Martin Wins - Shootout Style

JOLIET, Ill. (July 11, 2009) -- Body-slamming and bump-drafting were the order of the day -- at 1.5-mile Chicagoland Speedway, no less -- and 50-year-old Mark Martin was the last man standing in a wild LifeLock.com 400.

Pulling away after a double-file restart with two laps left in Saturday night's NASCAR Sprint Cup race, Martin won his series-best fourth race of the season and the 39th of his career. Martin gained two positions to 11th in the standings and will have at least 40 bonus points for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup seven races hence, if he can hold a position in the top 12.

Martin took the checkered flag .415 seconds ahead of Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon. Kasey Kahne ran third, followed by series points leader Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin. Ryan Newman, pole sitter Brian Vickers, Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer and Juan Pablo Montoya completed the top 10.

"That was fun," Martin exulted after climbing from his car. "That's what life's all about right there. These guys (Martin's No. 5 Chevrolet crew) deserved to win. We could have parked the car (Friday) with an hour left in practice. I knew it was awesome.

"But the best car doesn't usually win. The double-file restarts are to mess the best car up so he doesn't win, to make it good for the fans -- and it did -- but luckily we pulled it off anyway."

As the race neared its end, the action intensified. Contact from Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Chevrolet cut the left rear tire of Paul Menard's Ford on Lap 227 of 267, igniting a multicar wreck in the tri-oval that eliminated the cars of Jeff Burton and Scott Speed.

NASCAR called the sixth caution on Lap 246 for debris from David Reutimann's car, which scraped the wall in Turn 2 after a side-by-side battle with Montoya. Gordon took tires under caution on Lap 248, and after a restart on Lap 251 dropped Johnson from the lead and scrambled the running order at the front of the field, Martin pulled away with Gordon chasing.

Oil from Kyle Busch's blown engine brought out the seventh caution on Lap 261, setting up the restart with two laps left, with Martin opting for the outside lane with Gordon beside him to the inside. Martin got an excellent jump on the start and pulled away for the win.

"What an incredible call that (crew chief) Steve Letarte made," said Gordon, who is second in the standings, 175 points behind Stewart. "And the whole pit crew that did a fantastic job getting us off pit road with four tires. Then it was just a battle, maneuvering through traffic, cars slipping and sliding all over the place.

"Mark went a little bit early (on the final restart). I just spun the tires when I tried to get it going. It was still a great finish, one-two for Hendrick."

Johnson, the three-time defending Cup champion, led the field to the restart on Lap 251 only to see his No. 48 Chevrolet roughed up in traffic on the restart. Johnson, Hamlin and Vickers all sustained damage as the cars were dicing for position during the next two laps.

"… There was a lot of body-slamming out there, and guys were bump-drafting down the straightaways," Johnson said. "I didn't think we could do that at a mile-and-a-half track."

Notes: Martin is within one victory of Harry Gant's 1991 record of five wins in a season by a driver 50 or older. … By picking Martin and Jeff Gordon to finish first and second in the LifeLock 400 at Michigan in June and seeing them finish in the same order at Chicagoland, sweepstakes winners Donna and Richard Musgrave of Newcastle, Colo., won a $1-million prize. Gordon passed Kahne for second place on the final lap. … Greg Biffle finished 31st Saturday and fell to 13th in the standings, 10 points behind Matt Kenseth in 12th.

Unofficial Race Results click here

Unofficial Point Standings click here

Race Recap - Video Clip click here

Green Flag Fast Facts
The Race: LifeLock.com 400
The Date: Saturday, July 11
The Time: 9 p.m. AT
The Track: Chicagoland Speedway (1.5-mile tri-oval)
The Distance: 400 miles/267 laps
TV: TNT & TSN, 8:30 p.m. AT
Radio: MRN, Sirius
2008 Polesitter: None (weather)
2008 Winner: Kyle Busch
Pre–Race Day Schedule: (All times local CT) Thursday – Practice, 4-5:30 p.m. Qualifying, 7:40 p.m.; Friday – Practice, 4-4:45 and 5:20-6:20 p.m.
Year-To-Date Results & Point Standings click here

Practice, Qualifying, Starting Lineup & More...

Brian Vickers won the Coors Light Pole Award for the LifeLock.com 400 with a lap of 29.322 seconds, 184.162 mph.

