| | Results
LAS VEGAS -- Mark Martin was well on his way to yet another
Busch Series victory Saturday until Jack Sprague got in the way.
Three laps from the end of the Las Vegas 300, with Martin slicing through heavy traffic and holding off Roush Racing teammate Jeff Burton by about six car-lengths, the leader suddenly found himself confronted by Sprague's spinning car.
|  | | Mark Martin, rear, gets caught behind Jack Sprague as Sprague spins out on the 198th lap. Martin had led for
more than 50 laps.
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Martin braked his Ford hard to avoid a crash and Burton's Taurus
wheeled past and into the lead.
Sprague hit the wall and the race finished under the yellow
flag, with the bemused Martin trailing Burton across the line.
"It's kind of hard to get beat at the end like that," said
Martin, the career Busch Series victory leader with 41, including
last Saturday's race in Rockingham, N.C.
"I'm sure Jeff Burton had it planned that way," he joked.
Burton picked up his 11th Busch Series victory, but his first
since the Rockingham race in February 1999.
"I didn't see any contact or anything," Burton said. "I don't
know what happened. I just saw one car start to lose it just a
little bit and I turned left real hard.
"Mark was up high and all he could do was slow down. I never
had to slow down."
The near-miss with Sprague spoiled a performance in which Martin
overcame losing a lap when he had to make an extra pit stop under
the green flag after going onto the track with a gas can sticking
out of the tank on his Taurus.
"It's just a great car," said Martin, who has won five of
seven races in which he has driven that Ford. "It's my favorite
car in the stable and being this is going to be my last year I'm
going to run this (Busch) series, we wanted to go out and try to
win every race."
Martin, like Burton, a regular in the Winston Cup series,
skipped the Busch opener in Daytona and will run only 14 of the 32
races this season.
Joe Nemechek, who was more than a straightaway behind when
Sprague spun, finished third, followed by Todd Bodine and Daytona
winner Matt Kenseth, another member of the Roush team.
Nemechek, driving a Chevrolet, said, "We had something for
Martin and Burton early, but I thought they were just playing with
us and, sure enough, they were.
"The car was driving perfect and they just drove off and left
me."
Besides winning all three Busch races this season, Jack Roush's
cars have a five-race winning string on the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor
Speedway oval.
Martin started it when he won the inaugural Winston Cup race in
1998 and it continued last year with wins by Martin in the Busch
race, Burton in the Winston Cup event and Greg Biffle in the
Craftsman Truck Series race.
Burton averaged 135.118 mph in the race slowed by three cautions
for 17 of the 200 laps. The winner earned $90,350 from the $1.1
million total purse.
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AUDIO/VIDEO
 This spin-out by Jack Sprague gives Jeff Burton a Busch win.
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RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
 Jeff Burton talks about his good luck in Las Vegas.
wav: 228 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Martin Martin is disappointed with how he lost Saturday.
wav: 144 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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