Mark Martin grabs a series leading 5th win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway!

Martin held off a dominant Juan Pablo Montoya on a late race restart to win the first race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Photo Credit: Geoff Burke/Getty Images for NASCAR

There’s no better way to begin the Chase than by winning and collecting the 10 extra bonus points a win is worth.

“Pinch me. I am sure I’m sleeping. I am sure I am dreaming,” Martin said during the Victory Lane celebration. “This is my hardest place, a tough place.”

Martin held over a second lead when the final yellow flag came out on lap 294 of the 300 laps. The caution set up a 3-lap sprint to the finish with Montoya starting on the inside of Martin on the final restart. Denny Hamlin restarted 3rd and challenged Montoya allowing Martin to jump out in front. As Martin took the white flag, A.J. Allmendinger spun at the start/finish line bringing out the caution and ending the race.

Martin visits victory lane for the first time at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It’s his 40th career win.

“That’s a big deal,” Martin said about winning at NHMS. “I don’t get around this place that well.  The guys, we came up here with a great attitude with the pressure off of us that we’ve been carrying around pretty much since the fourth race of the season. They had a great plan for the car, and they got the car in race trim, strong lap times, strong enough that I thought, gosh, if we could stumble around and get in the front here, I think I might be able to stay.  And he figured out how to do that, too.  So it was an incredible accomplishment, I think. It’s also pretty cool, when we left Michigan, I don’t know how many races was the total race.  This is 40.  Anyway, Arlene looked over at me, but she happened to be at that one, and she said, “Only three more,” or something like that.  Something like that, “to 40.”  And I was like ‑‑ you’d have to know her.  She’s not much of a race fan.  It was really odd.  For her to know that number and I not know it, and for her to say so many to go to 40 was pretty strange.  So it was a cool time, and it is a cool number to hit because of that little time that we shared, that moment we shared.”

Last week’s race winner and chase contender, Denny Hamlin was able to pass Montoya to score a runner-up finish. Hamlin led twice for 22 laps. “It was a solid run,” he said. “You know, we didn’t really have a race‑winning car until probably 50 to go after we came out there on the green flag pit stop and we were catching the 5 and the 2 really, really fast, a half second a lap, and I was like, man, if this thing goes green we’ve got a shot at it.  The caution came out, and I knew that wasn’t going to be good for us because it put us in the bottom lane.  I got killed every single restart on the bottom lane, and I’d get stuck three wide in the first corner and then I’d have to battle my way back. To come out second when I should have been about fifth with those restarts, I was pretty proud of that.”

Starting from the pole, Juan Pablo Montoya lead early and often for a race-high 105 laps. He held on for a 3rd place finish. “I thought I had him,” Montoya said as he discussed racing Mark Martin on the final restart. “I was running beside him, I was like, I think I’m losing power but I think I can get enough just to the line.  He cleared me coming out of 4, and then when he went to 1 and 2 he just stopped on the bottom. It’s okay.  I didn’t expect that.  I was expecting him to run pretty hard.  He just ran very defensively, and I just got caught by surprise.  I think if I would have would have been prepared I probably would have jumped to the outside.  It’s one of those days.”

Montoya now sits 4th in the point standings. “We made the Chase,” Montoya said. “From now on, anything about that, it’s a balance.  Come here, first Chase race, put on the pole, finish second.  Can I ask for anything else?  Not really.  A win would be nice, but that will come.”

4 of the top-5 finishers are in the Chase as reigning three-time series champion, Jimmie Johnson came home 4th with 5 bonus points for leading 14 laps.

Kurt Busch led 3 times for 33 laps. Busch finished 6th after following his younger brother Kyle to the finish line.

Ryan Newman finished 7th followed by Elliott Sadler, Greg Biffle and Clint Bowyer completing the top-10.

Tony Stewart led 52 laps in the race, but had to make a lengthy stop on pit road for his team to repair a loose axle cap that would ultimately drop him to a 14th place finish.

It wasn’t a good day for Chase contender Kasey Kahne. After starting 11th, Kahne was driving inside the top-10 when the engine in his red #9 Dodge blew bringing out the first caution on lap 66.

“We just have to work extra hard now,” Kahne said from inside the garage. “You never know how this is going to work in the Chase, you never know if you can have a mulligan or not. We’ll be 12th when we leave here, hopefully we can make gains in this final nine.”

Kahne dropped to a 38th place finish, 161 points behind (1st in the standings).

“We need to make sure we don’t have issues and finish these races out strong,” Kahne said. “We’re going to have to win and get extra points and do everything we can to fight back after this.” This is the first time Kahne has qualified for the Chase since the ’06 season.

7 Chase contenders finished inside the top-10: Mark Martin (1), Denny Hamlin (2), Juan Pablo Montoya (3), Jimmie Johnson (4), Kurt Busch (6), Ryan Newman (7) and Greg Biffle (9).

Here’s where the other 5 Chase contenders finished: Brian Vickers (11), Tony Stewart (14), Jeff Gordon (15), Carl Edwards (17) and Kasey Kahne (38).

There were 11 cautions for 48 laps and 20 lead changes among 10 drivers: J. Montoya 0; T. Stewart 1; J. Montoya 2-36; T. Stewart 37-68; J. Montoya 69-123; Kurt Busch 124-142; J. Montoya 143-147; D. Hamlin 148-152; J. Montoya 153-162; T. Stewart 163-180; J. Johnson 181-194; Kurt Busch 195-203; M. Martin 204-242; Kurt Busch 243-247; D. Hamlin 248-264; R. Newman 265; C. Edwards 266-267; T. Stewart 268; M. Ambrose 269-270; B. Labonte 271; M. Martin 272-300

For the (unofficial) race results, click here.

After Race #1 in the Chase:

1.   Mark Martin (5230 points)
2.   Jimmie Johnson (-35)
3.   Denny Hamlin (-35)
4.   Juan Pablo Montoya (-55)
5.   Kurt Busch (-65)
6.   Tony Stewart (-74)
7.   Ryan Newman (-79)
8.   Brian Vickers (-90)
9.   Greg Biffle (-92)
10.   Jeff Gordon (-102)
11.   Carl Edwards (-113)
12.   Kasey Kahne (-161)

Next on the schedule:

Sunday, Sept. 27th
AAA 400 (tv coverage begins at 1 pm on ABC)
For more details, click here for doverspeedway.com