Qualifying
Mark Martin came into the race clinging to the twelfth and final Chase spot. He certainly helped his case by qualifying on the pole for the 2009 Sharpie 500. Mark's former Roush teammate Greg Biffle started along side in second.
Rookie Scott Speed had an impressive qualifying effort to start on the inside of row number two. Dave Blaney and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top five.
Drop Of The Green
Mark Martin was loose on the start and fell from the pole to third place on lap one. Greg Biffle and Scott Speed crossed the line side by side with Biffle getting credit for leading lap one.
The leaders settled into single-file order just like that as the Bristol craziness commenced behind them. The first caution came on lap eleven as Joey Logano was the first victim of the night off the front bumper of Reed Sorenson.
Storylines
This race was all about the 2009 Race to the Chase. Mark Martin came into the race clinging to twelfth in points. Kyle Busch was fifteenth. Both drivers desperately needed a good finish in order to improve their Chase dreams for 2009.
With their 1-2- finish Mark Martin is up to tenth place with a 60 point margin on Kyle Busch in 13th. Kyle is now just 34 points behind Matt Kenseth in twelfth with two races remaining before the cutoff.
From thirteenth place Kyle Busch all the way up to Ryan Newman in seventh is just 84 points. The 2009 Race to the Chase is going down to the wire in Richmond.
Chasing The Checkers
After a red flag to clean up Michael Waltrip's wreck with eight laps to go there wasn't much racing left. Kyle Busch was out front when they finally restarted with 4 laps to go. Mark Martin was running second and Kyle Busch chose to restart on the outside lane.
Kyle Busch got down in front of him but Mark did not go away. Mark got to him with two laps to go and got a nose under him but he couldn't quite make it stick.
Kyle Busch battled back on the outside, closed the door on Martin and took the win.
Top Ten
- Kyle Busch
- Mark Martin
- Marcos Ambrose
- Greg Biffle
- Denny Hamlin
- Ryan Newman
- Kurt Busch
- Jimmie Johnson
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Matt Kenseth
The Points
Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon are all locked into the 2009 Chase regardless of what happens over these last two regular season races.
Mark Martin's strong finish moved him up from twelfth to tenth in points. The biggest loser of the night was Kasey Kahne who fell all the way from eighth to eleventh in the standings.
The top twelve are now:
- Tony Stewart
- Jimmie Johnson -220
- Jeff Gordon -254
- Denny Hamlin -423
- Carl Edwards -454
- Kurt Busch -461
- Ryan Newman -569
- Greg Biffle -578
- Juan Montoya -589
- Mark Martin -593
- Kasey Kahne -601
- Matt Kenseth -619
