Hey guys, go to my website and enter for a chance at a free trip for two to Charlotte's race.....
http://www.webspawner.com/users/smonacel/index.html
<a href="http://www.webspawner.com/users/smonacel/index.html">Click</a>

Mark Martin holds on to win a Dover slam-fest
Race turns into a battle of survival amid cautions, red flags and scoring confusion
By DAVID POOLE
The Charlotte Observer

DOVER, Del. - Mark Martin knew it was coming. All of it.

He knew, for instance, his race team was running better than its results showed so far this year. He also knew, or at least hoped, his luck eventually had to even out. And Sunday, he knew something big might be about to happen in what turned into a wild MBNA 400 at Dover International Speedway.

When it was finally over, it all added up to a victory for Martin that was like a cool drink of water after a two-year sojourn through a 72-race winless desert.

"I had forgotten what this feels like," the 45-year-old veteran said in victory lane after surviving in his No. 6 Ford to win for the 34th time in his Cup career but for the first time since May of 2002.

For things to work out in Martin's favor, things had to go terribly wrong for others at this 1-mile oval that lived up to its "Monster Mile" nickname on a cool, cloudy day.

The hardest luck fell on rookie Kasey Kahne, who was denied what could have been his first career Cup victory when he ran into oil from Casey Mears' blown engine in Turn 3 while leading on Lap 381. Kahne's Dodge shot up the track into the wall.

One minute he was heading toward a victory and the next he was sitting backward on the track looking at the field bearing down on his wrecked car.

"We were pulling away," Kahne said. "I went down into the turn and there was no grip. I just swapped ends. ...I didn't know what to think. I came to a stop and everyone was crashing. I was looking at them and then I was in the care center."

The end of Kahne's race came not long after an 18-car pileup in Turn 3 ruined any hopes his teammate, Jeremy Mayfield, had of winning. It also came after NASCAR had the cars sputter around for 25 laps under caution as officials tried to sort out a scoring mess caused when Ryan Newman spun on his way to pit road at the end of a cycle of green-flag pit stops.

From Lap 321 on, the field ran 48 of 80 laps under the yellow and was also stopped twice under the red flag for nearly 20 minutes each time.

It took nearly five hours for Martin to finally pull away from Tony Stewart, whose Chevrolet had led 234 of the first 315 laps before things started going crazy, and from Dale Earnhardt Jr., who survived all of the mayhem and came away with a third-place finish that secured his Nextel Cup points lead.

From the moment Stewart didn't get slowed down enough to make it to pit road on Lap 316, things went haywire. Newman had inherited the lead during that cycle of stops, but he didn't make it successfully onto pit lane, either, turning his Dodge sideways and clipping a tire barrier cushioning the end of the pit road wall to bring out a yellow.

It then took the better part of half an hour, with the cars still making circles, for it to be determined that only Mayfield, Kahne and Jimmie Johnson were still on the lead lap.

Five other cars were put on the end of the lead lap while Martin got the free pass to make up the lap he'd lost making his stop. He lined up at the end of the longest line, but for reasons that apparently can't be explained, actually moved into the fourth position ahead the five tail-enders trapped between the leaders and the pace car.

However it happened, Martin saw the position he was in.

"I said, 'We'll never get up to them,'" he said, speaking of the leaders.

"There was no use getting in a hurry. I wanted to just miss the wreck and then I could get up there and race with them."

That proved prescient. In Turn 3 on the first lap after the green, Dave Blaney got turned around near the front of the pack and Dover suddenly looked like Talladega with cars piling on top of each other. Mayfield, Johnson and Newman were all in that stew, but Stewart and Earnhardt Jr. were ahead of the mess, Kahne and Jeff Burton somehow got through it and Martin stopped before getting there.

"I almost got into the wreck anyway and I was watching for it," Martin said.

That caused the first red flag. The second came after Kahne, Matt Kenseth and two others wiped out in the oil from Mears' engine. Martin said he never saw the oil, but drove just low enough through the turn to miss it and keep right on going.

"That's just a stroke of luck," he said.

He wasn't home yet, though. Stewart pitted for fresh tires on a caution between the two red-flag incidents, and Martin knew how strong the No. 20 had been earlier.

"Tony outran me the first half of the race, and he had new tires at the end and I didn't," Martin said. "I thought I was going to get my heart broken.

