Mark Martin (5) Fights Off the Horde And Claims the Honors at the Magic Mile.
A caution condition with eight laps remaining prompts one final restart that leaves both race leader Mark Martin (5 Hendrick Chevrolet) and hard charger Juan Pablo Montoya (42 Target Ganassi Dodge) in a tough scuffle for the win over the closing laps. Martin uses a brilliant outside chop move to slip past Montoya on the Turn 4 exit with two laps remaining, yet the veteran raises some brows among observers after clearly short braking the Colombian in the next curve to forestall the latter’s final lap charge. A crash moments later hands Martin a heady victory.
Mark Martin (5) Feathers the Pedal and Coasts Home on Fumes For a Dramatic Last Lap Win at Michigan.
As the wide-track Michigan contest winds down to the final laps, all of the lead drivers take on fuel during a caution with forty-seven laps remaining, two or three circuits longer than the calculated fuel window. Faced with the prospect of running dry before the finish, Greg Biffle (16 Roush Fenway Ford) goes for broke and dashes for the ticket window as fellow contenders Mark Martin (5 Hendrick Chevrolet) and Jeff Gordon (24) clearly drop off the pace in order to save themselves a few precious laps. Jimmie Johnson (48) makes an attempt to conserve fuel, yet Biffle’s widening lead proves too much to suffer and he burns off some fuel in order to join Biffle in close battle. Both cars endure for forty-six laps, yet on the final lap, Johnson hiccups on the backstretch as his cell runs dry, and a frantic Biffle curses in horror as his fuel pressure falls to zero in the middle of Turn 3. The patient Martin, who chose the safe strategy, finally catches the coasting Biffle in Turn 4 and crosses the line for the victory just moments before his own car gasps and loses the fire. Johnson shrugs off his poor judgment in regards to his futile sprint to the flag, while a devastated Biffle simply cannot swallow the notion that his defeat all reduces to a just a few missing sips of petrol.
