Mark Martin Race Summary: No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota driver Mark Martin finished third in Sunday’s AAA 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Dover International Speedway. The Michael Waltrip Racing driver started 26th and climbed to 10th in the first 55 laps. A debris caution just laps after his pit stop and before the leaders dropped Martin a lap down to the leaders. Martin restarted the race in 20th and continued posting fast lap times, but it appeared he’d never return to the lead lap. With 90 laps left in the race a caution enabled Martin to earn the Aaron’s Lucky Dog free pass. Three laps later a caution for Matt Kenseth’s accident enabled Martin to pit for fuel then restart with the leaders. Martin stretched his fuel mileage in the closing laps as many of the leaders began running out of fuel. Martin passed Jimmie Johnson for third with less five laps to go to secure the third-place finish. The No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota returns to action Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway with Michael Waltrip behind the wheel. Martin returns to action Oct. 13 at Charlotte.
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- Started 26th and finished third
- Moved from 26th to 10th in the first 55 laps.
- A debris caution after his pit stop dropped Martin a lap behind leaders.
- Turned laps times as fast as leaders during most of the race.
- Earned Aaron’s Lucky Dog free pass on lap 310 to return to lead lap.
- Pitted and restarted with the leaders on lap 320.
- Passed several cars in the closing laps including Jimmie Johnson to secure third-place finish.
MARTIN: “I don’t know, with all the show that was going on, if everybody really noticed or not, but we had a rocket ship, super fast car. Start of the race, green flag, we were passing cars left and right. It was awesome. It was great on restarts. We were making our way up from deep in the pack with our qualifying spot. Came back out, as soon as we got on the track, a caution came out. It had us trapped two laps down. So, we had to continue to fight from being buried and had a fast race car, passed a lot of cars, eventually got ourselves into the hunt. But, the race was just about over. I just want to really commend Rodney Childers (crew chief), underrated, a brilliant crew chief. I have a fantastic race team and I love being part of MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing). We are just having a blast.”
