Full Throttle

Capping a weekend that saw General Motors announce it will impose financial cuts across its NASCAR programs, Mark Martin gave GM’s flagship team - Hendrick Motorsports - a win at Michigan International Speedway.

Martin won the LifeLock 400 on Sunday by conserving fuel on a day that saw defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle both run out of gas with victory in sight. Martin’s third win of the season came after Johnson, who led most of the race, passed Biffle with six laps remaining before running out of fuel with two laps to go.

Biffle then also ran out of juice, handing the win to Martin who had just enough in his tank to coast to across the finish line once he ran out on the final lap.

“It was important to me to finish this race. If we were in the top five in points, I would have run out today because I would have went after it. But, you know, we just weren’t. I just had to let ‘em go do their thing. I couldn’t save gas and run that pace that they were trying to run both,” Martin said during post race news conference.

“When the 48 ran out, I knew the 16 was just right up there. I was just lollygagging. I got past the start/finish line. Came on the radio and said, I’ve got fuel pressure right now, I’m gonna go for it. I jumped on the gas, ran hard. I couldn’t believe how much I was gaining on him through the corner. Then all of a sudden I got on the straightaway, I was really gaining on him. It was like, Whoa! Oh, he’s out (laughter). A lot of stuff was happening then.”

“After the race was over, I shut it off at the start/finish line, coasted all the way around. I was gonna try to fire it up just to get it in Victory Lane. It wouldn’t even spin over. So it ran exactly as far as it was gonna run. We had our hands full if we were going to try to go another lap or another mile. That was cool.”