If the double-file restarts in NASCAR Sprint Cup racing, which began with the June 7 event at Pocono, were intended to create excitement for fans, they certainly have accomplished the objective.
As well as 50-year-old Mark Martin ran for all 400 miles of Saturday night's LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, leading for a track-record 195 of the 267 laps, he still had to survive a couple of late, tension-filled restarts to secure the victory.
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Mark Martin waves the checkered flag after grabbing it as he drove by the grandstands upon winning the LifeLock.com 400 Saturday night.
(Liz Wilkinson Allen/Staff Photographer)
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Jeff Gordon wound up second, Kasey Kahne third, Tony Stewart fourth and Denny Hamlin fifth.
Martin's postrace gathering with the media centered on the last restart, where he decided to take outside position rather than the bottom of the track.
"On the last restart, on cold tires, if someone could get to your outside, they would suck you around pretty bad," Martin said. "I think you saw that with the 83 (Hamlin).
"You might not have seen it that much with me and the 48 (Jimmie Johnson). He managed to slip me enough that I couldn't beat him around the first time. So the second time we went through there, I wasn't going to let it happen again. I almost wiped us both out.
"With Jeff Gordon, new tires, put him on my outside, it was a risky move. Restarting and putting me on the outside of him also was a risky move because it wasn't my favorite place to be. But I thought I'd rather put him in that vulnerable position than me be in it."
The last restart capped what goes in the books as one wild stretch run. So hectic, in fact that Martin said, "I don't even remember all the things that happened toward the end.
"With 15 (laps) to go, I thought we were going to win the race if nothing else happened, but I knew it was going to be a long way. And boy, it was. It was a lot longer than I thought it was going to be, and eventful."
Gordon said Martin, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, made the right move on the final restart.
"He went a little early, which he should have," Gordon said. "That is strategy you have got to take into account on the final restart. It caught me a little off guard and I spun my tires."
Regardless of the strategy the drivers employ, the double-file restarts add volumes to the eventfulness of a race finish.
"We were in control of our own destiny until they (other drivers) started wrecking," Martin said. "And you know they're going to do it. They do it every race.
"I shouldn't complain because more often than not recently they're running the first two-thirds of the races nearly caution-free, and I should take that and be happy because that's a lot better than it used to be a few years ago, where it was just 15 laps at a time the whole race. So we get the long greens now, we just don't get them at the end."
Martin readily admits his forte is the long runs.
"When the cautions start coming, I cringe because I have the superior car on the long run and who knows what happens on the short runs," he said.
So far, his pluses on the restarts outweigh the minuses. But with seven races before the Chase for the Sprint Cup begins, "All that means to me is I'm likely to lose out more than I gain going forward," he said.
Around the track
Martin and Gordon also finished 1-2 in the June 14 LifeLock 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Donna and Richard Musgrave of New Castle, Colo. picked that 1-2 finish correctly. They were at Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday, pulling for Martin and Gordon to pull off another 1-2 in either order, which would mean a $1 million prize from LifeLock for the lucky fans.
Lo and behold, it happened.
A Chicagoland Speedway representative estimated Saturday's crowd in the stands at between 55,000 and 57,000 (there is seating for 75,000), with another 10,000 in a packed infield.
Series points leader Stewart dodged one accident and rallied back from a pit miscue and a flat tire to finish a solid fourth. It was Stewart's series-leading 11th top-five finish and his seventh top-five in nine career Sprint Cup starts at Chicagoland.
"You always need strong nights like we had tonight," Stewart said. "When you're trying to put yourself in a position to win a championship, consistency is the biggest thing. To be able to knock off top-fives like we did tonight, that's what it's going to take to win a championship. That's what makes nights like tonight so crucial, being able to battle back from some adversity.
"It was a solid night, then it got to be really bad and then it got really good at the end. I'll take a fourth place tonight, given where we were with about 30 (laps) to go."
Kahne, on finishing third after being passed late by Gordon: "I fought hard against Jeff there at the end. I wanted to hold him off. I felt like we were better than him all night. He had some fresh tires there and was better than us then and ended up beating us. I wasn't really very close to the 5 (Martin), but I cleared the 24 (Grodon) and then he charged back."
Hamilin and seventh-place finisher Brian Vickers, the pole-sitter, appeared to be going at it pretty well on a late restart.
"We got into the 5 (Martin) and 48 (Jimmie Johnson) there on the restart," Hamlin said. "The 83 (Vickers) got a little loose under me and got us up the track, but that's part of it. That's double-file restarts for you right there."
Said Vickers: "That was just hard racing. I mean, it was the last restart. I don't know what happened between him (Hamlin) and Jimmie (Johnson). I don't know if Jimmie just got loose or he (Hamilin) got into Jimmie. He hung on our right rear and did his job. But he was pretty tight -- for his good and my good. It ended up getting us really loose."
Johnson had his issues with Kurt Busch late in the race. Busch, an avid Cubs fan who sang during the seventh-inning stretch Sunday at Wrigley Field, said Johnson did not drive down the stretch like a three-time defending champion should.
So what exactly happened between the two? "I don't even know," Johnson said. "I think the 24 (Gordon) got inside of me and got me loose. And then the 2 (Busch) and I touched and he body-slammed me after that.
"But that was the least of my problems. The bigger problem was when I was leading and the 11 (Hamlin) pushed me all the way through (turns) 1 and 2 and eventually I lost control of the car."
Dale Earnhardt Jr. on his 15th-place effort: "We messed up way bad at the end the last 70-80 laps. We screwed the pooch on all of the adjustments. We had it too tight and we had it too loose. I don't know really what we weren't doing right. We should have finished a little better, but we're getting there." source>>>
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