Martin Extends Lead By 35 Points In The Chase After Holding Off Montoya

Sports Betting News - September 21st, 2009 - Written by Scott

Mark Martin held off Juan Pablo Montoya on a three lap sprint to the finish on Sunday and went on to win his Sprint Cup Series-best fifth race this year at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway.  The win extended his lead in the Chase by 35 points.  Montoya, who was making his 100th career start, won the pole and led every practice session leading up to Sunday's race.  He did, however, accuse the 50 year old driver of holding him up during the second lap of the three lap finish, but Martin insists that he was clearly within bounds.

"I fought for that race," Martin said. "But I wouldn't do anything. I still won't."

Montoya moved from fifth to second on a restart with 13 laps to go. Martin and Montoya were battling hard during the final three laps after a another restart.  During the first lap of the final three, they were racing side by side. On the final final lap, they were running bumper to bumper through the first turn.  Martin then slowed just a bit as they headed for turn 2, which caused Montoya to roll out of gas and give Martin a good lead. 

"I didn't expect that," Montoya said. "I was expecting him to run pretty hard. He just ran very defensively, and I just got caught by surprise. I think if I would have would have been prepared I probably would have jumped to the outside. You've got to learn from it. I haven't fought for enough wins."

The win for Martin was aided by crew chief Alan Gustafson.  Gustafson used a mid-race pit strategy to get Martin in contention.  He decided not to bring Martin in during a pit stop under yellow that was outside of their fuel window because he knew they would get another opportunity to stop later in the race. 

AJ Allmendinger spun on the frontstretch while the leaders were beginning their final lap and caused the race to end under caution.  NASCAR officials were wanting the race play itself out and were slow to throw out the yellow flag.  It could have gotten disastrous as Martin, Montoya, and second place finisher Denny Hamlin closed in quickly on Allmender's vehicle, but they split the his race car and Hamlin got in front of Montoya to get the runner-up spot behind Martin.  Jimmie Johnson finished fourth in the race and was followed by Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch who finished fifth and sixth.

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