Veteran Victory

It was 'Senior Night' at Darling Raceway, on May 9, 2009, as Mark Martin claimed his second NASCAR Sprint Cup (NSCS) victory of 2009. The 50-year old Martin drove his No. 5 Cheez-It Chevy Impala SS into the lead, passing Tony Stewart on lap 122, and led the final 46 (of 367) laps of the Southern 500. Greg Biffle led the most laps (117), followed by Martin Truex, Jr. (61 laps led) and Ryan Newman (48 laps led). Rookie of the Year contender Joey Logano led 19 laps, on his way to his second top-10 finish of the young 2009 NSCS schedule.

The win was the 37th in Martin's Hall-of-Fame worthy career, in which he has 733 NSCS race starts. Martin now has six top-10 finishes, and two wins, in 11 starts this season. He now holds the 11th position in the drivers points chase. His bank account grew another $295,150, and raised his season winnings to $1,677,827 for the year. Mark's first NSCS win came at Rockingham Speedway, in 1989, in the AC Delco 500. That first win came in his second year with Roush Racing, in the No. 6 Stroh's Light Ford Thunderbird, which earned Martin $52,800.

This weekend, the NSCS teams head to Lowe's Motor Speedway, for the non-points Sprint All-Star XXV weekend of racing. Practices and qualifying for the All-Star weekend races will be held on Friday, May 14th. The All-Star competitions will be run Saturday night, May 15th, beginning around 6:20pm, with the Victory Challenge burnout contest. The Sprint Showdown begins around 7:30pm. The Sprint Showdown race winner, race runner-up, and All-Star Fan-Vote winner will advance to compete in the prestigious Sprint All-Star Challenge XXV race, which will begin around 9:00pm.

For more information, and you chance to cast your Fan-Vote, visit: http://www.nascar.com/promos/allstar/.