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| | Sunday, September 19 | |||||
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LAS VEGAS -- Mark Martin gave the betting folks a lesson in probability by winning the NASCAR Busch Series Sam's Town 300 in dominant fashion Saturday.
Bookmakers at some of the casinos had Martin listed at 10-1 to
win the 300-mile race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. They
apparently overlooked the fact that Martin is the all-time
series victory leader with 35 wins.
In front of a crowd estimated at 70,000, Martin started on the
pole and led 150 of the 200 laps. He piloted his Ford Taurus to
the checkered flag 0.687 seconds ahead of the Chevrolet Monte
Carlo of Joe Nemechek.
"It was awesome, this team has done a great job with this car
and it was really the car to beat here this weekend," Martin
said. "This car was really hooked up today. We started off a
little too loose then we tightened the car up too much so on the
last car, we set the car up in-between.
"I love this race track and this race team. The car was fast and
worked perfect all week. It was good in qualifying and good in
the race."
It was Martin's second win at this track. He also captured last
year's inaugural NASCAR Las Vegas 400.
Winston Cup drivers swept the top five positions. Jeff Burton --
Martin's teammate at Roush Racing -- was third, followed by Jeff
Gordon and defending champion Jimmy Spencer.
The highest finish for a Busch driver was Dale Earnhardt Jr. at
sixth. After Burton's Ford, the next 12 cars were Chevrolets.
In the final lap, Nemechek was closing on Martin but the leader
was able to maintain his advantage.
"I told the guys, 'I know he's coming, let me get serious here
and buckle down,' " Martin said. "Nemechek was strong today and
he was right there at the end."
Gordon, the two-time defending Winston Cup champion, ran a Busch
race for the first time since 1992.
"The (Chevrolet) car was tight," Gordon said. "It took a lot to
put this thing together and to come out of here with a top-five
finish was pretty good. Ray Evernham and my wife Brooke put
together a heck of a team. It was a good day for us.
"You have to put yourself in a different mindset because the
Busch cars are so much tighter than the Winston Cup cars."
| AUDIO/VIDEO  Geoffrey Bodine is sent spinning after running into Wally Dallenbach.avi: 1011 k Joe Nemecheck takes the checkered flag.avi: 782 k | |||||