Backstretch Motorsports

Record cautions and tricky track surface leaves many with bruised egos and torn-up race cars.

LAS VEGAS (March 1, 2008) — Before Mark Martin allowed himself to celebrate his victory in the NASCAR Nationwide Series Sam’s Town 300 Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he felt compelled to offer his condolences to a former teammate and a current one.

Martin pulled away from Greg Biffle in a green-white-checkered-flag restart that took the race two laps beyond its posted distance of 200 laps and extended his series record to 48 career victories, but the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet was subdued after triggering a wreck on Lap 195 that eliminated Carl Edwards, his former Roush Fenway Racing teammate, and Brad Keselowski, his teammate-for-a-day at JR Motorsports.

As Edwards and Keselowski raced side by side toward the stripe on Lap 195, a tap from Martin turned Edwards’ Ford into Keselowski’s Chevrolet, sending both cars spinning into the frontstretch wall.

That brought out the record 13th caution of the race and sent the event into overtime. After the final restart, Martin beat Biffle to the finish line by .586 seconds. Clint Bowyer ran third, followed by Kevin Harvick and David Stremme. Dario Franchitti, Mike Wallace, Patrick Carpentier, Brad Coleman and David Ragan completed the top 10.

In a war of attrition, it paid to be running at the end, as only 14 cars finished on the lead lap.

“I’ve got to apologize before we do any celebrating,” Martin said in victory lane. “I hate for that to happen. I didn’t intend for it to turn out that way. But I couldn’t stop it, once it started. I feel real bad for Brad, because he was so close to getting his first victory.”

Edwards was tantalizingly close to the victory, too, before Martin tapped his bumper and inherited the lead on Lap 196.

“I’d like to be mad at Mark, but he’s a heck of a guy, and I’m sure he just made a mistake,” Edwards said.

Rick Hendrick, who partners with Dale Earnhardt Jr.-owned JR Motorsports in the Nationwide Series, watched as one of his cars started the wreck that took out the other.

“That’s your worst nightmare when you’ve got multiple cars on the track,” Hendrick said. “It’s bound to happen sooner or later.”

The fireworks at the end came long after several of the best cars in the field fell by the wayside.

For the third straight week, Tony Stewart had the dominant car, but unlike the previous two Nationwide races — at Daytona and Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. — Stewart didn’t win at Las Vegas. On Lap 138, his car jumped to the right after contact with David Reutimann’s Toyota, and the two Camrys spun in tandem into the Turn 3 wall.

“We got in a wreck.” said a disappointed Stewart. “I was on the bottom and I couldn’t go down any further than where we were — there was not much I could do. I talked to my crew guys — sitting here trying to take a totaled race car and to just get it where we can put it in the trailer right now. Us and Jeff Burton and Mark Martin had the three fastest cars there — and our teammate Kyle Busch, obviously — and there’s three of the four (fastest cars) in the garage area.”

Kyle Busch started from the back of the field after a wreck on his second qualifying lap forced him to go to a backup car. Busch made a ferocious charge to the front and took the lead after a quick pit stop on Lap 63. He was running second to Stewart on Lap 103 when a blown right front tire sent his No. 18 Toyota into the outside wall at the end of the backstretch.

“I didn’t see anything. I didn’t feel anything that I ran over,” said Busch, who finished 31st in the 43-car field. “It’s just bad luck today with the Interstate Batteries car. It’s unfortunate for all these guys. We’ll just try to forget about today and have a better day tomorrow.”

That ended Busch’s bid to become the first driver to lead all three of NASCAR’s top touring series at the same time; he retired from the race but Busch will start from the pole in Sunday’s UAW-Dodge 400 Sprint Cup event.

Busch and Harvick leave Las Vegas tied for second in the Nationwide points standings, 42 behind Stewart, who finished 27th.

Despite losing a lap for an unscheduled pit stop to replace a cut tire, Jeff Burton worked his way back to the lead lap and was overtaking Martin for the top spot on Lap 158 when the engine in his No. 29 Chevrolet expired.

NASCAR Race Number 3
Unofficial Race Results for the Sam’s Town “300″ - Saturday, March 1, 2008
Las Vegas Motor Speedway - Las Vegas, NV - 1.5 Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 202 Laps - 303 Miles - Purse: $1,649,814

