Martin’s Patience Pays Off

Mark Martin patiently worked his way to the front as NASCAR’s young stars took themselves out of contention in the longest race of the season.

Martin took advantage of Jimmie Johnson’s rookie mistakes to win the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday night at Concord, N.C., ending a two-year victory drought and giving Roush Racing its fourth consecutive victory in the race.

“I don’t know if I’m going to win another one, so you better believe I’m going to party all night--and I don’t even drink,” said Martin, breaking from his usual serious demeanor. “This may be the last time I ever stand down there, I don’t know.”

Martin, at 43 the anchor of Jack Roush’s four Winston Cup teams, held off teammate Matt Kenseth over the final laps to end his 73-race winless streak with his 33rd career victory.

After the race, NASCAR said Martin’s car was an eighth of an inch below the minimum height requirement and that any penalties would be handed out Tuesday.

Kenseth was the last driver to fail a postrace inspection when his car was a quarter of an inch short after his February victory at Rockingham.

His crew chief was fined $30,000, but the victory and the points were not affected.

Roush, recovering from serious injuries sustained last month in a plane crash in Alabama, also fielded winning cars in the spring race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway for Jeff Burton in 1999 and 2001 and Kenseth in 2000.

Roush reached Martin by cell phone in the winner’s circle and joined in the raucous celebration.

“I couldn’t really hear him, but I know he must have had tears in his eyes not being here,” Martin said.

It was Martin’s fourth victory at Lowe’s, tying him with Jeff Gordon for the most wins at the track among active drivers, and he won a $1-million bonus from the series sponsor for winning the race.

He had promised his crew when they became eligible for the bonus that he would share it with the entire team if they won the race.

“It was really, really important to win this race because there are so many guys on this team who hadn’t been to victory lane,” he said.

“This is their win, not mine. I’ll take the trophy with me back to Florida, that’s enough.”

Robby Gordon successfully completed “double duty” racing in the 600 after finishing the Indianapolis 500 earlier in the day. He finished eighth at Indy, flew to Charlotte and was in his Richard Childress-owned car for the start of the second race.

But his Chevrolet was never a factor en route to a 16th-place finish.

“It was a long day, the biggest thing was the cramps,” said Gordon, clearly drained. “I got a cramp in my right leg the final 30 laps that really slowed me down.”

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David Coulthard seized the lead before the first curve and held off Michael Schumacher to win the Monaco Grand Prix at Monte Carlo.

Coulthard, who started second on the grid, beat pole-sitter Juan Pablo Montoya to the first curve and led the rest of the way.

Coulthard, the 2000 Monaco champion who had not finished better than fourth this year, claimed his 12th career victory.

Schumacher, the winner of five of seven races this year, chased Coulthard over the last 30 laps, but couldn’t find a place to pass on the narrow, twisting streets of Monte Carlo.

Montoya was forced to retire on the 46th lap when smoke began pouring out of his Williams BMW engine, ending his bid to add the title to his Indianapolis 500 win. The Colombian crashed on the second lap last year.

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Tony Pedregon raced to his second funny car victory of the year and second in a row at Heartland Park Topeka in the O’Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals in Kansas.

Pedregon had a quarter-mile run of 4.910 seconds at 320.58 mph to hold off Tim Wilkerson (4.999 at 302.69).

Darrell Russell raced to his third career top-fuel victory, defeating Larry Dixon with a run of 4.638 at 314.90. Troy Coughlin topped the pro stock competition, defeating Mark Whisnant with a run of 6.924 at 198.44.