Catchfence

(Right to left) Mark Martin, driver of the No. 5 CARQUEST/Kellogg's Chevrolet, and crew chief Alan Gustafson celebrate after claiming their fifth win of the season NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sylvania 300 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday in Loudon, N.H. (Photo Credit: Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Mark Martin (who started 14th) finally won a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway after 26 attempts, as he held off Denny Hamlin by .0159 seconds to win the Sylvania 300.

New Hampshire isn’t one of Martin’s favorite tracks, and it has always been a challenge for him, but Sunday afternoon, that all changed as he gave his crew chief, Alan Gustafson all the credit.

“Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) won that race — that’s all I got to say.  He took a driver that can’t drive Loudon and put a set-up in it that we could run along reasonable,” said Martin in victory lane. “Just like I said before the race, if they can stumble around and get me in the front then I might be able to stay there with it.  That’s what we did, but it was sure tough.”

This was Martin’s 40th series career win and his fifth of the 2009 season. He now has a 35 point lead over second place Jimmie Johnson, who finished fourth, but it’s just the first race of ten left to determine the champion.

“Gosh, it’s one race,” stated Martin on being the points leader. “We won though. How about that?”

Juan Pablo Montoya, who led the most laps, came in third and was followed by Jimmie Johnson fourth, Kyle Busch fifth, Kurt Busch sixth, Ryan Newman seventh, Elliott Sadler eighth, Greg Biffle ninth and Clint Bowyer rounds out the top-10 finishers.

Montoya was looking to make a clean sweep at New Hampshire, as he was the fastest in all the practices and on the pole for the race, but at the end it was all Mark Martin and that was cool with Montoya.

“Yeah, in practice we were probably the fastest car and we led the most laps today,” said the No. 42 Target Chevy driver. ” He (Mark Martin) probably did a trick that we weren’t expecting, but it’s okay, he (Martin) deserved to win.  It’s racing and I’m cool with it.”

Race Notes:

Average Speed: 100.760 MPH
Time of Race: 03 Hrs, 09 Mins, 04 Secs.
Margin of Victory: 0.159 Seconds
Lead Changes: 20 among 10 drivers
Cautions: 11 for 48 laps
Attendance: 101,000

Unofficial Top-12 in the Points Standings: 1. Mark Martin – 5230 2. Jimmie Johnson – 5195 (-35 Behind Leader) 3. Denny Hamlin – 5195 (-35) 4. Juan Pablo Montoya – 5175 (-55) 5. Kurt Busch – 5165 (-65) 6. Tony Stewart – 5156 (-74) 7. Ryan Newman – 5151 (-79) 8. Brian Vickers – 5140 (-90) 9. Greg Biffle – 5138 (-92) 10. Jeff Gordon – 5128 (-102) 11. Carl Edwards – 5117 (-113) 12. Kasey Kahne – 5069 (-161).

2009 Sylvania 300 NSCS at NHMS Race Results