Martin pulls away from the pack to take California 500

FONTANA, Calif. -- With two caution periods in the final 36 laps and 15 cars running on the lead lap, Sunday's California 500 had all the makings of a trademark NASCAR nail-biting finish.

Instead, Mark Martin ran away from the pack and captured his third Winston Cup victory of the season in much the same fashion as he dominated the inaugural Las Vegas 400 in March. And he did so in the very same car that carried him to victory in Las Vegas and four weeks ago at Texas Motor Speedway.

"It's a very lucky car -- and that's it," Martin said of his No. 6 Valvoline Ford Taurus. "It's a coincidence, that's all. We have a lot of good cars in our stable but this one, because of its history, is the one that we like to use."

Martin credited his crew chief for getting the chassis of his Taurus dialed in just right for California Speedway's two-mile tri-oval.

"Jimmy Fenning has been a big player in where we're at today on our chassis set-up which is purely the reason that we were able to win this thing," Martin said. "We had it all -- we had horsepower, we had fuel mileage -- but, in the end, it's usually the best-handling car that really pulls it off.

"We have something that is real special right now for the medium-banked race tracks and I wish we could race every week until the competition figures that out."

Martin led 165 of the 250 laps Sunday and coasted to a 15 car-length victory (1.287 seconds) over second-place Jeremy Mayfield, also in a Ford. Terry Labonte took third in a Chevrolet, pole-sitter Jeff Gordon was fourth in a Chevy and Darrell Waltrip posted a strong fifth-place showing in the No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet.

The win served as redemption for Martin, who was leading last year's inaugural California 500 late in the race when he was forced to make a green-flag fuel stop. It also was Martin's third win in five Winston Cup races at NASCAR's newest tracks -- Las Vegas Motor Speedway, California Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway -- and he came close to being a perfect 5-for-5 on the new venues.

"We were leading at Texas last year when we broke and we were looking awful good here last year (before we had to pit late in the race)," Martin said. "I think new places agree with us very well -- maybe that means we adapt to new situations quicker than some, I don't know.

"Maybe it's just coincidence -- there's more of that that goes on than people think. I'm not nearly as smart as a lot of people think."

And, just like his victory in the inaugural Las Vegas 400, Martin was not without some nervous moments late in Sunday's race. Although team owner Jack Roush assured Martin he had plenty of fuel to compete the remaining 50 laps when he made his final pit stop, Martin said he wasn't nearly as sure as Roush.

"I don't know for sure if this is correct or not but I feel like I've lost more races (when I have been leading) than I have won -- they sure hurt and they stick in my mind, if that tells you anything about how much confidence I had," Martin said.

"I knew I had the best car but I didn't know if I was going to win or not. The car was starting to pick up air (in the fuel line) but Jack said we could have run three more laps -- and we might have -- it just was a little eerie knowing that the gauge ... it wasn't on zero but it was picking up some air."

One driver who no doubt understood what Martin was talking about was Rusty Wallace, who entered the race leading the series point standings. Wallace was running a strong second in the race when he blew an engine eight laps from the end and wound up in 34th place and slipped to fourth in the points battle.

"It blew the engine," a disappointed Wallace said. "I don't know if it dropped a valve or what ... but it lost a cylinder and then it let loose totally.

"It was a bad, bad loss for the points today. We were sitting there running second and it looked like we were going to finish second and gain some points again but, boy, we took a big hit today."

Bill Elliott took a big hit, as well. For the second week in a row, Elliott was involved in a firey crash through no fault of his own. Kyle Petty lost control of his car when he got into some oil on the track, deposited when Dale Jarrett blew an engine, and slammed into Elliott's car, sending both cars into the turn-two wall.

Elliott was air-lifted to a nearby hospital, where he was treated for cuts on his chin, minor fractures in his left foot and left hand and bruises on his back and stomach. Elliott, who suffered a bruised sternum in a similar accident a week ago in Talladega, Ala., was treated and released from the hospital.

The accident, which ignited a fire underneath Elliott's McDonald's Ford, forced NASCAR officials to red-flag the race for 26 minutes while track workers cleaned the racing surface.

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