Trucks: Martin throws caution to the win

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Mark Martin found rare success at his least favorite track Friday night.


Martin won the season-opening Craftsman Truck series race at Daytona International Speedway, picking up his fourth victory at the famed track in 111 races.

Driving a partial truck series schedule, Martin took the lead with 13 laps remaining, got a fortuitous caution flag in overtime and cruised into Victory Lane.

Sort of.

Martin once gave away a Busch Series victory when he turned onto pit road before taking the checkered flag in a similar situation.

"I've messed this up before," Martin radioed while completing the final two laps under caution. "This race isn't over with yet."

Toyota teammates Todd Bodine and Ted Musgrave finished second and third. Bodine closed last season with three consecutive wins, and Musgrave is the defending series champion.

But Martin has more experience at Daytona than the two of them combined -- just very few victories.

Martin's only other wins at Daytona came in the Budweiser Shootout exhibition race (1999) and in the IROC series (2003, 2005).

He had hoped to add to his total earlier Friday in the IROC event, but crashed out early and finished last. It gave him plenty of time to prepare for his fourth truck race in his long and storied career. He has won half of those starts in the truck series. His other victory came in his second start, at North Wilkesboro in 1996.

Martin led 42 of 102 laps and was in control until a late caution reset the field. Martin was shuffled back to ninth, then powered his way back to the front.

He was back in first when a caution came out with three laps to go, setting up a green-white-checker finish. The restart was for naught, as Ron Hornaday Jr. spun out and wrecked several other trucks. That instantly froze the field, meaning Martin only had to complete the final two laps under yellow for the win.

"Kind of made it easy on me here at the end without me having to fight for it," Martin said.

Musgrave said if the race would have finished under green, he would have teamed up with Bodine to run Martin down.

"Mark got his Christmas present because we had a plan," Musgrave said. "It's a last-lap deal where you just use the brakes real quick, let him shoot out, and then we come charging like a freight train."