Mark Martin
Saturday night was definitely a happy birthday for car owner Rick Hendrick. After his cars led for a combined 253 laps of the 267-lap LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, two of his drivers, Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon, gave the boss a one-two finish.
Martin claimed the win to take his fourth win of the year, the most wins for any driver so far in 2009. Gordon took the checkers right behind Martin to make it a one-two finish for Hendrick Motorsports.
“We had our struggles,” Gordon said, referring to the difficulty of making his way back toward the front after contact with Carl Edwards early on and also to spinning his tires on the last restart, allowing Martin to pull away for the win.
With the win, Martin moved back into the top-12, but just barely. Despite being the win leader, Martin occupies the 11th-position, only one point ahead of 12th and 11 points ahead of 13th.
The Martin-Gordon one-two also meant a $1 million bonus for the organization, and it also made a lucky fan $1 million richer. Race title sponsor, LifeLock, decided to put up the team bonus and fan prize if Martin and Gordon pulled off first and second-place finishes, because the two Hendrick drivers finished first and second and a previous LifeLock-sponsored race at Michigan International Speedway last month.
“It’s really, really special to make a fan a millionaire,” Martin said.
Kasey Kahne finished third, and Tony Stewart was fourth. That fourth-place finish didn’t come easily for Stewart, either.
“I had to come from the back twice,” he said.
Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-five for his fourth top-five finish in the last five races.
Double-file restarts produced a lot of drama, especially in the late going. Several drivers blamed the double-file restarts for their race misfortunes, especially Jeff Burton, who finished 37th after an on-track incident with Paul Menard.
“Those restarts at the end made it difficult,” Martin said.
According to Ryan Newman, who finished sixth, sometimes double file restarts are to your advantage, and sometimes they’re to your disadvantage. Newman said he believed that in the end, it all evens out.
“It's not for us,” Gordon said of the implementation of double-file restarts. “It's for the people in the grandstands and the people at home. That's what it's for.”
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