CUP: Hendrick Chevys Dominate LifeLock.com 400

Sprint Cup

CUP: Hendrick Chevys Dominate LifeLock.com 400

Mark Martin led 195 of 267 laps to win the LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway...

Tom Jensen | Posted July 11, 2009 Joliet, IL

Mark Martin takes the checkers for the LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)

They make quite a pair, Mark Martin (Right) and Rick Hendrick (Left), two old-school racers. (Photo: Getty Images). (Photo: Getty Images)

Mark Martin, fighting hard for a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, put an old-fashioned butt-whipping on the field in Saturday night’s LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.

Mark Martin STATS

Martin led 195 of 267 laps around the 1.5-mile Joliet, Ill., track, his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Impala SS running as if it was in its own zip code.

The victory, Martin’s series-high fourth of the season, was a much-needed boost in his Chase hopes, as it moved him back inside the top 12 in points after he had fallen out last week at Daytona International Speedway.

Finishing second was Martin’s Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon, then Kasey Kahne’s Richard Petty Motorsports Dodge Charger, Tony Stewart’s Stewart-Haas Racing Chevy and Denny Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

Martin and Gordon won a $1 million bonus because they also finished 1-2 in the Lifelock 400 at Michigan International Speedway last month.

The Hendrick squadron flashed their hands early in the race.

Red Bull Racing teammates Brian Vickers and Scott Speed started from the front row, with pole-sitter Vickers taking the early lead, as Speed fell to third behind Jimmie Johnson.

Johnson caught Vickers and passed him for the lead on Lap 10, with Clint Bowyer moving to third ahead of Speed and Jeff Gordon.

After 25 laps, Johnson had a lead of 3.651 seconds over Vickers, with all four of the Hendrick cars in the top 10, as Mark Martin was fifth, Jeff Gordon sixth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. 10th.

The first caution flew on Lap 40, after a spring rubber fell out of one of the cars and onto the track. That sent most of the leaders down pit road for service for the first time.

SPRINT CUP SERIES DRIVER POINT STANDINGS

Martin won the race off pit road ahead of Vickers, Hamlin, Elliott Sadler, Bowyer, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Speed, Johnson, Kasey Kahne and Gordon. That was the order when the green came out on Lap 44.

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Tom Jensen

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