| | Results
HAMPTON, Ga. -- This time nobody got in Mark Martin's way.
After losing last week in Las Vegas when a lapped car spun in
front of his Ford late in the Busch Series race, Martin overwhelmed
the field Saturday night to win the Aaron's 312 at Atlanta Motor
Speedway.
A rain interruption of almost six hours couldn't cool him off,
nor could some late-race engine problems as Martin, driving his
last season in the Busch Series, came up with his second win in
three starts this year.
"I guess I'd rather be lucky than good," Martin said. "It was
a weird race, having that rain come and finishing under the lights
with the engine making a bunch of noise."
Although he led five times for 165 of the 203 laps on the
1.54-mile oval, including the last 34, Martin insisted he was
fortunate to raise his Busch Series record for career victories to
42.
"The engine was rattling and vibrating and it acted like the
battery was getting low," Martin said. "It still ran great, but
it didn't quite have what it had before off the corners."
Roush Racing teammate Matt Kenseth, who wound up a distant
second, actually passed Martin on the track after the race resumed.
But Kenseth, who also is competing with Martin in the Winston Cup
series, ran out of gas just moments before his final scheduled pit
stop, which took a seemingly interminable 27 seconds and sealed his
fate.
"Our car was working good and then Matt ran us down," Martin
said. "If he hadn't run out of gas, I don't think we could have
beat him."
The victory was the fourth in a row for the Roush team in the
Busch Series, with Kenseth winning the opener in Daytona and Jeff
Burton taking advantage of Martin's problems in Las Vegas.
Martin started fourth in the 43-car field, but moved into the
lead for the first time on the 11th lap and was dominant until rain
forced a red flag on lap 92, 10 laps short of an official race.
With lights available and clearing conditions forecast, NASCAR
waited 5 hours, 54 minutes before getting the track dry enough to
restart the race.
After 10 laps running under the caution flag, the green came
back out on lap 102 and Martin took off again, leading until
Kenseth tracked him down on lap 147.
"We've never run out of gas like that before," said Kenseth,
who lost the lead for good on lap 152. "And I ran it out on the
backstretch, which made it a long way around to the pits."
Kenseth, with a very strong car, was able to get back to second
place within 20 laps, but he still wound up 14.147 seconds -- a full
straightaway -- behind Martin. The winner averaged 126.924 mph in
the race also slowed by several accidents, including an eight-car
melee just before the rain delay.
Kevin Lepage wound up third, followed by Todd Bodine and Kevin
Grubb, the last driver on the lead lap. David Green finish sixth,
one lap behind.
| |
 |
