Polesitter Mark Martin gives the thumbs up in victory lane after he won the MBNA 400 NASCAR at Dover Downs International Raceway in Dover, Del., Sunday, Sept. 21, 1997. (AP Photo/Ralph Freso)

Frustration ends for Martin

Web posted September 22, 1997

Associated Press

DOVER, Del. -- Although Mark Martin wasn't looking for trouble, he realized that at the Monster Mile, it frequently finds him.

``We've had a lot of problems here in the past,'' Martin said after outgassing Kyle Petty to end 15 years of frustration at Dover Downs International Speedway with a lucrative victory Sunday in the MBNA 400. ``Any other year we would have run well, and blow a tire and hit the wall.''

It was obvious that what Martin needed was a little luck. He found that, thanks to his car owner.

``Jack Roush won this race on fuel mileage,'' Martin said. ``I'd been grousing about that a lot, and Jack said he'd win me a race on fuel.

``We used to come up short, but today we came up big.''

Martin's first Winston Cup win on the high-banked concrete surface came in his 22nd start. He had finished second four times, most recently three months ago in Dover's Miller 500.

The victory Sunday was worth $195,305 to Martin, who got $114,000 of it by winning from the pole. The bonus - which increases by $7,600 each time it goes unclaimed - had not been collected since series leader Jeff Gordon won at Charlotte in May.

Martin led 194 laps in his Ford, three more than 1995 Dover winner Petty, who had the best car. But a Dover rarity - just one caution for 11 laps - allowed Martin to make just three pit stops to four by Petty.

``We had everybody out there covered today but Kyle Petty, and Jack Roush had him covered,'' Martin said. ``I hated that he didn't win the race, but we needed one, too.

``He had us beat bad.''

Martin said another reason he was able to win was the approach the entire field seemed to take.

``The drivers did an incredible job today,'' he said, conceding that the lack of cautions was a major factor in the victory. ``Cautions cause cautions.''

They bunch the field, and tight racing on restarts can be calamitous.

``There is a hundred times greater chance of an accident than when everybody gets stretched out,'' Martin said. ``It was a very clean race.''

Petty, who said he was praying for a caution while leading Martin by as much as 25 seconds, dominated the race from the 162nd lap until pitting with 20 remaining.

``We didn't get beat on the track, we got beat on fuel mileage,'' said Petty, whose most recent career victory came at Dover in June of 1995. ``But fuel mileage is part of the game.''

Petty's Pontiac finished about 2 feet behind the Chevrolet of seven-time series champion Dale Earnhardt, who also completed the first 400-mile race at Dover with just three pit stops.

``Kyle was just too strong, but gas mileage enabled us to get second,'' said Earnhardt, whose career-worst losing streak reached 53 races. ``It's just a matter of time until we win a race.''

Despite his fourth win of the year and the 22nd of his career, Martin made little progress in his bid for the series title. Gordon's seventh-place finish allowed Martin to slice just 34 points from the lead, which stands at 105 with six races remaining.

It was 38-year-old Martin's 11th top-five finish at Dover, where his only previous victory was in a Busch series race 10 years ago. It also was the 16th win this year for a Ford driver.

Gordon's Chevrolet has the other 10 victories in 1997.

Martin's payoff from a purse of $1,551,173 million coupled with the bonus brought his earnings for 1997 to $1,611,609.

The only caution came out when Michael Waltrip crashed on the 88th lap. The 389 laps of green-flag racing resulted in a Dover record speed of 132.719 mph.

There were 10 lead changes among four drivers, and the margin of victory was 10.334 seconds.

Bobby Labonte's Pontiac wound up fourth, the only other car on the lead lap. Dale Jarrett's Ford, which started third behind Martin and Gordon, finished a lap down in fifth place. Jarrett is 184 points behind Gordon.

Ricky Rudd, a four-time Dover winner whose one-car-length victory over Martin in June ended Gordon's bid for a record fourth straight triumph on the track, wound up sixth in his Ford.

Gordon, who won this event each of the last two years, was saddled with an ill-handling car. He wound up two laps down.

``The long runs killed us today,'' Gordon said. ``Without many cautions, we just didn't have time to fix it.''