Nascar Rules

[the H team]

Lap 5 Greg Biffle finally clears Mark Martin for the lead coming off Turn 4.
Lap 4 Remarkably, Mark Martin and Greg Biffle are still door to door going for the top spot.

[the H team]

Lap 10 Mark Martin has settled into second place. He's making the 850th start of his Cup career here. His first Charlotte Cup start came back in May 1982.
Lap 7 There's been a report of smoke coming from Kyle Busch's Toyota. He's in seventh place at the moment.

[the H team]

Lap 11 There's a ton of trash on the grille of Greg Biffle's Ford!

[the H team]

Lap 13 Matt Kenseth is on pit road.
Lap 12 YELLOW FL&G: Matt Kenseth spins in Turn 4.

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Chase woes continue for Kenseth as tire goes down

[the H team]

Lap 14 Sam Hornish Jr., Brad Keselowski, Marcos Ambrose, Jeff Burton, Casey Mears, Juan Montoya and Tony Stewart are pitting.

[the H team]

Lap 15 YELLOW FL&G: Jeff Burton and a couple of other cars crashed on the frontstretch as the green was coming out.
Lap 15 GREEN FL&G: Greg Biffle, Mark Martin, Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer and Martin Truex Jr. are the leaders on the restart.

[the H team]

Dale Earnhardt missed the only four races of his career in 1979 after suffering injuries in a crash at Pocono. (Getty Images)
Race without an Earnhardt a rarity in NASCAR

First time since 1979 that neither Dale Jr. or his father will be competing

CONCORD, N.C. -- Saturday night's event at Charlotte Motor Speedway brings a rarity in NASCAR -- a premier-series race without a driver named Earnhardt in the starting field.

"It's incredibly sad anytime you have something like this," said veteran driver Mark Martin, making his 850th career start Saturday. "Especially with Dale Jr., how hard he has worked to get back in the Chase and become a contender. I saw it firsthand, his commitment to get there, and I feel real bad for him. And obviously, there were Earnhardts in races before I got here, and have been ever since. That's a tough one for our sport, but on the positive side, he'll be back in two weeks, and it could be worse."
Prior to Saturday, the last Cup-level race without an Earnhardt was at Darlington on Labor Day weekend in 1979. The elder Earnhardt was in his first full-time season and running for Rookie of the Year in Rod Osterlund's No. 2 car when he blew a tire and hit the wall while leading at Pocono. He was airlifted to an area hospital, where he was diagnosed with a fracture of both collarbones.
"Dale was in extreme pain," a crew member told The Charlotte Observer in a story that ran the day after Earnhardt's Pocono accident. "... The seat and steering wheel were wrenched a good bit to the left. He took quite a lick." The newspaper also reported that Earnhardt's then-girlfriend, Teresa Houston, said the driver remembered the tire blowing but not hitting the wall.
Earnhardt missed ensuing races at Talladega, Michigan, Bristol and Darlington before returning at Richmond, where he finished fourth. Those four events were the only ones the elder Earnhardt, who died in a crash in the 2001 Daytona 500, missed over the course of his 22-year full-time Cup Series career. Saturday night's race was the first Earnhardt Jr. has missed since he embarked upon his full-time Sprint Cup career in 2000. The younger Earnhardt did not skip a NASCAR start after he suffered burns in crash of a Corvette he was driving in a sports-car race at Sonoma, Calif., in 2004.

[the H team]

Lap 17 Those involved in the mishap, plus a couple of others, are back in the pits.
Lap 16 Jeff Burton, David Ragan and Tony Stewart are pitting.

[the H team]

Lap 18 The nose of Tony Stewart's car is beat up, big time.

[the H team]

Lap 19 One to go.

[rockit]

Hello H

[the H team]

Lap 21 GREEN FL&G: Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, Mark Martin, Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson are the leaders on the restart. Biffle is clear for the lead before he gets to the starter's stand, and he has a huge lead on the backstretch.

[the H team]

Lap 23 Denny Hamlin moved to second on the restart, Martin Truex Jr. to third.

[the H team]

Lap 25 Bobby Labonte drops onto pit road, evidently with a flat tire.

[the H team]

Lap 28 Regan Smith, driving in relief of Dale Earnhardt Jr., is running in 14th place.
Lap 27 NASCAR is checking out potential damage on the right side of Paul Menard's car.