Martin bangs his way to Nationwide Vegas win
Quote selected text Published March 1st, 2008 in NASCAR News
Mark Martin took Dale Earnhardt Jr. to Victory Lane by winning the Nationwide Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, then immediately apologized for an accident he started in the closing laps.
Martin, the winningest driver in NASCAR’s No. 2 series, raced to the 48th victory of his career Saturday in a car owned by Earnhardt’s JR Motorsports. But the win came at the expense of Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski, who races full-time for Earnhardt.
Martin was sixth following a final round of pit stops when the race restarted with 10 laps to go. With four fresh tires on his Chevrolet, he sliced his way toward the front while chasing cars that had only taken two tires.
Edwards and Keselowski were racing side-by-side when Martin quickly closed in on Edwards’ bumper. Slight contact sent Edwards’ car wiggling across the track, and he slid high directly into Keselowski to wreck both cars.
Martin slipped past into the lead, then held in a two-lap shootout to the finish.
“I’ve got to apologize before we do anything else,” Martin said as soon as he climbed from his car. “I ran into the back of Carl. I hate it. I just hate it, really, because we could have had a 1-2 finish with JR Motorsports.
“I hate that it happened, but I sure didn’t intend for it to happen.”
Edwards, the defending series champion, finished 14th.
“I’d like to be really mad at Mark, but he’s a heck of a guy and has a lot of respect,” Edwards said. “I’m sure he just made a mistake.”
RESULTS:
FIN, ST, CAR, DRIVER, MAKE, SPONSOR, PTS/BNS, LAPS, STATUS
1 17 5 Mark Martin Chevrolet Delphi 195/10 202 Running
2 23 16 Greg Biffle Ford CitiFinancial 170/0 202 Running
3 8 2 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet RVs.com / Camping World 165/0 202 Running
4 10 33 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Camping World/ RVs.com 160/0 202 Running
5 21 64 David Stremme Chevrolet Atreus Homes & Communities 155/0 202 Running
6 6 40 Dario Franchitti * Dodge Fastenal 150/0 202 Running
7 18 7 Mike Wallace Toyota GEICO 151/5 202 Running
8 29 9 Patrick Carpentier Dodge Wisk 142/0 202 Running
9 22 27 Brad Coleman Ford Scott / Smith’s 138/0 202 Running
10 27 6 David Ragan Ford Discount Tire 139/5 202 Running
11 26 30 Stanton Barrett Chevrolet NOS Energy Drink 130/0 202 Running
12 14 25 Bobby Hamilton Jr. Ford Curly’s 127/0 202 Running
13 36 36 Kenny Wallace Dodge Shark Energy Drink 124/0 202 Running
14 9 60 Carl Edwards Ford Save-A-Lot 126/5 202 Running
15 16 47 Kelly Bires Ford Clorox 118/0 201 Running
16 28 1 Johnny Sauter Chevrolet Miccosukee Resort & Gaming 115/0 201 Running
17 33 161 Kevin Lepage Ford Specialty Racing 112/0 201 Running
18 11 111 Jason Keller Chevrolet CJM.com 109/0 200 Running
19 42 4 Robert Richardson, II Chevrolet JVC Everio 111/5 198 Running
20 43 283 John Borneman III Ford Borneman Plastering 103/0 198 Running
21 40 05 Brett Rowe Chevrolet 31-W Insulation / CertainTeed 100/0 197 Running
22 30 24 Eric McClure Chevrolet Hefty 97/0 197 Running
23 15 88 Brad Keselowski Chevrolet U.S. Navy 99/5 195 Off Track
24 2 29 Jeff Burton Chevrolet Holiday Inn / Holiday Inn Express 96/5 157 Out of Race
25 5 99 David Reutimann Toyota Aaron’s Dream Machine 88/0 152 Running
26 13 22 Mike Bliss Dodge Supercuts 85/0 141 Running
27 4 20 Tony Stewart Toyota Old Spice 87/5 137 Out of Race
28 7 59 Marcos Ambrose Ford Kingsford Hickory Charcoal 79/0 131 Out of Race
29 34 81 D.J. Kennington Dodge MC2 Energy Drink / NPPL 76/0 122 Running
30 12 66 Steve Wallace Chevrolet Atreus Homes & Communities 73/0 115 Running
31 3 18 Kyle Busch Toyota Interstate Batteries 75/5 102 Out of Race
32 37 52 Derrike Cope Chevrolet Means Racing 67/0 90 Out of Race
33 31 01 Kertus Davis Chevrolet RaceGirl 64/0 81 Out of Race
34 19 21 Bobby Labonte Chevrolet Richard Childress Racing 66/5 72 Out of Race
35 24 37 Brad Baker Ford Baker Curb Racing 58/0 65 Off Track
36 1 32 Brian Vickers Toyota Dollar General 60/5 61 Out of Race
37 32 90 Todd Bodine Chevrolet MSRP Motorsports 52/0 45 Out of Race
38 35 91 Larry Gunselman Chevrolet MSRP Motorsports 49/0 45 Out of Race
39 20 38 Jason Leffler Toyota Great Clips 46/0 42 Out of Race
40 38 89 Morgan Shepherd Dodge Victory In Jesus 43/0 37 Out of Race
41 41 0 Dwayne Leik Chevrolet Lori Morgan 40/0 36 Out of Race
42 39 28 Brian Keselowski * Chevrolet Jay Robinson Inc. 37/0 30 Out of Race
43 25 41 Kyle Krisiloff Dodge Energizer e2 Lithium 34/0 9 Out of Race
- As Martin heads to Vegas, he is sure he made the right decision
- Sprint Cup teams to test at Las Vegas
- NASCAR Las Vegas testing preview
- Sprint Cup and Nationwide teams to test in preseason at LVMS
- Kyle Busch wins hometown pole in Las Vegas
Wow a nice finish for the first Nationwide series (mainly) driver, in 5th… thats something you don’t see every week…. l0l
Overall I think the track was better before they redid it.
big whoop..it was streme….hes never finished outside the top 5 at vegas…so no suprise there…better off to point out that Coleman, Barrett, Hamilton Jr and K Wallace had really good runs…
and Brad Kesolowski SHOULD have possibly won this race…he was holding carl off and mark just got impatient and took them both out to win…im bnot blaming mark cause he dont do that very often but i have to beleive he knows u cant bump draft at vegas…ow well
JR Motorsports notches its 1st win as a race team and thats good…but Brad Keso will be in victory lane sooner or later if he can get rid of all the bad luck and part failures
I think both Coleman and Hamilton jr will have a good year once the cup drivers that are only running a few races drop out. If I’m not mistaken I think they mentioned on the broadcast that there are only 3 or 4 Cup drivers that are running the full Nationwide season.
A JR Motorsports car involved in a wreck that took out the race leader in another JR Motorsports car. That’s crazy.
i’m waiting to see if mikey wallace has been talking to robby or burton about how it would look if robby paraded the track over his appeal, mike won 5 races this year with geico, and burton won 5 in cup. Add harvick too.
Nice racing. I enjoyed Idiot Kyle hitting twice, made my whole day.
What a go M Martin on your win !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Huge Clapping…….
Now on to Sunday Racing. If Jr can bring home the bacon and K Busch will hit the wall for the third time, it will be a triple…..