Mark Martin – Race Recap Food City 500 Bristol Motor Speedway March 26, 2006 Started 4th – Finished 6th MARTIN SCORES SIXTH-PLACE FINISH AT BRISTOL Martin earns first top-10 at Bristol since 2000 to move within 32 points of Nextel Cup points lead “The AAA crew was on the spot today…the last adjustment to the car made it the best it was all day, and that’s the right time to be good.” - Mark Martin after Sunday’s sixth-place finish at Bristol BRISTOL, TENN. – On a cold, snowy day at Bristol Motor Speedway, Mark Martin and the AAA Racing Team ran to a sixth-place finish in the Food City 500. Martin was able to avoid an array of accidents in a race that saw 18 cautions, to move to his first top-10 finish at the track since 2000. The finish was Martin’s fourth top-10 in five races of 2006 and moved the veteran driver to within 32 points of the Nextel Cup points lead. “Our AAA crew was on the spot on pit road today,” said Martin. “We got shuffled back on one run with a set of tires I didn’t like, but they were strong on pit road and their last adjustment to the car made it the best it was all day. That’s the right time to be good, so we came from about 13th to sixth. I’m thrilled. I didn’t pass hardly any cars all day until that last run and I couldn’t be happier.” Martin and the team saved their best for the end, with Martin moving from 13th to sixth in the race’s final 88 laps to take the sixth-place finish. Martin had to hold off teammate Greg Biffle for the race’s final seven laps, before avoiding the spinning No. 24 car of Jeff Gordon on the final lap to move into sixth place. Martin was in eighth place when the race went green after the day’s 18th and final caution with 48 laps remaining. With the race running down, Martins’ AAA Ford Fusion was the fastest on the track. He passed Tony Stewart with 24 laps to go for seventh, before avoiding Gordon on the final lap for sixth. In a weekend filled with rain and snow, Friday’s qualifying effort was cancelled due to persistent precipitation, and Martin started fourth-based on last year’s owner’s points. The car was ‘tight’ early on and Martin fell back to seventh by lap 40, as the car’s handling started to loosen up. He eventually rebounded and moved back to fifth where he was running when the day’s second caution was called on lap 72. After coming into the pits for four tires, fuel and wedge adjustment, Martin returned to the field in eighth when the field went green on lap 77. Martin had moved his No. 6 car back to fifth place by the time caution number seven was issued on lap 186, after a multi-car accident forced the race to be red-flagged for 14 minutes. He would hold fifth position for the next 70 laps before dropping back to sixth on lap 269. The handling on Martin’s car would gradually start to go away over the next run with him dropping back to as low as 14th, where he was running when caution number 13 was called on lap 337. The team would come into the pits for four tires, fuel and a wedge adjustment, and return in 14th position when the field resumed green-flag racing on lap 339. Martin had moved up to 12th when the day’s 15th caution was called on lap 407, with less than 100 laps remaining. The team came down pit road for the final and most important stop of the day, taking four tires, fuel and making critical adjustment to the air pressure and wedge of the car that would make Martin’s car become one of the fastest on the track for the final run of the day. After a 14 second stop, Martin returned in 10th where he started when the race went green on lap 420, with 80 laps to go. Fourteen laps later he overtook Dale Earnhardt Jr. for ninth. On the next lap caution was again called, setting up a crucial decision for crew chief Pat Tryson and the AAA Team. Tryson opted for staying out for track position, rather than coming down pit road for fresh tires, while most of the cars behind Martin, opted to come in. The gamble paid off, with Martin not losing a single position over the final 57 laps of the race, while settling in as one of the fastest cars in the race and picking up three more positions to sixth. “Pat Tryson and the AAA pit crew where just on their game today,” said Martin. “They made the car the best it was all day at the end of the race, and that is when you really need to be good. We were able to hold our position, while picking up more places and coming back to a good solid finish.” For the most part, Martin was able to avoid all the accidents in Sunday and escape Bristol with a solid finish. “I caved my hood in on that one deal, but other than that, we were pretty clean,” said Martin. “I needed to be. I wanted to get through this one and score some points. I want to make that chase this year.” The run snapped a dry spell for Martin, dating back to August 25 of 2000, the last time he scored a top-10 finish at Bristol. With the finish, Martin moved to within 32 points of the Nextel Cup points lead. Sitting at fourth he is currently only 13 points behind third-place and 24 points out of second. The series heads to Martinsville next weekend, where Martin has two career victories and 20 top-10 finishes in 38 starts. Martin finished third at Martinsville at the spring race last season. Back to Results