All I could do was stand up in the seat. I was either going to lose or get it done. And I didn't want to lose."

He didn't. Martin pulled away easily, leaving Stewart and Earnhardt Jr. to fight doggedly for second. Stewart won that battle, but Earnhardt Jr.'s third-place finish on a day he spent most of at least one lap down was fruitful. He now has a 98-point lead over Johnson and, more importantly, a 431-point cushion over 11th in the standings halfway into the 26-race run to pick the 10 "Chase for the Championship" contenders this year.

Martin, meanwhile, got to feel the joy of victory lane again.

"We've had so many things go wrong, we've let so many opportunities go by," he said. I just couldn't believe it was going to work out for us."

But somehow it did.

MISTER MARTINS WILD RIDE
Mark Martin breaks winless streak in whacky Dover race

Sometimes you're good, other times you're lucky.

Mark Martin's win in Sundays MBNA 400 came after a bit of good luck finally fell his way.
 
``It was just a stroke of luck,'' Martin said after winning a bizarre race Sunday at Dover International Speedway. ``Everything worked out in our favor, but believe me, we were due.''

Martin managed to avoid one massive pileup, got a break when runaway leader Kasey Kahne crashed, and ended a long losing streak.

``Everything went our way today,'' said Martin, winless in 72 NASCAR races since 2002. ``The car got stronger and stronger.''

Still, after so many missed opportunities, Martin couldn't help but think another day would end badly and that he would be outrun over the final laps of the MBNA 400 by Tony Stewart.

``He had new tires and I didn't,'' Martin said. ``I thought we were going to get our heart broke again.''

Stewart, in contention only because he made a blunder that left him so far behind he missed the 19-car pileup, finished second.

Kahne, who somehow got through the melee and seemed well on his way to victory, skidded in oil left on the track by Casey Mears and crashed with 18 laps to go on The Monster Mile.

``It was a gift,'' Martin said. ``I was running right on the bottom when Kasey got into the oil and we didn't.

``Kasey was incredibly fast. It just was meant to be today for us.''

Four cars were involved in that crash, which resulted in a red flag that lasted 20 minutes - the second stoppage of a race that lasted 4 hours, 47 minutes.

Kahne just passed teammate Jeremy Mayfield for the lead on the backstretch with 54 laps remaining when the cars of Michael Waltrip and Dave Blaney made contact entering the third turn on the high- banked concrete oval.
 
With the track virtually blocked, Kahne squeezed through. The rest of the contenders crashed. That caused the first red flag, also 20 minutes in duration.

``The track was totally blocked,'' Martin said. ``I just stopped. You can say I was smart. But I wasn't smart. I was just lucky.''

Mayfield, the polesitter, and Jimmie Johnson, running third, were among those who ran into the pileup. Mayfield slipped off the track and spun his wheels in the mud.
Johnson jumped out of his car as flames shot out of the rear.

``They're racing three wide three or four laps down like a bunch of idiots,'' said Johnson, who was in position to take the points lead.

Instead, Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished third and retained the top spot.

``It's just amazing to me that people who drive race cars for a living can do stupid things like that,'' said Greg Zipadelli, Stewart's crew chief. ``Then they get a check at the end of the day.''

His driver was among the fortunate. Stewart was far behind because he earlier missed the entrance to pit road.

``I just locked up the front wheels,'' he said, adding he wasn't sure it cost him a race he was dominating. ``Who knows with the accident that happened where we might have been.''
 
"Chaos is brought in by people not paying attention to what's going on around them," said Johnson's crew chief, Chad Knaus.

Sunday's race lasted 4 hours, 46 minutes. According to a graphic shown during FX's telecast of the race, more than half that time was under a yellow or red flag instead of under green. Much of the delay was caused by Ryan Newman's spinout on lap 320, which resulted in a series of timing and scoring conundrums that took officials 24 caution-flag laps to resolve.

Ryan Newman also was involved in the pileup, which occurred immediately after a lengthy caution period that officials used to untangle a series of scoring woes also involving Newman's No. 12 car. Newman was leading the race when he spun near the entrance to pit road. After the accident, officials held Newman back one lap for ignoring a pit road official's stop sign; Newman and his crew disagreed with the call.

