In one of his increasingly rare Nationwide Series appearances Mark Martin scored his first win for Dale Earnhardt Jr's JR Motorsport team in Saturday's crash-filled Sams Town 300 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Saturday's win was Martin's 48th in NASCAR's second-tier series, extending his record win tally, but it wasn't without controversy after the semi-retired veteran triggered a late crash that took out then-race leader Carl Edwards and his JR Motorsport teammate Brad Keselowski.
As was the case in Monday's rain-delayed race in California, Saturday's event was one of attrition with barely half the 43-car starting field running competitively at the finish and for once, some of the invading Cup Series regulars, didn't have things all their own way.
Cup Series regulars occupied seven of the top ten finishing positions with Martin heading home Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick. David Stremme finished fifth and was the best placed non-Cup driver.
Dario Franchitti enjoyed one of his best NASCAR outings to date and finished sixth ahead of veteran Mike Wallace, Patrick Carpentier, teenager Brad Coleman and David Ragan.
Stuntman Stanton Barrett claimed a well-deserved eleventh place while defending series champ Edwards eventually came home 14th.
Among the Cup drivers who failed to finish were Joe Gibbs duo Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch, both of whom crashed out after finishing 1-2 in each of the first two races of the season. Jeff Burton also retired with an engine failure while Bobby Labonte, Brian Vickers and David Reutimann all crashed.
Despite their DNF's, Stewart and Busch still lead the drivers standings over Harvick, Edwards and Ragan.
![Clint Bowyer and crew chief Gil Martin at Daytona. [Pic Credit Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/190200.jpg)