• This is his 10th pole in 191 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.
• This is his fifth pole and ninth top-10 start in 2009.
• Vickers has poles on four configurations of race track: short track, 1.5-mile, 2.0-mile and road course.
• This is his first pole in five races at Chicagoland Speedway.
• Scott Speed (second) posted his fourth top-10 start of 2009 and his first in one races at Chicagoland Speedway. Speed was the fastest qualifying rookie
• This marks the first time that Team Red Bull has claimed both front row starting positions.
• Jimmie Johnson (third) posted his seventh top-10 start at Chicagoland Speedway. It is his 15th in 19 races this season. Scott.
• Drivers that failed to qualify include: Mike Wallace, Dexter Bean andTony Raines.

Complete Starting Lineup click here

*Does not reflect adjustments that may be made prior to the race start because of the cars that need to go to the rear of the field due to engine and/or transmission changes or practice wrecks...

Track Map



Event Preview

• Stewart Sizzles In Summertime...As the temperatures heat up, so does Tony Stewart (No. 14 Office Depot Chevrolet). Not only does Stewart top the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings, he has two wins under his belt and is moving in on Kyle Busch’s (No. 18 M&M’s Toyota) and Mark Martin’s (No. 5 Kellogg’s/CARQUEST Chevrolet) series-best three wins thus far. Seems like a good time to be heading to a track where he has excelled. “It’s a place I like,” Stewart said of Chicagoland Speedway, site of Sunday’s LifeLock.com 400. “This place is really getting racy as far as finally being able to move around and change lines and run anywhere from the bottom to the top. It’s a fun track because of that.” Stewart is tied with Kevin Harvick (No. 29 Pennzoil/Shell Chevrolet) for most wins at the track with two each. His wins came in 2004 and 2007, while Harvick won back-to-back in 2001 and 2002. With a series-high Driver Rating of 105.0 over the next eight events, the highest percentage of laps in the top 15 (75.3) and top average running position (10.3), Stewart seeks to improve his potential Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup seeding. “I don’t watch the stats very much,” he said. “You just take it week to week. Technology in this sport changes so fast. What was good the last time you were here doesn’t mean it’s going to be good the second time around. So you constantly have to work. You’ve got to keep pushing the envelope.” Even though he leads the Race to the Chase – the 10-race stretch prior to the Chase – it’s key for Stewart to gain another 10 bonus points (Chase drivers are seeded according to the number of wins they accrue during the season’s first 26 races.)
• Three Could Be The Magic Number For Montoya...Three just might be Juan Pablo Montoya’s (No. 42 Target Chevrolet) lucky number. This is the third consecutive week the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing driver has secured a top-12 spot in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings. Three years ago at Chicagoland Speedway, the Colombian native announced he was leaving Formula 1 to come to NASCAR. The 2000 Indianapolis 500 winner won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ 2007 Raybestos Rookie of the Year Award, and now in his third full season, Montoya currently is 11th in the standings, only 14 points behind 10th place Matt Kenseth (No. 17 USG Ford) and 21 points ahead of Kasey Kahne (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge) in 12th. With five top-10 finishes in the last seven starts, Montoya is looking to secure a spot in the Chase.
• Race To The Chase Heats Up As Kasey Kahne Rejoins The Battle...Despite a 15th-place finish last Saturday at Daytona International Speedway, Kasey Kahne will head to Chicagoland Speedway inside the top 12, which makes him Chase eligible. But he does have some work to do. Kahne leads 13th-place Mark Martin by only 65 points. “To get caught up in that wreck on the last lap at Daytona and still gain a spot in the standings is pretty cool,” Kahne said. “The competition is so strong. “It’s hard to gain ground when everyone challenging for those final Chase spots is getting strong finishes.” And by strong finishes, he could mean fellow Chase contender Juan Pablo Montoya, who finished ninth at Daytona, and, of course, standings leader Tony Stewart who won last Saturday’s race and heads into Chicago with a 180-point lead over second-place Jeff Gordon (No. 24 DuPont/National Guard Patriot Academy Chevrolet). Even with five former series champions in the current top 12 – Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet), Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge) and Matt Kenseth – Kahne is optimistic. “There is still a lot of racing left before the Chase starts,” he said.

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