Equipment malfunction ruins Martin's shot at victory
By Bob Pockrass - Associate Editor
Sunday, August 03, 2008
LONG POND, Pa. – Mark Martin had a dominant car at Pocono Raceway, but an equipment malfunction on pit road spoiled his chances Sunday.
Martin led 53 of the first 67 laps but two slow pit stops – the result of lug nuts getting stuck in a new socket that screws in the lug nuts – cost him too much time on pit road, forcing his Dale Earnhardt Inc. team to play pit strategy. Martin wound up finishing eighth in the Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500.
“I told them, ‘Don’t be disappointed with what you didn’t get done today – be excited about what you did do,’” Martin said. “These guys get it done every week on pit road. I don’t think we’ve had a disappointing pit stop all year long [and] so we had a couple of snags today.
“We had the race car we were looking for at Indy [last week] here and I look forward to driving it again.”
Crew chief Tony Gibson seemed a little flabbergasted after Martin started second and seemed to have the car to beat.
“You can’t run the same socket all year long,” Gibson said. “You’ve got to eventually change it because it will break. Something about it hung up on a nut. It wasn’t [the crew’s] fault. They didn’t do anything wrong.
“It kind of threw us out of our gameplan and got us off sync on fuel. But, hey, we had the car to beat here today by far, and that was a good day for us. I wish we would have won it. Should have won it. But it didn’t happen.”
Those two pit stops dropped Martin to 16th. When rain came on lap 128, Martin and Gibson opted to stay out while many of the leaders pitted. Needing two more stops once the race resumed, while others needed just one, Martin still was able to work his way to eighth. Kasey Kahne, who finished seventh and had won at Pocono in June, was the only driver to finish ahead of Martin who was on the same pit strategy.
“In a run and a half, we made up almost an entire pit stop [on the field],” Martin said. “Kasey Kahne was really, really good. We were pretty close to him on speed. We had a great race car, and I’m very proud of that. … We had one good enough to win with if everything would have went our way, but it didn’t.”
Martin is committed to getting the DEI team a win before he leaves at the end of the season for Hendrick Motorsports.
“We’ve had four of them we should have won but we didn’t,” Gibson said. “I told [team owner] Teresa [Earnhardt] last week that we’re just really close and if we could ever get a little bit of luck on our side, we could win one or two of them at least. We’re going to keep digging. One of these days, it’s going to be our day.”
Popular News
-
PRESEASON PREDICTIONS: Which Sprint Cup star will snap his long winless streak first?
Comments (188) -
For Dale Earnhardt Jr., life as an Earnhardt is not easy, especially when you're not winning
Comments (139) -
Jeff Owens: Should RCR’s black No. 3 return to NASCAR’s Cup series?
Comments (120) -
Hendrick Motorsports’ Mark Martin more prepared mentally and physically for 2010
Comments (105) -
Dale Earnhardt Inc. plans for Jeffrey Earnhardt still in flux
Comments (96)
Recent Headlines
-
SEASON PREVIEW: Mike Skinner optimistic about 2010 prospects
Comments (1) -
SEASON PREVIEW: Camping World Truck Series top-20 rankings
Comments (5) -
Josh Wise to drive in Nationwide Series for Specialty Racing
Comments (2) -
HBO’s ‘24/7 Jimmie Johnson’ documentary series expected to shift into high gear tonight
Comments (27) -
SEASON PREVIEW: Roush Fenway Racing’s Carl Edwards hungry to regain place among Sprint Cup’s elite
Comments (15)
Poll PositionView All
After qualifying and the Budweiser Shootout, who is the favorite to win the Daytona 500?
Promotions
-
Tweet your thoughts about each race and join the conversation with other fans.
-
Drive an authentic NASCAR Sprint Cup car at the NASCAR Racing Experience.
Comments
3 responses to "Equipment malfunction ruins Martin's shot at victory". Post a Comment.
Edith Rose said:
Aug 5, 2008 at 6:24 AMMark Martin will get his wins. Hopefully soon. They try so hard, luck will be on his side soon. GOOOOOOO Mark.
Report as AbuseReport Abuse
This feature is intended to allow you to report comments that are abusive in terms of foul/vulgar language, harassment, racial/religious prejudice and any words/phrases of a related nature. This feature should not be used to report users who simply make a comment about your favorite driver, with which you do not agree. Commenting is a forum in which we can all express our opinions. Reporting abuse of others should be done with this in mind.
» Confirm Abuse Report4da88 said:
Aug 8, 2008 at 9:35 AMA DEI equipment malfunction? Imagine that!
Report as AbuseReport Abuse
This feature is intended to allow you to report comments that are abusive in terms of foul/vulgar language, harassment, racial/religious prejudice and any words/phrases of a related nature. This feature should not be used to report users who simply make a comment about your favorite driver, with which you do not agree. Commenting is a forum in which we can all express our opinions. Reporting abuse of others should be done with this in mind.
» Confirm Abuse Reportemily bagwell said:
Aug 9, 2008 at 7:52 PMGet you some of it, Mark!!!
Report as AbuseReport Abuse
This feature is intended to allow you to report comments that are abusive in terms of foul/vulgar language, harassment, racial/religious prejudice and any words/phrases of a related nature. This feature should not be used to report users who simply make a comment about your favorite driver, with which you do not agree. Commenting is a forum in which we can all express our opinions. Reporting abuse of others should be done with this in mind.
» Confirm Abuse Report