Martin comes to life

CONCORD, N.C. – Mark Martin is not done yet.

Martin, in his final season as a Nextel Cup driver, got a million more reasons to love the track he calls his favorite Saturday night by winning the NASCAR Nextel All-Star Challenge at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

Martin grabbed the lead on the final restart with 19 laps left in the final 20-lap segment and held off Elliott Sadler to win the event for the second time.

A victory in his final run in the all-star race would be a great story, but that’s not how this one goes.

“I’ll be back next year if you’ll give me a ride,” Martin, who also won the all-star race in 1998, said over his radio as he began his victory lap after earning just over $1 million.

“This one is for the fans,” Martin said after climbing from his No.6 Ford. “I just can’t believe it. It was up there all night, just like the old days.”

Martin took four tires on his pit stop before the final segment and wound up second for that last restart. That gave him the outside line that had looked stronger all night on the track’s newly ground surface, and that wound being a critical edge.

“This is the greatest race track in the world, and it couldn’t be a better place to win a race,” Martin said. “The outside was the place to be, that’s for sure. I could go down to the bottom if I wanted to, though, and that was the difference.”

Sadler said his car just got too tight after he and Martin rubbed sheet metal on that last restart.

“I am very disappointed,” Sadler said. “I thought we had the class of the field.”

Ryan Newman lost control of his car entering Turn 2 on the second lap of the final segment, sliding into the outside wall and collecting teammate Rusty Wallace.

Caution flag laps don’t count in the final 20-lap dash, so that left 19 to go.

Martin got the jump on the green flag and surged to the lead off Turn 2. Jimmie Johnson came with Martin around the outside and got all the way to second, but Sadler powered back into that spot.

Sadler tried but never got back up to Martin. Brian Vickers finished third, with Jeff Gordon edging Johnson for fourth.

The action started near the end of the 40-lap first segment.

Just after Martin took the lead on Lap 35, the back half of the field piled up in a big wreck off Turn 4. Nine cars wound up being damaged in what started when Tony Stewart’s Chevrolet got into Joe Nemechek’s.

When Nemechek spun and hit Kevin Harvick’s No. 29 Chevy, things went haywire.

“I don’t know what happened,” Stewart said. “I came off the corner and got into the back of (Nemechek). I didn’t speed up. I don’t know whether he got loose or what. I am not sure I didn’t cause it. I don’t know how I ran into him when we came off the corner at the same speed.”

Harvick, involved in an incident with Nemechek in a qualifying race at Daytona this year, climbed from his car and confronted Nemechek. The two exchanged words in the infield grass and continued their discussion after reaching the garage area.

“Nothing is ever his fault,” Harvick said. “I am tired of Joe Nemechek.”

“Kevin Harvick thinks he owns the world and he ain’t squat,” Nemechek said. “It wasn’t my fault out there. Kevin can do what he wants to do. He’s just being an idiot, just being Kevin.”

There was one lap left in the segment when the green flag waved again, and Martin held off Sadler and Greg Biffle to win the segment.

A draw determined that six cars would be inverted for its start. That put Vickers, who’d earned a starting spot in the main event with a controversial victory in the Nextel Open, on the point. Vickers had dodged the big wreck and was sixth in the first segment.

Newman lined up on the outside of the first row for segment No. 2 and got a great run off the second turn to grab the lead. Halfway through the segment, Newman, Vickers, Sadler, Martin and Kurt Busch were the top five.

Sadler took second on Lap 59, but Newman was in front by nearly two seconds at that point and he cruised to win the segment ahead of Sadler, Vickers and Martin.

In the Open, Vickers was second behind Mike Bliss coming off the final turn, but as they came through the trioval Vickers got into the rear of Bliss’ Chevrolet. Bliss spun and came across the finish line sideways, but Vickers dodged him and got there first to advance.