Leader
Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Pts Bns Total Award Status Times Laps
1 17 5 Mark Martin Delphi Chevrolet 202 195 10 $94,045 Running 3 81
2 23 16 Greg Biffle citifinancial Ford 202 170 $67,450 Running
3 8 2 Clint Bowyer Camping World Chevrolet 202 165 $50,500 Running
4 10 33 Kevin Harvick Camping World Chevrolet 202 160 $38,575 Running
5 21 64 David Stremme Atreus Homes & Communities 202 155 $34,500 Running
6 6 40 Dario Franchitti # Fastenal Dodge 202 150 $40,468 Running
7 18 7 Mike Wallace GEICO Toyota 202 151 5 $35,918 Running 1 1
8 29 9 Patrick Carpentier Wisk Dodge 202 142 $28,400 Running
9 22 27 Brad Coleman Scott/Smith’s Ford 202 138 $33,778 Running
10 27 6 David Ragan Discount Tire Ford 202 139 5 $28,675 Running 1 3
11 26 30 Stanton Barrett NOS Energy Drink Chevrolet 202 130 $33,568 Running
12 14 25 Bobby Hamilton Jr. Curly’s Ford 202 127 $32,118 Running
13 36 36 Kenny Wallace Shark Energy Drink Dodge 202 124 $25,500 Running
14 9 60 Carl Edwards Save a lot Ford 202 126 5 $25,590 Running 1 1
15 16 47 Kelly Bires Clorox Ford 201 118 $33,548 Running
16 28 1 Johnny Sauter Miccosukee Resorts Chevrolet 201 115 $24,420 Running
17 33 61 Kevin Lepage Ford 201 112 $23,935 Running
18 11 11 Jason Keller America’s Incredible Pizza Co. 200 109 $30,268 Running
19 42 4 Robert Richardson Jr. JVC Chevrolet 198 111 5 $30,158 Running 1 1
20 43 83 Johnny Borneman III Borneman Plastering Ford 198 103 $23,580 Running
21 40 05 Brett Rowe CertainTeed/31-W Insulation 197 100 $30,938 Running
22 30 24 Eric McClure Hefty Brand Chevrolet 197 97 $29,803 Running
23 15 88 Brad Keselowski NAVY Chevrolet 195 99 5 $32,468 Accident 2 12
24 2 29 Jeff Burton Holiday Inn Chevrolet 157 96 5 $23,090 Engine 1 6
25 5 99 David Reutimann Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota 152 88 $29,598 Running
26 13 22 Mike Bliss Supercuts Dodge 141 85 $29,313 Running
27 4 20 Tony Stewart Old Spice Toyota 137 87 5 $22,710 Accident 2 61
28 7 59 Marcos Ambrose Kingsford Hickory Charcoal Ford 131 79 $29,033 Engine
29 34 81 D.J. Kennington NPPL/MC2 Energy Drink Dodge 122 76 $28,883 Running
30 12 66 Steve Wallace Atreus Homes & Communities 115 73 $29,023 Running
31 3 18 Kyle Busch Interstate Batteries Toyota 102 75 5 $22,395 Accident 1 18
32 37 52 Derrike Cope Chevrolet 90 67 $28,553 Transmission
33 31 01 Kertus Davis RACEGIRL Chevrolet 81 64 $28,443 Transmission
34 19 21 Bobby Labonte Chevrolet 72 66 5 $21,865 Accident 1 10
35 24 37 Brad Baker Ford 65 58 $28,223 Accident
36 1 32 Brian Vickers Dollar General Toyota 61 60 5 $31,188 Accident 1 8
37 32 90 Todd Bodine Chevrolet 45 52 $21,685 Overheating
38 35 91 Larry Gunselman Chevrolet 45 49 $21,650 Vibration
39 20 38 Jason Leffler Great Clips Toyota 42 46 $28,083 Accident
40 38 89 Morgan Shepherd Victory In Jesus Racing Dodge 37 43 $28,048 Handling
41 41 0 Dwayne Leik Lori Morgan, LLC Chevrolet 36 40 $27,988 Brakes
42 39 28 Brian Keselowski # Chevrolet 30 37 $27,943 Accident
43 25 41 Kyle Krisiloff Energizer Dodge 9 34 $27,902 Accident
Race Comments: Before an estimated crowd of 120,000 - Mark Martin won the Sam’s Town 300 - his 48th NASCAR Nationwide Series victory. Prior to the green flag the following driver(s) dropped to the rear for the reason(s) indicated: #18 Busch (backup).
Failed to Qualify: (2) 12 Sam Hornish Jr., 84 Mike Harmon.
Time of Race: 02 Hrs, 48 Mins, 09 Secs. Average Speed: 108.118 MPH Margin of Victory: .586 Seconds
Caution Flags: 13 for 55 laps: Laps: 3-6 (#37,52,81 accident turn 4); 11-16 (#38,41 accident frontstretch); 25-28 (Debris); 32-35 (#28 accident turn 1); 46-49 (#22,66 accident turn 4); 63-66 (Debris); 74-78 (#21 accident turn 4); 104-108 (#18 accident turn 3); 126-129 (#37 accident turn 2); 132-134 (#59 accident turn 2); 139-142 (#20,99 accident turn 4); 187-190 (Debris); 197-200 (#60,88 accident frontstretch).
Lead Changes: 15 among 11 drivers: B. Vickers (Pole); J. Burton 1-6; T. Stewart 7-24; M. Wallace 25; D. Ragan 26-28; B. Vickers 29-36; M. Martin 37-53; B. Labonte 54-63; R. Richardson Jr. 64; K. Busch 65-82; T. Stewart 83-125; B. Keselowski 126-129; M. Martin 130-186; C. Edwards 187; B. Keselowski 188-195; M. Martin 196-202.
Top 10 Driver Points: (1) T. Stewart 472;(2) Ky. Busch 430;(3) K. Harvick 430;(4) C. Edwards 415;(5) D. Ragan 409;(6) C. Bowyer 396;(7) D. Reutimann 369;(8) M. Wallace 357;(9) D. Franchitti # 344;(10) B. Coleman 329.
Featherlite “Most Improved Driver” : Kelly Bires, #47 (15 Places) Raybestos “Rookie of the Race” : Dario Franchitti, #40
Sunoco Diamond Performance : Mark Martin, #5 WIX Filters “Lap Leader” : Brad Keselowski, #88 (12 Laps)
Coors Light Pole Award : Brian Vickers, #32 (181.708 mph) Mahler Clevite : Dario Franchitti, #40
Next Race: Mar. 8, 2008 - Atlanta Motor Speedway