Mark Martin wins at New Hampshire

At New Hampshire Mark Martin once again climbed out of rocking chair and won for the 5th time of the season. This was also Martin’s first career win at New Hampshire.

Martin’s key to the victory was track position. In this race for whatever reason many drivers didn’t try anything out of the norm and always pitted for 4 new Goodyear tires  every time a caution came out. At one strategic point in the race Martin decided to stay out under caution and gain track position.

Martin’s only problem under this scenario was that he needed to do his final pit stop before everyone else. When the final round of pit stops happened under the green flag Martin was the first driver to pit. This move actually turned into his advantage because Martin was then able to run faster laps then all of the other drivers on the track with his new rubber. At the end of the race Martin held of the hard charging  Montoya and retained his points lead in the Chase.

The only notable Chase driver to have problems at New Hampshire was Kasey Kahne. The 9 car had an engine detonate and this relegated him to a 38th place finish.

Here is how the Chase drivers finished:

1. Mark Martin

2. Denny Hamlin***

3. Juan Pablo Montoya

4. Jimmie Johnson

6. Kurt Busch

7. Ryan Newman

9. Greg Biffle

11. Brian Vickers

14. Tony Stewart

15. Jeff Gordon

17. Carl Edwards

38. Kasey Kahne

*** The 11 car was found to be to short after the race concluded. Expect a penalty to be levied against the team on Tuesday.