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Hendrick Motorsports' Mark Martin wants to race, not crash, in final title races
By SceneDaily Staff
Friday, November 06, 2009
Hendrick Motorsports' Mark Martin is second in the Chase For The Sprint Cup standings heading into Sunday's race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Mark Sluder
NASCAR Scene
FORT WORTH, Texas – Hendrick Motorsports driver Mark Martin said Friday he’s not heartbroken over slipping further behind teammate Jimmie Johnson in NASCAR’s Chase For The Sprint Cup standings, but he’d “rather go down fighting than flipping.”
Martin crashed and flipped with one lap to go in last weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway, falling 184 points behind Johnson with three races remaining.
“Definitely no heartbreak whatsoever,” said Martin, who has finished second in the Cup standings four times. “But Talladega did rub because I’d rather get beat than turn over, you know what I mean? I want to go down racing.
“But you know what? We raced. We raced all day. We raced like we just couldn’t be in a wreck. And I was in one I didn’t even see. I never even knew I was going to be in that wreck until I was turning over.”
Martin has had a stellar season in his return to full-time Cup racing, winning five times. He won’t be disappointed with that number, even though he’s likely to fall short in the title hunt.
“Obviously, the performance of the 48 [of Johnson] has been phenomenal,” Martin said. “We gave it a good fight. But we haven’t quite matched his performance, although we gave him a pretty good run until Martinsville and Charlotte. That’s all we can do.”
Martin finished 17th at Charlotte and eighth at Martinsville, while Johnson was first and second, respectively. And then Martin was 28th at Talladega, while Johnson persevered to a sixth-place finish.
“I didn’t take this job to go try to get a championship trophy,” Martin said of the Hendrick organization he joined this season. “Doggone, it’s worked out pretty good. We’ve been in position. It still could happen. The race is still on for the top six positions, and we’re going to race.”
Mentioned Drivers: Mark Martin
2009 Sprint Cup Race for the Chase Standings
Driver Standings after the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 6492 |
| 2 | Mark Martin | -108 |
| 3 | Jeff Gordon | -169 |
| 4 | Kurt Busch | -211 |
| 5 | Tony Stewart | -285 |
| 6 | Juan Pablo Montoya | -289 |
| 7 | Greg Biffle | -321 |
| 8 | Denny Hamlin | -352 |
| 9 | Ryan Newman | -411 |
| 10 | Kasey Kahne | -476 |
| 11 | Carl Edwards | -520 |
| 12 | Brian Vickers | -666 |
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Comments
3 responses to "Hendrick Motorsports' Mark Martin wants to race, not crash, in final title races". Post a Comment.
Werner said:
Nov 6, 2009 at 4:44 PMseek the magic Genie from JJ and make a wish Mark...lol
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» Confirm Abuse Reportmrbreeze18 said:
Nov 7, 2009 at 9:15 AMThat second paragraph seems a little misleading to me. That flip didn't cause him to fall 184 points behind the 48 car. Seems to me the flip cost about 70 points, since he was already 110 points or so behind before the race started and they were pretty close to each other on the track when the accident happened.
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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 Reportts-hotcar-88-is-the-best-driver said:
Nov 7, 2009 at 11:10 AMI am still pulling for you Mark, no matter what happens. Good luck at Texas to you and your teammates.
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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