of the first 223 laps and relinquished the lead to Jimmie Johnson on Lap 223. There was good reason for him to stay up front as long as possible, as every move outside of the lead was a step further away from a shot at the Chase. Since Martin entered the race 13th in the standings and 65 points out of 12th place, he was quite aware of the task at hand. However, he refused to "get sucked into" the points rollercoaster even though he has moved into the 11th spot — 11 points ahead of 13th. "We were 13th coming here," Martin said. "What we needed to do was lead the most laps and win. No matter what happens going forward — I may change my mind later — but right now I'm leaving the track the same points position I was in last week, 'cause it's just a rollercoaster." As strong as the No. 5 Kellogg's team has performed all season, Martin knows how quickly the points can slip away. He's been as high as eighth in the point standings and as low as 34th after suffering through two engine failures in the first three races of the season. "I feel more solid and better about the effort that we've made," Martin said. "I can't do anything more about how the points have fallen. We have had a horrendous number of really unfortunate situations.

Keeping track

Mark Martin
Mark Martin
Hendrick Motorsports
2009 at a glance
Starts
Wins
Top fives
Top 10s
Laps led
19
4
5
9
414
"I will only be disappointed for these guys if we were to manage to not make it. It's very, very tight. It's very, very close. For me to get four wins halfway in was beyond my dreams. These guys deserve it, and I hope we do." Team owner Rick Hendrick, who celebrated his 60th birthday on Sunday after his 182nd Cup win on Saturday night, said he and crew chief Alan Gustafson had faith in Martin from the first time he drove a Hendrick car in the Nationwide Series. That's when Hendrick knew that Martin and Gustafson would be players. "When you ask Jeff Gordon what he thought, you ask Jimmie Johnson, Can you get Mark to drive all the races? I said, I think so," Hendrick said. "He's awesome. And Alan and I, again, witnessed it, just knew you can tell when a guy is so smart on a chassis that he knows how to run a fuel run. I'll put him up against anybody I've had on a car, planning a full fuel run and tire run. "I just knew the two of these guys would be good."

Game changer

On Lap 248, Jeff Gordon was eighth entering the pits. The decision by crew chief Steve Letarte to take four fresh tires and make a wedge adjustment, enabled the No. 24 to quickly gain positions in the closing laps and circumvent the riff-raff. It was advantage Jimmie Johnson on the ensuing restart until Denny Hamlin knocked him on to the highline allowing Brian Vickers to take the lead and the No. 48 was shuffled to the back. While Johnson and Kurt Busch traded paint with each other on Lap 252, Mark Martin and Gordon extended their lead to the finish. "I got a great run off of Turn 2," said Gordon, who finished second. "I saw smoke and cars moving every which way. We were four wide down the back straightaway. I had four (new) tires, so I could drive it on the apron if I wanted to. And I did on the front straightaway to get by Jimmie and maybe it was Denny to his outside. I wasn't sure who it was. "It looked like it was pretty crazy up there, but it worked good for me." Gordon remained second in the point standings after Chicagoland and picked up five points on Tony Stewart, who finished fourth. Johnson had six finishes of sixth or better in eight starts entering the race. After tangling with Busch off Turn 4 and down the backstretch, J.J. had to settle for eighth. "The No. 24 got inside of me and I got loose and we touched," Johnson said. "And when we touched, he just came down and body-slammed me like, trying to get some room from me. But it was just a racing thing. The No. 24 got inside of me and got me sideways." "I don't know if it cost me the win, but he certainly body-slammed me pretty hard. And then what was funny was he was coming to hit me again and he saw the No. 24 on the apron and I think at that time he realized that I didn't run him up the track on purpose. At the end of the race everybody's tempers are high. (Kurt Busch) is one of those guys that his temper can get away from him and when he first hit me it was like, all right man, this is racing; this isn't necessary. And then he backed off." Busch was running in the top 10 for most of the evening until the altercation. The No. 2 Dodge began smoking with a tire rub and was forced to pit before the end of the race. After finishing 17th, Busch blamed his outcome on the double-file restarts. "I don't know what the problem is with Jimmie and me, but we're running into each other way too often it seems," said Busch, who maintained fourth-place in the point standings. "It was definitely a by-product of the double-file restarts and what can happen shortly after. Everyone is digging, rooting and gouging for everything they can get. "All was well until the 48 split us and put me up into the wall. I'm pretty livid right now, to tell you the truth."

Teacher's pet

Tony Stewart showed his true champion colors — and it wasn't just because of his back-to-school Office Depot paint scheme.
The point leader's night was the pits. All season long the No. 14 team has been solid over the wall, but they experienced several problems on Saturday. Stewart avoided a near mishap with AJ Allmendinger exiting the pits on Lap 187. On Lap 212, the No. 14 was issued a pit road infraction for not having all of its lugnuts installed and had to return to the pits for service. Stewart was sixth entering the pits, but had to line up 15th on the restart. The fifth caution stop on Lap 230 wasn't without incident either. Crew chief Darian Grubb elected to take on new tires after Stewart ran over debris, but the wrong ones were installed on the car. Stewart lined up 17th for the restart on Lap 233. By Lap 255 he had moved up to seventh and improved his position to fourth in the final 12 laps. "We were solid and kept picking our way to the front," Stewart said. "We got really loose and fell back to sixth and we came in for a stop, had a little hiccup and got behind. We were able to rebound from that and I'm really proud of the guys."

The squeaky wheel

Kasey Kahne has scored one win, two top fives and three top 10s in the past four races which has enabled him to jump from 15th to eighth in the point standings. Certainly, Kahne's insistence for changes in the company's managerial structure and the increase effort on the car — particularly the new R6 engine — has improved his effort tremendously. "We got to compare it to the best tonight," Kahne said. "We raced with Hendricks and the Gibbs, the 11 (Denny Hamlin), throughout the race. Every restart, every pass for position was against one of those guys. "We still have some work to do. I think it was decent and we still have some work to do with those guys. My car handled great, you know, so I was happy about that." Richard Petty Motorsports VP Mark McArdle said that teammate Elliott Sadler will also have the R6 power in two weeks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. McArdle hopes to have all the RPM cars powered by the new powerplant come September 1 if the parts are available.

Blunders of the day

  • Greg Biffle took a major hit in points which was exacerbated by a brutal night in the pits. Biffle caused his own pit problem on Lap 41 when he was busted for speeding and had to drive to the tail end of the lead lap. On Lap 94, the No. 16 Ford was penalized again for non-compliant refueling after the catch can man dropped the fuel can. Biffle finished the race 31st, two laps down, and fell out of the Chase Zone.
  • A questionable call was made on Reed Sorenson entering pit road halfway through the race. Although Marcos Ambrose was behind Sorenson entering the pits, Sorenson was on the inside lane so he was expected to relinquish his position entering the pits. NASCAR served him a pass-thru penalty, but since Sorenson did not immediately comply, he was black-flagged and the sanctioning body stopped scoring the car for two laps. Sorenson would go on to finish 24th.

    Watercooler talk

    Brad Keselowski wasn't kidding when he said he had "options" for next season. In addition to being close to re-signing a deal with JR Motorsports to run in the Nationwide Series, the latest buzz has Special K paired with Red Bull Racing. If Keselowski indeed stays with JRM, the only scenario that would work on the Cup side would be with a Chevrolet team. Maybe Red Bull is closer to inking a Chevy deal. Rick Hendrick said on Saturday that HMS has the resources to include Red Bull in its engine program.
    • Tagged: Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin

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