Martin wins, apologizes for crash

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mark Martin took Dale Earnhardt Jr. to Victory Lane by winning the Nationwide Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, then immediately apologized for an accident he started in the closing laps.

Martin, the winningest driver in NASCAR’s No. 2 series, raced to the 48th victory of his career Saturday in a car owned by Earnhardt’s JR Motorsports. But the win came at the expense of Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski, who races full-time for Earnhardt.

Martin was sixth following a final round of pit stops when the race restarted with 10 laps to go. With four fresh tires on his Chevrolet, he sliced his way toward the front while chasing cars that had only taken two tires.

Edwards and Keselowski were racing side-by-side when Martin quickly closed in on Edwards’ bumper. Slight contact sent Edwards’ car wiggling across the track, and he slid high directly into Keselowski to wreck both cars.

Martin slipped past into the lead, then held in a two-lap shootout to the finish.

“I’ve got to apologize before we do anything else,” Martin said as soon as he climbed from his car. “I ran into the back of Carl. I hate it. I just hate it, really, because we could have had a 1-2 finish with JR Motorsports.

“I hate that it happened, but I sure didn’t intend for it to happen.”

Edwards, the defending series champion, finished 14th.

“I’d like to be really mad at Mark, but he’s a heck of a guy and has a lot of respect,” Edwards said. “I’m sure he just made a mistake.”

Keselowski had to settle for 23rd.

Greg Biffle finished second and was followed by Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, David Stremme and Dario Franchitti in his career best NASCAR finish.

Mike Wallace was seventh, followed by Patrick Carpentier, who replaced Kasey Kahne in the car because Kahne is ill. Brad Coleman and David Ragan rounded out the top 10.