Martin Wins the LifeLock.com 400
July 13, 2009 by Warren Hayashi
Filed under Racing
50 year old Mark Martin is like a fine wine this year as he won his 2009 series best fourth Sprint Cup competition of the year and the 39th of his long and illustrious racing career Saturday night at Chicago’s 1.5 mile Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois. The last man standing on a night of body-slamming and bump-drafting that included seven cautions, the last one with only two laps left in the race due to oil on the track from Kyle Busch’s blown engine. Mark Martin pulled away after a double-file restart after the seventh caution of the night and managed to cross the finish line of the LifeLock.com 400 a mere 0.415 seconds in front of his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon. The victory pulls Martin two positions closer to the top position and he now sits in 11th position in the standings. He will gain an additional 40 bonus points for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup after the next seven races are completed, if he manages to finish in the top twelve.
Mark Martin wins the LifeLock.com 400
Mark Martin had one of the fastest cars all night, but a double-file restart is a dice throw at the best of times for the racers. The victory often goes to the racer that chooses the correct lane for the restart and not the fastest car. Mark Martin decided to restart on the outside lane with Jeff Gordon beside him to the inside, which turned out to be the correct choice as Martin was able to get better traction and got the jump on Gordon to the race to the line over the last two laps.
Kasey Kahne had a strong race and finished third, Sprint Cup point’s leader Tony Stewart survived several scares to take fourth, while Denny Hamlin finished fifth. Ryan Newman spent most of the race trying to figure out his car and how to get it to run fast, but still managed to finish sixth. Brian Vickers had a safe race and was rewarded with a seventh place finish, Jimmie Johnson had his problems but still managed to finish eighth, Clint Bowyer finished ninth, while Juan Montoya rounded out the top ten positions.
“Image: Zuma Press”
