It seemed a risky move. Crew chief Alan Gustafson employed pit strategy to gain track position in the Sylvania 300.
The "5" team would have to hope for a caution before they would have to pit Martin under green. They didn’t get it. Fortunately the crew performed a flawless stop and the "Flying Wrinkle" was able to get back out quickly and get back on the lead lap ahead of leader Denny Hamlin.
Now Martin and fellow front-runner Kurt Busch- who employed the same strategy- would have to hope it would stay "green" to force the rest of the field to pit and get back in sequence. They did get that.
The victory was still not hand. Not only was the "Blue Deuce" 
stout on Sunday, Denny Hamlin, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jimmie Johnson, and in stretches- Dale Earnhardt Jr. were all threats to win the race.
What’s more- a rash of chaos would bring out the cautions. Debris would bring out the 8th "yellow" of the day with 25 to go. Fortunately for Martin, he got a good re-start. A 9th caution came out when contact from David Reutimann ended Dale Jr’s day. Then, just mere moments after the race re-started, A.J. Allmendinger wrecks to bring out yet another caution. One couldn’t help but think about a race a couple of weeks back where Martin watched his hopes for victory fade as one caution after another opened the door for another winner.
On the final restart, Juan Pablo Montoya says he was caught off guard. "I thought I had him," said the first foreign-born driver to make the Chase. "He cleared me coming out of 4, and then when he went to 1 and 2 he just stopped on the bottom. It’s okay. I didn’t expect that. I was expecting him to run pretty hard. He just ran very defensively, and I just got caught by surprise."
Martin kept Montoya pinned down low, Denny Hamlin moved into second, and a late, and I mean very late caution came out, freezing the field- and Mark Martin won the race at a track he felt was his Achilles’ heel among chase tracks. Hamlin finished second, followed by Montoya, Johnson and Kyle Busch in the top five. It gives Martin 40 wins in Cup competition, his fifth of 2009 and a 35 point lead over teammate Jimmie Johnson.
It was a heartbreaking day for Kasey Kahne. A blown engine ended his day after 66 laps, putting him 38th on the day and 12th in the points. Greg Biffle initially seemed headed for a similarly disappointing day, but he scrapped out a 9th place finish.Though they started well, Tony Stewart’s day was waylaid by an axle cap and though Jeff Gordon looked good early, he too finished outside the top ten.
Kyle Busch wasn’t the only non-Chaser to finish the day well. Elliott Sadler took 8th place, while Clint Bowyer was 10th.
Four times Mark Martin has finished as the season’s runner- up. With some of the luck he’s had, he’s been referred to as the "NASCAR’s Charlie Brown" by writer Tom Bowles. The win at New Hampshire, Martin’s first in his long career there, by no means seals a championship run, but he heads into what he says are his stronger tracks with a head of steam.
Martin was effusive in praise of his team. No doubt, after the blown fuel call at the second Michigan race, it was a day of redemption for the crew chief who grew up idolizing the driver he now works with.
PHOTO CREDITS- Martin celebration by Geoff Burke, Martin’s pit crew by Jason Smith, Kahne’s crew by Todd Warshaw. Courtesy of Getty Images for NASCAR.
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I have been a Martin fan since his ASA days and have lived through all the victory and the disappointment. I’ve been a Raiders fan since the ’70s, so I’m used to it.