Mark Martin Wins Again
Posted by Jeff Anderson on Mon, Jul 13, 2009 @ 07:58 PM
y Mark Martin scored his fourth NASCAR Sprint Cup victory of the season at Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday night and did it by dominating the race. The veteran led 195 of the 267 laps and the victory moved Martin into the top 12 in the championship. The victory showed how strong the Hendrick team is and made a statement that they are championship contenders. Martin's drive to the checkered flag looked easy until the final cautions of the night bunched the field and put some of the drivers on new tires. When the last caution came out with seven to go dash for the cash was on. As the green flag flew Martin had to drive hard to hold off Jeff Gordon who was coming with fresher tires and a strong desire to win. At the flag it was Martin, Gordon and Kasey Kahne in third. Kahne was up front all evening and it was evident that his Dodge team has found new horsepower with the new Dodge Hemi engine they are using. The third place finish moved Kahne into 8th place in the championship hunt. Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five. In the closing laps of the race Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Bush got together and Johnson went from the top three all the way back to eighth at the end. Safety-Kleen's Clint Bowyer and Juan Pablo Montoya rounded out the top 10. The Dolton and Elgin branches were at the track this weekend and put on a massive tailgate party for over 100 customers from the Chicago area. Dan, Ron and Jamie did a fantastic job of entertaining the Safety-Kleen guests, good job. A week off for the Cup teams before the Brickyard 400 at Indy.