Talladega crash knocks Martin out early

Mark Martin went from first to last in seven days.

Last week's winner at Phoenix had a short run Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, a track he loathes so much he left it off his schedule the past two seasons when he ran only 24 races a year. Back in a full-time ride this season for Hendrick Motorsports, he couldn't skip Talladega, but didn't have to stick around very long.

He was one of 13 cars collected in an accident seven laps into the race that began when Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon made contact. Cars around them couldn't avoid the carnage, including Martin _ his car was briefly lifted off the track after it hit the wall.

Martin was too far away from the start of the wreck to know how it began. A better question because of the tightly packed driving, he figured: "How could that not happen, is what I say?"

Martin wound up 43rd in his first race at Talladega since 2006. The return visit did spark some nostalgia for the 50-year-old racer _ for the Daytona 500.

"I forgot how cool racing at Daytona was, because handling really does separate the cars more than it does here," Martin said. "It's not like a normal race track, but it's a lot more than it is here. Here, having a great car doesn't do you any good, because you can't separate yourselves from the other cars."

Martin had broken a 97-race winless streak last week, becoming the third-oldest winner in NASCAR history. The Phoenix victory moved him to 13th in the standings and on the verge of a spot in the Chase for the championship, but Sunday's accident dropped him to 18th.

"I told you I wasn't racing for points," Martin said. "I got a win last weekend. I'm fine. Maybe we'll go do that again at Richmond."

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HEALING HORNISH: Sam Hornish Jr. really had a reason to feel sick after Sunday's race.

Hornish had led three laps at Talladega Superspeedway and was running in the top 10 most of the race until a late accident knocked him out and he finished 34th. It was a disappointing result to a race he nearly missed.

Hornish, who started fourth, got sick Saturday night and woke up with flu-like symptoms. He needed intravenous fluids before the race and had Travis Kvapil standing by to relieve him.

"It ended on a little bit of a downer," crew chief Travis Geisler said. "We had a good car and just tried to buy our time. Unfortunately, it's Talladega and you just get caught up in some other people's incidents and that's what happened to us today."

Kvapil has been out of work since Yates Racing closed its No. 28 team last month when it couldn't find sponsorship.

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LOGANO'S RUN: Like a golfer shooting his age, Joey Logano accomplished an impressive feat.

The 18-year-old cut his own age in half with a ninth-place finish. That was four better than his previous best at Las Vegas, but Logano was still thinking what might have been if he and David Ragan could have hooked up at the end.

"He hit me once and we tried to go, and we couldn't stay together and keep going so we ended up losing spots because it," Logano said. "So that was kind of that."

A day earlier, Logano pushed Ragan to the win in the Nationwide Series race.

Logano still leads Scott Speed, who finished fifth, in the race for rookie of the year.

Logano twice made it to the front and led for a total of four laps. He also managed to avoid accidents.

"We didn't hit anything all day, so that was good," Logano said. "I guess that's good."