"I know timing and scoring was messed up, and we got held for a lap," Newman said. "In my opinion, we shouldn't have. Whether we should have or not is NASCAR's decision. The pit stop sign guy told me to stop about 20 feet away when I was coming at him about 35 mph. I was ahead of the pace truck, so I don't know what the issue was there."

Still, Newman said, "We shouldn't have been in that position in the first place. It was my fault."

The pileup caused a 19-minute red flag, left only five cars on the lead lap and put Kahne in the driver's seat for his first victory.

The rookie was pulling away when controversy erupted again. Shortly after the engine in Casey Mears' No. 41 Dodge appeared to falter, Kahne spun and slammed the wall while entering Turn 4.

The four-car crash brought out the last of 11 yellows that gobbled 90 laps and also eliminated Matt Kenseth, who had been running in the top five and wasn't happy with yellow-flag procedures.

"If I was a fan, I'd be mad," Matt Kenseth said. "First NASCAR spends 40 laps under caution (messing) around for who knows what. Then a car blew up half a lap before we got there, and they never threw a caution."

Others couldn't believe they didn't see the yellow immediately when Mears' car began puffing smoke.
 
"For two to three laps, the 41 was spitting oil all over the place," said Ray Evernham, owner of Kahne's No. 9 Dodge. "Everyone knew that. People were screaming about it on the radio."

Said Kahne, who finished 22nd: "There was oil everywhere. We went from just about winning our first race to nothing."

Martin avoided the oil by hugging the low line on the 1-mile oval. After another red flag of more than 19 minutes to remove the wreckage, he breezed away on the Lap 392 restart to end a two-year winless drought.

The victory was 34th of Martin's career.

His Ford led only the last 19 of 400 laps and beat Stewart - who paced the field for 234 laps - by 1.702 seconds. Earnhardt leads Johnson by 98 points after 13 of 36 races.

Earnhardt got back on the lead lap when Rusty Wallace cut a tire and hit the wall with 25 laps remaining.

Jeff Burton was fourth in the $5.5 million race in a Ford, followed by Scott Riggs in a Chevy.

Martin was one of the only drivers feeling lucky after yesterday's event, which ended with only five cars on the lead lap.

"That was the biggest joke of a race as I've ever been involved in," McMurray said. "All the cautions and all the oil on the racetrack. . . . It looked like an ARCA race. That's pretty bad."

Or pretty good, according to Earnhardt.

"That's what the sport's about," he said. "It's drama. It's exciting when you're out there dodging guys with sparks flying and dust everywhere. It's wild. I had a great seat. It's unfortunate some people don't have the same opinion."
Earnhardt longs for simpler days
BY JERRY REIGLE
For The Patriot-News

DOVER, Del. - Dale Earnhardt Jr. doesn't hide the fact he likes the benefits of racing in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series.

Money, fame, women, television appearances and rock-star status appeal to any single male.
    
But Earnhardt's simpler side, the one many find appealing, makes him wonder what it was like when Dover International Speedway had its wooden grandstand and asphalt surface.

"I would have liked to be around during the 1970s and know what it was like to race back then when it was a lot simpler," Earnhardt said. "There were personalities, and the sport really had a lot of the things it has now.

"It had those things in the past. It just wasn't quite as published. It's just the way it's working out."

Thirty years ago, NASCAR got little if any press. Today, it's mainstream.

Earnhardt has been on television sitcoms. Jeff Gordon co-hosted "Live with Regis and Kelly" last week. It seems every driver is a leading spokesman for his sponsor's product.

Earnhardt has been the topic of two supermarket tabloid stories since March. One involved an idiotic accusation the Daytona 500 was fixed. The other involved a wild party in Florida.

Some have said Earnhardt is the torchbearer of NASCAR's continued popularity rise.

Earnhardt differs.

"I don't see myself as making that big of a difference," Earnhardt said. "The sport is going where's it's going without Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"I don't think I'm the lead locomotive here. I never have been. There are a lot of drivers and a lot of personalities that make up the sport.

"The thing is what powers the sport and what fuels the sport are the press, the media, the networks, the coverage, all the free advertisement we get from racing every weekend, people tuning in and people latching on to the sport for the first time."

It's easy to argue Earnhardt's point considering today's MBNA 400 (1 p.m., FX) will have every fifth fan wearing some red garb with the No. 8 on it.

Earnhardt will start 26th in the 43-car field.

