Mark Martin Emerges Victorious For 48th Career Nationwide Series Win

[PressRoom-GFN]

By Deb Williams

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (March 1, 2008) – A four-car battle for the lead with five laps remaining in Saturday's Sam's Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway quickly turned into a two-car duel with Mark Martin emerging victorious for his 48th win in the Nationwide Series, but his first since 2005.

It was the first victory for JR Motorsports, which merged its Nationwide Series operation with Hendrick Motorsports at the end of last year. It also was Martin's third victory in the series in five races at LVMS.

“Rick (Hendrick) let me drive the [No.] 5 car three times last year, and we came up with two-second place finishes,” said Martin, who led three times for 81 laps, in his first Nationwide Series race this season. “We really wanted to get a trophy together, and for Dale (Earnhardt) Junior to be a part of this is something that's real special to me. Junior and I have known each other since he was about 3 ½ feet tall, so it's pretty cool.”

When the race restarted on lap 196 following the 12th of 13 caution flags, Brad Keselowski, also in a JR Motorsports Chevrolet, was leading with Carl Edwards second, Martin third and Greg Biffle fourth. Keselowski and Edwards exited turn 4 side-by-side with Edwards in the low groove. When they crossed the start/finish line, Martin, who never uses the bump-and-run tactic, was closing so quickly that he tagged Edwards in the back. That sent him into Keselowski and both cars crashed. Keselowski had to settle for 23rd in the 43-car field, while Edwards finished 14th. Martin now possessed the lead for the green-white-checker finish, and when the green flag waved, he pulled away to a 0.586-second advantage over Biffle.

“I got a great run coming down the front straightaway and I got into the back of Carl. Once I started, I couldn't stop it,” said Martin, who averaged 108.118 mph in the race slowed by 13 caution flags for 55 laps in the 202-lap event. “I think everybody knows that I give everybody on the race track the greatest respect. I made a mistake today.”

Even though Biffle finished second, he said his citifinancial Ford Fusion wasn't that fast on the restarts, so the quick pit stops he received helped tremendously.

“I don't understand how they [JR/Hendrick Motorsports] were beating us so bad on the restarts,” Biffle continued. “Their cars get up to speed a lot quicker than ours do and that's kinda what happened on that last restart. They can just out accelerate me. I held it flat across [turns] one and two; they beat me pretty good there. Then, I tried the top down there [in turns three and four] so I didn't have to lift. Mark's car just motored across the bottom really fast.

“After about four or five laps, when they had to lift on the throttle, I could run them down. I about had them passed when the caution came out.”

Throughout the race, it seemed the leaders always had problems. Kyle Busch, whose Interstate Batteries Toyota crashed in qualifying and a backup had to be used for the race, led once for 18 laps before exiting after an accident. Busch finished 31st.

Tony Stewart, who led twice for 61 laps, had to settle for a 27th-place finish after crashing in turn 4 with 62 laps remaining in the scheduled 200-lap race.

Defending race champion Jeff Burton was leading when his Holiday Inn Chevrolet was eliminated with an engine woe, leaving him 24th in the rundown.

Dario Franchitti was the top finishing rookie, placing sixth, while rookie Patrick Carpentier took eighth. Carpentier substituted for Kasey Kahne, who was battling a sinus infection.

The Nationwide Series now heads for Atlanta Motor Speedway for the March 8 Nicorette 300.

###