Monticello — Mark Martin did it again. The oldest driver in the 43-car field showed
the youngsters a thing or two Saturday night in the Southern 500 at
Darlington Raceway.
"It's absolutely unbelievable," Martin said. "This is a big surprise. We
had a strong car, but I never expected to win. Alan Gustafson (Martin's crew
chief) is absolutely the best. I may have been his childhood hero, but I'm
living a second childhood now‹and he's my childhood hero."
"We had a good enough car to do it, and pit strategy put us in a
position to pull it off."
Fifty-year-old Martin, charged home ahead of three-time Sprint Cup
champion Jimmie Johnson and other younger drivers to win the 367-lap
marathon on what is known as NASCAR's toughest track.
Martin, an ageless racing junkie who tried to retire a couple years ago
but couldn't, won the race in style, pulling away from Johnson at the end.
Physically fit and pumped up for the season in a Hendrick Chevrolet,
Martin ran with the big dogs up front all night, keeping his car in one
piece and saving the best for last.
It was a record-setting night for cautions under a full South Carolina
moon. Seventeen times the caution waved as driver after driver made contact
with Darlington's famous walls. Most of them didn't just get a Darlington
Stripe as is the norm for this 1.366-mile, egg-shaped oval. They hit hard
enough to take the paint off the whole right side of the car.
Trailing Martin and Johnson across the stripe were Tony Stewart and his
teammate Ryan Newman. Stewart's third-place run was his fifth top-five in
his last six starts.
"This is the best I've run in the 500, so I'm ecstatic about it. We're
doing things right, it's just a matter of time," said Stewart.
The remaining top-10 finishers were: 5. Jeff Gordon, 6. Martin Truex, 7.
Brad Keselowski, 8. Greg Biffle, 9. Joey Logano, 10. Matt Kenseth.
Top-12 Chase Contenders after 11 of 26: 1. J. Gordon-1601, 2.
Stewart-1572, 3. Kurt Busch-1546, 4. Johnson-1465, 5. Hamlin-1445, 6.
Burton-1384, 7. Kyle Busch-1380, 8. Newman-1363, 9. Biffle-1345, 10.
Kenseth-1326, 11. Martin-1316, 12. Edwards-1271
Dale Earnhardt Jr. continues to struggle. He finished seven laps down in
27th.
Jeremy Mayfield, driver of the No. 41 Toyota, Tony Martin, a licensed
crew member of the No. 34 Sprint Cup Series team and Ben Williams, licensed
crew member of the No. 16 Nationwide Series team, have been suspended
indefinitely from NASCAR for violation of NASCAR's Substance Abuse Policy