In eight races at Dover, Earnhardt has scored one victory and three top-10 finishes. His win came in September 2001.

Earnhardt finished 11th and 37th in the Dover races last year.

He doesn't want to repeat the September race, when he was airlifted following a crash on lap 362.

"It's got to be better than the last time I was [here]," Earnhardt said. "We led almost 50 laps and ran in the top five for more than 300 laps, so I'd prefer to remember that part of the day."

Earnhardt's injuries weren't severe. He was observed at an area hospital and released shortly thereafter.

It was different from the feeling he had two years prior, when Dover hosted the first NASCAR Cup race since the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

"I think our win there was one of the highlights I'll never forget," he said. "Not so much that we won, but just the feeling among all the fans and the drivers and teams that day."

Earnhardt is riding a similar wave to the time he last won at Dover.

He has a five-point advantage over Jimmie Johnson in series points. He hasn't fallen outside the top 10 since winning the Daytona 500, the first of three wins this year.

"I know what I need to do," Earnhardt said. "You have to finish the best you can every week. That's all there is to it.

"You have to really dig deep a lot of times. I'm getting around to where I'm understanding where to make that happen now without backing it into the fence or doing something foolish. When the car is not good, you have to dig deep and make up a few spots in the driver's seat."

Sounds like another driver.

"My dad was the same way," Earnhardt said. "I don't want to sit here and tell you Richard [Childress, car owner] didn't have great race cars, but Dad dug deep several times to help those guys win championships."
I Was Just Wonderin’...Why the Ice-Bag Secrecy?
By Carol Einarsson

I wonder how many folks are surprised that Ricky Rudd is on the list of those that haven't yet scored a 2004 top-ten finish. And I wonder if he'll last the whole year with his present employer.

And I wonder who (except my assistant) expected Elliott Sadler to be in the top ten in points after every race this far.

Carl Long is called "one of the most popular independent drivers in NASCAR." I know why I like him, but given that he's not been in too many races, and never fared very well, I wonder why everyone ELSE likes him.

I wonder if Fox Sports is going to be at the June 19th go-kart endurance race that Jerry Nadeau's gonna be in. Sure would be nice to see video tape.

I wonder if NASCAR did buy out CASCAR, if eventually the Cup drivers would be heading up there to race, too. After all, the trek from Charlotte to California is only three thousand miles. Let's add another country.

So Mike Wallace replaced Derrike Cope and Johnny Sauter's still got a job? Something's not right.

So have you heard about NASCAR Day? The premise is that you pay five bucks to be allowed to wear NASCAR attire to work on August 20th. Now of course you have to get your employer to play along, AND it assumes you have an employer that would even notice if you wore NASCAR attire on a Friday, anyhow.

Floyd Ganassi's being sued for not putting his money where his mouth is? Surprise, surprise, surprise.

It's about time someone realized the marketability of Michael Waltrip. It must feel good for him to be in the garage rumors, especially since the rumors THIS time are about teams trying to sign him, rather than one team trying to dump him.

Wouldn't it be something if Rusty really did get in trouble for running an extra lap at practice last Saturday?

Greg Biffle, the number one domino in this year's line-up. How did THAT happen?

And if you were Greg and the list of suitors was Childress, DEI, Evernham, and Ganassi, I wonder which one you'd laugh at. Sing with me, now: One of these things is not like the other; one of these things just doesn't belong.

I wonder which team owner is anonymously accusing NASCAR of flubbing the templates for some of the cars.

I wonder if Michael Waltrip Racing will finally be the key to unlock Kenny Wallace's success.

Richard Childress Racing is building a 40,000-square-foot engine shop. In the next couple of weeks, I'm gonna be putting a 10' x 10' shed in my backyard. I guess that means Richard and I have something in common.

So I read in the news that a couple of drivers will be honoring our veterans with special D-Day paint jobs. Why am I not surprised that the two in question are Bobby and Elliott?

But who knew that M&Ms had such a place in history?

Probation? PROBATION?? What a joke.

I wonder how many other folks like me will cease rooting for DEI if they dump Michael Waltrip.

And I wonder why nobody ever taught Junior what the term "marketability" means.

And one more thing I was just wonderin'....

I wonder why NASCAR is pretending like they don't know who threw the ice bag out last weekend, when I know at least one person that DOES know.

You can contact Carol at.. Insider Racing News