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Closer Look Crash claims Martin primary car for Coca-Cola 600
Posted: Tuesday May 23, 2000 10:41 AM
By Ryan Smithson, CNNSI.com CONCORD, N.C. -- Mark Martin lost more than a shot at The Winston on Saturday night. He also lost his primary car for next week's Coca-Cola 600. The Roush Racing driver was running in the top-five all night, and he felt pretty good about his chances of winning NASCAR's all-star race for the second time in three years. But that all changed on lap 54 with just six laps left in the final segment of the event. A slight tap from behind from Tony Stewart sent Martin hard into the wall. The impact caused the front of Martin's car to catch fire, and the rest of it didn't fare too well either. The damage was so bad that Martin, who finished 16th in the 20-car field, immediately knew the car wouldn't make next week's 600. "This is the best race car we have got, and of course, we won't be using it next week," Martin said. "We were in the way, so I guess that is what you get for being in the way. "I just didn't want to tear that car up," said Martin, who is just 33 points behind Bobby Labonte in the Winston Cup driver standings. "It was an awful good car, but we will bring out another one." Martin refused to blame Stewart for the crash, which was just one of many that occurred on a wild Saturday night. Martin preferred to blame himself, saying he was too slow in the corners. "If we would have gone faster, then no one would have been into our back bumper," he said.Roush Racing will have to go to work Sunday to prepare a car for practice and Coca-Cola 600 qualifying, which begins Wednesday.
Despite the huge resources of Roush Racing, Martin isn't thrilled about the upcoming week. "[The backup] is a worse car," Martin said.
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