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Sterling
Marlin enjoys the fruits of victory in Vegas
Photo: Dodge/Getty Images |
Just when you thought Tony Stewart was on his way to a cool million, caution's came back to take it away as Sterling Marlin wins the UAW Daimler/Chrysler 400 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
"All these guys did a great job today," Marlin said in victory lane. "Everything worked good for us today. We changed the car this morning. We weren't real good yesterday. We probably had a 10th place car, so we decided to go for the win. We changed it up and hit right on it."
The deciding factor of the race was on lap 233 when Shawna Robinson brought out the fifth caution of the day and Tony Stewart who dominated this race, took on 4 tires and just could not get back to the front and had to settle for a fifth place finish.
Rounding out the top five were Jeremy Mayfield in the #19 UAW Dodge, Mark Martin in the #6 Pfizer/Viagra Ford and rookie sensation Ryan Newman in the #12 ALLTEL Ford finished fourth.
"The Viagra Taurus was something," said Mark Martin, who scored his first top five of the 2002 NASCAR Winston Cup Season. "I told Ben (Leslie) I just wanted to see the front at the end of the race and, boy, we could.
The day started off with presentations to the speedway children's fund as Sam's Town Las Vegas gave them a check for $100,000 for that charity. Pamela Anderson, star of Baywatch and VIP, was also on hand for the festivities. Also, a group of young men and women were inducted into the United States Air Force.
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CART and
NASCAR team owner Chip Ganassi also enjoys the spoils
Photo: Dodge/Getty Images |
Todd Bodine in the #66 Checker Auto Parts Ford, who started from the pole and picked up a sponsor Saturday afternoon, led for the first 17 laps. On lap 8 Bobby Hamilton in the #55 Schneider Electric, and NO BULL 5 entrant, hit the wall on turn 3 bring out the first caution.
"I don't know what any idea (what happened)," Hamilton explained. " I passed a bunch of cars. I was going down the back straight. I felt like I was wobbling, like a tire was down on it or something. We thought we would try to ride it out a lap, and I was going down the back straight and the right rear tire blew out on it. It must have hit something."
On lap 18, Jimmy Spencer in the #41 Target Dodge took over the lead and held the lead until the next caution which was caused by Michael Waltrip in the #15 Napa Chevrolet for a blown right front tire. On lap 64 Hometown favorite Kurt Busch in the #97 Sharpie Ford took over the lead but that was short lived as Ryan Newman in the #12 Alltel Ford took the lead.
On lap 121, Sterling Marlin, while leading the race was attempting to enter pit road when Jerry Naedau spun him around. He regained the car but sped down pit road. NASCAR officials contacted the official on site 3 times to hold Marlin for a 15 second penalty but never levied the. "The guy in the tower gave it 3 times and the official didn't hear it", said Jim Hunter, Vice President of corporate communications for NASCAR when asked about what happened. "We think that it turned out fair, in view of the fact that he (Marlin) clearly one of the fastest cars for the remainder of the race."
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Mayfield's Dodge battles around the outside of Burton's
Ford
Photo: Dodge/Getty Images |
By the half waypoint Tony Stewart in the #20 Home Depot Pontiac and another NO BULL 5 entrant, took the lead and began to dominate with having as big as a 4 second lead. With 62 laps to go, Stewart had his last green flag pit stop and it was an impressive 15.9 seconds. Stewart could smell the cash, as his car seemed to be dialed in and ready to win.
But that all changed when with 35 laps to go, Shawna Robinson brought out the fifth caution flag when she hugged the wall on the backstretch. Rusty Wallace, Earnhardt Jr. Mayfield and Bill Elliot all took either 2 tires or just gas and Stewart and Marlin took 4 tires. Marlin comes out of the pits in fourth; Stewart comes out of the pits in sixth.
Marlin seemed to get around the cars of Mayfield, Martin, and Newman where Stewart just settled in to the position that he was in.
With the final caution coming on lap 256 due to a spin from Kyle Petty in the tri-oval, the field came down to an 8-lap single file shootout with Marlin in the lead and the top 5 stayed the same to the finish.
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It was a
typical Winston Cup crowd
Photo: Dodge/Getty Images |
On a side note, today's attendance of 137,500 was the largest attendance figure ever for a sporting event in Nevada.
Next week, the circuit moves to Atlanta and the Cracker Barrel 500. Kevin Harvick is the defending champion of the race.
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