FORT WORTH, Texas (Army News Service, Nov. 5, 2007) - For the second week in a row, Mark Martin was a victim of a multi-car accident. The U.S. Army driver was in a seven-car wreck and the incident shoved him to a 34th-place finish in Sunday's Dickies 500 Nextel Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway.
While running 16th, Mr. Martin was unable to avoid the Turn 2 pile up, which occurred on Lap 220 of 334. He took a good hit from behind that severely damaged the car's rear-end housing.
Mr. Martin brought the 01 Chevrolet to the garage where the Army team repaired the damage. When he returned to the track, Mr. Martin was 54 laps down.
"That's just a shame," said Mr. Martin, who qualified 10th. "Once again, we were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It didn't feel like I got hit that hard, but the damage was enough to make the car not drivable. We had a good shot at 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," he added. "They work really hard on these cars and this is the second straight week that we got caught up in something that we couldn't avoid."
Last week Mr. Martin suffered the same fate in Atlanta when a multi-car 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," he said. "You suck it up and battle harder. And that's exactly what this Army team will do in the final two races."
The 01 Dale Earnhardt Inc. team remained 17th in Nextel Cup owner points.
The race winner was Jimmie Johnson. Rounding out the top five in order were: Matt Kenseth, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman.
The U.S. Army team will return to action Sunday Nov. 11 in Phoenix with rookie Aric Almirola driving the 01 Chevy. The grueling 36-race schedule will end the following week at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Mr. Martin is slated to drive in the season finale.
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