NASCAR Sprint Cup - Mark Martin Puts an End to His Bad Run

By Stephen Lars

After four years of not enjoying a victory, the 50-year-old veteran driver Mark Martin, went back to the podium this past weekend at Phoenix, when he won in the eighth race of the Sprint Cup, where with an absolute dominance he managed to impose and control the pace of the competition. This was without a doubt a great rebirth for the experienced Martin, who after his previous victory had expressed several times that he wanted to retire, which definitely would have made him lose the great opportunity that was presented to him at the Phoenix International Raceway.

The competition began in the middle of a sunny afternoon with high temperatures that kept the track and the stands very heated. Since the beginning Mark Martin, who also had the pole position, and Tony Stewart figured as the favorites to win the race. The race started with an extremely hot track. Martin immediately accelerated deeply and placed himself ahead of their pursuers, leading with authority and very focused.

This was a tough competition due to Phoenix’s changing weather conditions; at first the drivers had to use tires for heated conditions because of the high temperatures in the track, later on the temperatures started to drop considerably as the night time was getting closer and in the middle of the race all the cars needed to go to the pits to change their tires. This would likely become a problem, but most of the teams were able to deal with the situation without any complications, indicating that each of them were well prepared to face the scheduled 312 laps, from which 157 laps were led by Martin.

Just in one of the most exciting moments of the race when Martin was in front, a little accident of his teammate, Dale Earnhardt Jr., caused the veteran to enter the pits area, thus losing the difference of four seconds he had ahead of Tony Stewart, his closest pursuer at that moment. When exiting the pits, the driver of the Hendrick Motorsports team exceeded the maximum speed permitted with the purpose of overtaking Kyle Busch which caused him a penalty and had to place himself in the second position behind Ryan Newman, who at that time placed himself in the top position.

Mark Martin kept himself stable while driving behind Newman, until he managed to get ahead and placed himself again in the first place when there were only six laps left, a position that he kept until the end of the race, becoming the well deserved master of the checkered flag, going up to the top of the podium with Stewart in second place and Kurt Busch in the third place after putting up a fight during the race.

After the end of the event, Martin entered the pits with completely satisfied and with a happiness that only could be compared with that of the crowd that witnessed the race, which were pleased to see a driver that is considered a legend being able to crown himself as the champion of this race.

About the Author
Stephen Lars has been a prominent writer on daily NASCAR races; sports news and the sports book industry for many exceptional sport web sites. You may reprint this article in its full content, please note no modifications to it are accepted.