Monday, July 13, 2009

Mark Martin Wins at Chicago; Fourth Win of 2009

by M Roberts

Mark Martin held off all of NASCAR’s young heavy hitters to win his fourth race of the season at Chicago Saturday night. At the young age of fifty, Martin became the winningest driver for the first nineteen races of the 2009 season. Not bad for a driver that hadn’t won a Sprint Cup series race since 2005 at Kansas.

Martin led the most laps during the race and looked to clearly have the best car, but had to hold off racing‘s best like Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson in a series of double file re-starts. The old-timer showed that he could still be just as quick as the youngsters in the drag race of re-starts to the green flag.

The win also moved Martin into the Chase’s top-12 at eleventh position. Prior to the race, despite having three wins, Martin had been in thirteenth position and outside looking in. Martin has never won a Cup Championship before, but if the Chase started this week, Martin would positioned in first because of his series leading four wins. If it all unfolds that way, Martin would be as close to the title as ever in his career at that late stage of a season.

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