| | Results
ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- Maybe NASCAR should handicap Mark Martin and make him start at the rear of the field in Busch Series races at North Carolina Speedway.
Martin started on the pole and dominated Friday's Alltel 200 to win a Busch Series race at the 1.017-mile oval for the 11th time in his career. It was the 41st Busch Series victory of Martin's career -- the all-time victory leader in the division.
|  | | Mark Martin was back in Victory Lane at Rockingham. |
Martin started on the pole and took the lead on lap 63. He stayed in front for the remainder of the 197-lap race. When Martin was preparing to make his green flag pit stop on lap 87, a wheel came off David Green's car after he made his pit stop to bring out the caution flag. Rather than stopping, Martin drove through the pits. After the caution flag came out, Martin was able to make his pit stop without losing his position.
Martin encountered lapped traffic at the end of the race, but
was able to easily maneuver through the backmarkers to maintain
his distance.
With three laps remaining, Tim Fedewa crashed into the Turn 3 wall, but was able to keep the car out of the racing groove. NASCAR decided not to wave the caution flag. After the field passed Fedewa, whose car dropped to the apron in the first turn, Martin drove to the win.
The NASCAR Winston Cup regular finished .733 seconds ahead of
Jeff Green. Ron Hornaday was third followed by Jason Keller and
Jeff Burton.
Martin maintained tire conservation throughout the race and that
helped him easily win the race.
"We have a great car, I drive a great car, and that really makes the difference," Martin said. "We went off of last year's notes. It just seems like it always works for us here. The Winston Cup car is a little more of a challenge for me, but the Busch car suits my style. I love this race track and we've had a lot of
success, but the team is what got me here."
Green's second-place finish was the best in class for the rest
of the NASCAR Busch Series competitors.
"He is just awesome here and he is my hero," Green said. "If I
can run second in every race to him, that is fine with me. I
know that car can run in the top five if the driver doesn't mess
up. We can do this every week if we get the right opportunity."
Hornaday, a two-time defending NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
champion, scored the highest finish of his Busch Series career.
Hornaday is a rookie this year and had difficulty finding the
race track earlier in the week.
"I found this race track, I just had to follow all the signs,"
Hornaday said. "Just before this race, Dale Earnhardt told me to
run this track just like Bakersfield. That's what I did. These
guys have an awesome package on this car and that helped me
today."
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AUDIO/VIDEO
 Mark Martin says his team didn't change a thing.
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