Mark Martin’s improbable victory provides feel-good story for gloomy weekend at Michigan

By Kris Johnson - Assistant Managing Editor
Thursday, June 18, 2009

Amid all the economic gloom and talk of teetering automotive giants, leave it to Mark Martin to provide NASCAR with a feel-good story to culminate its Michigan race weekend.

The affairs at Michigan International Speedway began ominously on June 12 with news spreading about GM’s decision to withdraw monetary support from its teams in the Nationwide and Camping World Truck series. GM, in the throes of bankruptcy, could also pare spending through its Chevrolet brand in the Sprint Cup Series.

A bad beginning here, though, yielded fully and completely to an exciting ending.

The third win of Martin’s fairy-tale 2009 campaign was the most unlikely yet. Entering the Michigan race 13th in points after a 19th-place finish at Pocono, Martin was content to play it conservative in the waning laps of the LifeLock 400. Then a funny thing happened while he was running blithely along to what he thought would be a third-place finish. Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson’s car bobbled then slowed at the start/finish line coming to the white flag. Johnson, who led a race-high 146 laps, was out of gas after dueling with Roush Fenway Racing’s Greg Biffle in the final 10 laps.

With Johnson waylaid by an empty tank, Biffle still stood between Martin and a fifth career trip to Michigan’s victory lane. Then he didn’t. Biffle’s tank ran dry, too.
Martin suddenly had more than points in mind.

“If we’re this close, I’m gonna run hard,” said Martin, who described his approach prior to then as “lollygagging” due to a need to preserve both gas and his position in the standings.

“When the 48 [of Johnson] ran out, I knew the 16 [of Biffle] was just right up there. I got past the start/finish line, came on the radio and said, ‘I’ve got fuel pressure right now, I’m gonna go for it.’ I jumped on the gas, ran hard. I couldn’t believe how much I was gaining on him through the corner. Then all of a sudden I got on the straightaway, I was really gaining on him. It was like, ‘Whoa! Oh, he’s out!’ A lot of stuff was happening then.”

Afterward, there was only celebration.

Martin, who qualified 32nd, notched his 38th career victory. The win is obviously not a panacea for all that ails GM/Chevrolet, but consider it a bandage for the bow-tie brigade.

Team owner Rick Hendrick, who was on hand for the first time to see Martin win this season, acknowledged as much after the race.

“I’m excited about the future for them as a dealer and as a racer. They’ve been great partners. Until they tell me they’re not gonna race anymore, which I don’t expect to hear at all, then you’ll see a bow tie on the front of our cars,” Hendrick said.

The event’s scintillating finish belied a competition that was about as bland as bland could be. The race consisted largely of green-flag runs with only three cautions, two for debris. The lone incident on the day involved Penske Racing’s David Stremme, whose No. 12 Dodge careened into the wall at the entrance of pit road on lap 150.

With the win, Martin climbed from 13th to eighth in the point standings. It marked the second consecutive year that a Hendrick Motorsports driver won a fuel-mileage race at Michigan after Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s victory in this event last season. Like Junior, Martin had just enough fuel to finish the deal.

Martin’s crew chief, Alan Gustafson, credited Martin’s conservation skills but he still experienced a twinge of uncertainty prior to the frantic finish.

“We just saved as much gas as we could, tried to just back up to the guys behind us,” Gustafson said. “Mark saved a lot, [I] was fairly confident in that. It’s not an exact science. We just do the best job we can. We know what mileage we need to make it, but you don’t know. He’s out there running and you don’t know. Jimmie ran out here. I could see that happened. Jimmie has about the exact same car we had.”

Martin used every bit of his veteran guts and guile – to say nothing of gas – to win.

“After the race was over, I shut it off at the start/finish line, coasted all the way around,” Martin said. “I was gonna try to fire it up just to get it in victory lane.

It wouldn’t even spin over. So it ran exactly as far as it was gonna run. We had our hands full if we were going to try to go another lap or another mile.”

Unfortunately, the same could be said for some of NASCAR’s manufacturers.

“I think what it’s gonna do for us, you know, next week, next month, I don’t think it’s gonna change our relationship with Chevrolet much,” Hendrick said. “I can say this: Chevrolet gave me my first chance. I was the youngest Chevrolet dealer – I might still be – [and] was the youngest one to get a franchise in a little town of Bennettsville, S.C., and they’ve supported me ever since. Everybody in the world, in the economy, has had to tighten their belt, everybody. I don’t care what kind of business you’re in.”

Martin was in the business of winning on this day. In doing so, he gave NASCAR a race weekend to remember for all the right reasons.
 

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2009 Sprint Cup Race for the Chase Standings

Driver Standings after the AMP Energy 500

1 Jimmie Johnson 6248
2 Mark Martin -184
3 Jeff Gordon -192
4 Juan Pablo Montoya -239
5 Tony Stewart -279
6 Kurt Busch -312
7 Greg Biffle -340
8 Ryan Newman -402
9 Kasey Kahne -414
10 Carl Edwards -437
11 Denny Hamlin -448
12 Brian Vickers -556

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