Texas II: Mark Martin race report
Accident Costly Again for Mark Martin, U.S. Army Team J
For the second week in a row and the second time this season Mark Martin was a victim of a multicar accident. The U.S. Army driver got collected in a seven-car wreck and the incident shoved Mark Martin to a 34th-place finish in Sunday's Dickies 500 Nextel Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway.
While running 16th, Mark Martin was unable to avoidthe Turn 2 pile up, which occurred on Lap 220 of 334. Hetook a good hit from behind that severely damaged the car's rear-end housing.
Mark Martin brought the 01 Chevroletto the garage where the Army team repaired the damage. When he returned to the track, Mark Martin was 54 laps down.
"That's just a shame," said Mark Martin, who qualified 10th. "Once again, we werein the wrong place at the wrong time. It didn't feel like I got hit that hard, but the damage was enough to makethe car not drivable. We had a good shotat a top-10 finish, but sometimes you just can't avoid those types of things."
"I just hate it for these guys on the Army crew," added Mark Martin. "They work really hard on these cars and this is the second straightweek that we got caught up in something that wecouldn't avoid."
Last week Mark Martin suffered the same fate in Atlanta when a multicar accident ended his day prematurely.
"We've had some adversity lately, but when you wear the Army uniform and drive the soldiers' car you don't sit back and pout," stated Mark Martin. "You suck it up and battle harder. And that's exactly what this Army team will do in the final two races."
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