Mark Martin won the LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. He scored his 39th Sprint Cup Series win in his 741st start; tied for 13th place all time in wins. Martin posted his fourth win of 2009, the most of all drivers. He scored his first win at Chicagoland in his ninth start there; this was his first Chicagoland top-5 finish. Martin has now won on 19 different tracks in the series. He is the seventh different winner in nine Chicagoland races. Martin scored his 10th win on 1.5-mile tracks; four of the 10 races in the Chase are on 1.5-mile tracks. He led 179 of the first 223 laps before being passed by Jimmie Johnson. He led 195 of the 267 laps, the most in the race. Martin had led only 44 laps in his previous eight starts at Chicagoland. He started 14th, the sixth time the Chicagoland race winner has started outside the top 10. Jeff Gordon (finished second) gave Hendrick Motorsports its 27th 1-2 finish. Martin has won with Gordon finishing second in the past two of those; it was Hendrick’s fourth 1-2 finish of 2009. Martin restarted fourth on Lap 251 and retook the lead for the final time on lap 252, leading the final 16 laps. Hendrick Motorsports scored its second win at Chicagoland, the previous one coming in 2006 by Jeff Gordon. The team scored its 182nd series win and seventh of 2009. Hendrick Motorsports led 253 of the 267 laps in the race. Kasey Kahne (third) scored his first top-10 finish at Chicagoland; he has now scored a top-10 finish on every series oval track. He picked up four spots in the points, moving from 12th in points to eighth. Tony Stewart (fourth) posted his 11th top-5 finish and his 15th top-10 finish of 2009; he started 32nd. Denny Hamlin (fifth) has finished in the top five in four of the past five races. Ryan Newman (sixth) ended a four-race streak of finishes outside the top 10. Juan Pablo Montoya (10th) has finished in the top 10 in five of the last six races; he has finished in the top 12 the last six races. Marcos Ambrose (11th) has finished in the top 11 in four of the last six races. Greg Biffle (31st) fell from ninth in points to 13th, 10 points out of the top 12. Joey Logano (18th) was the best finishing Rookie of the Year contender. The top 10 consisted of seven Chevrolets, two Toyotas and a Dodge. Carl Edwards in 14th was the best-finishing Ford. (Racing Resources/ESPN)(7-13-2009)
