Mark Martin Race Summary: No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota driver Mark Martin finished third in Saturday night’s 400-lap NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Richmond International Raceway. The Michael Waltrip Racing driver started sixth and never ventured far outside the top 10. Just past the halfway point, Martin moved to third but couldn’t hold the position with older tires and dropped to 15th. After putting on new tires during a caution, Martin drove up to second and looked to be in contention for the victory. MWR teammate Clint Bowyer used a fast car and good fuel mileage to lead the final 88 laps to give MWR its second victory of 2012 with Martin close behind in third. The Aaron’s Dream Machine returns to action Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway.
- Started sixth and finished third.
- Climbed to fifth on lap 238 after pitting early to gain advantage of new tires.
- Moved to third but couldn’t hold the position on older tires and dropped to 15th
- Charged back to second in the closing laps before finishing third.
- Third top-5 and seventh top-10 finish of 2012
MARTIN: “It was a heck of a race, tremendous team effort by MWR. Rodney Childers, another amazing job. I love working with those guys. It was a really good run. Our car was strong on the long runs. We got one at the end, and that put us in contention. Can MWR win the championship? They certainly can. Martin is on the verge of winning every week. This race, too. He had an unfortunate set of circumstances catch him out there. But he could have contended to win this race tonight as well. He is on the verge of a hot streak. Obviously you’ve seen Clint. You saw what Tony Stewart did last year, and these guys are performing really, really well going in. Whoever gets on a hot streak can do it. It doesn’t matter. Definitely we have the capability, but who knows what will happen.”
