Veteran Mark Martin seemed insulted to have been embroiled in the first heated dispute of the NASCAR Nextel Cup season on Sunday, after being accused of blocking for Roush Racing teammate and eventual winner Matt Kenseth in the final laps at Rockingham.
Martin, 45, feeling his integrity had been questioned, had an animated exchange with Felix Sabates, co-owner of third-place finisher Jamie McMurray's No. 42 Dodge, as each waited to plead cases to NASCAR officials after the race.
Sabates and co-owner Chip Ganassi were already angry because they believed a scoring error had cost McMurray a victory. Martin's arrival apparently reminded them of his hard racing with second-place finisher Kasey Kahne and McMurray though he was a lap down.
"I'm just disappointed because I think that the people in this sport know that I have a lot of integrity," said Martin, who finished 12th. "I watched it on the tape and I didn't see anything. I'm a big fan of these guys. ... I don't care who wins that race. ... I was racing and I wasn't in anybody's way."
Kenseth beat Kahne in the fourth-closest margin (.010 seconds) in Nextel/Winston Cup since electronic timing began in 1993. Ganassi said McMurray was "robbed," contending that Kenseth and Kahne should not have stayed on the lead lap when a caution was waved while they pitted on Lap 350.
NASCAR ruled that Kenseth and Kahne were on the lead lap and exiting pit road when the field was frozen and therefore eligible to return. They retook their spots in front when the rest of the field pitted under caution.
Q AND A: Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon were featured for the entire hour on CNN's Larry King Live Monday, fielding questions from life in the spotlight to diversity within NASCAR to whether Earnhardt will drive the No. 3 Chevrolet his late father made famous. (Maybe later in his career, he said).
In a generally airy interview, Earnhardt seemed tense during a prolonged segment in which King asked him to rehash details about the death of his father during the 2001 Daytona 500. Earnhardt had no comment on ESPN's production of a movie about his father.
Eight of the 10 callers were women, including "Rose" from Tampa who wanted to know what each would be doing if he had not pursued racing as a career.
Said Gordon: "I'd be in a lot of trouble. ... Probably, I would gone to college and furthered my education."
Said Earnhardt: "I think I would have ended up a mechanic at a dealership when you came in to get your car worked on."
BAD MOVE: Formula One's Bernie Ecclestone is skeptical that Open Wheel Racing Series, the newly incarnated version of Championship Auto Racing Teams, can survive for long.
Ecclestone attempted unsuccessfully to broker a merger between CART and rival Indy Racing League last year. CART fell into bankruptcy court and was purchased by team owners Gerald Forsythe, Kevin Kalkhoven and Paul Gentilozzi. ChampCar plans to race at St. Petersburg on May 16 if a legal complication with former promoter Tom Begley can be resolved.
"We'll have to wait and see how they survive," Ecclestone told F-1-Live.com. "I was hoping to get them together (with the Indy Racing League) and then I think it would have worked."
DROPOUT: Jimmie Johnson fell out of the top 10 for the first time in 70 weeks, ending a streak that led all active drivers. Johnson plummeted to 25th in the standings with a 41st-place finish at Rockingham. Johnson's day was done after 128 laps when Ken Schrader braked in front of him near the entrance to pit road, causing an accident that sent Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolet into the wall.
