Mark Martin's last lap around the Nextel Cup circuit this season is hardly a celebration of a fading career. At 46, Martin is as competitive as any driver in NASCAR right now. And he will leave as a champion.
Martin, who announced this would be his final year after 19 full seasons in Cup competition, won the Nextel All-Star Challenge on Saturday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway. It was a nonpoints race, but it rewarded Martin with a US$1 million check for the victory.
Martin confirmed after the race that he was not reconsidering his decision to leave, but he vowed that he would defend his title.
"I told 'em, man, if they give me a ride, I'll come back next year," Martin said in victory lane. It was his second All-Star victory; he won in 1998, as well.
The only challenger in the 20-lap final segment of Saturday's event was Elliott Sadler, but he could not catch Martin in the end. Sadler, handicapped after taking two tires on the final pit stop to Martin's four tires, finished second. Brian Vickers was third.
Martin passed Sadler with 19 laps to go.
"If we can get one more race out of him in 2006," the car owner Jack Roush said, "that would be better than nothing."
The All-Star Challenge is run in three parts, with a 40-lap segment, followed by a 30-lap run and a 20-lap sprint to finish. Ryan Newman won the 30-lap second segment, but he found himself in fourth after pit-road stops heading into the last segment. Newman was stuck in the pack and crashed.
Martin won the opening 40-lap segment, but he found himself starting in sixth place for the 30-lap second segment. That was because of NASCAR's odd inversion of the field, an annual twist thrown into the event. A random selection called for the top six cars to be inverted for the second segment, putting Brian Vickers in the lead.
Martin was fourth after the second leg. Pit stops moved him up to third on the restart for the sprint, behind Sadler and Jeff Gordon.
The opening segment featured a nine-car wreck that forced a red-flag stop as debris was strewn over the front stretch. Tony Stewart bumped Joe Nemechek from behind to set off the crash, with Nemechek taking out Kevin Harvick and the rest collected behind including Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne, Terry Labonte, Michael Waltrip, Carl Edwards and Martin Truex. Earnhardt and Edwards were the only ones to return; seven were finished for the night.
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