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Non-points races in italics. |
The 2009 Subway Fresh Fit 500 is the eighth race of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. It was held on April 18, 2009 at Phoenix International Speedway.
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Mark Martin took the pole at Phoenix with a speed of 133.814 mph, 0.018 seconds in front of second place, Kyle Busch. Kurt Busch took third place 0.23 seconds of the leader and Jeff Gordon and Brian Vickers will round out the top five.
Kate & Kacey sang the national anthem for this race and Michael Strahan delivered the command to start engines.
Mark Martin started from the pole and dominated the first one hundred laps of the race, relinquishing the lead only under caution. At this point, the front runners were Martin, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, and Tony Stewart. Those four were consistently in the top five for the first two hundred laps. On lap 167, the caution came out for Robby Gordon's wreck and several cars stayed out. By lap 267, all cars that have stayed out have pitted except Dale Earnhardt, Jr. On lap 300, Earnhardt made slight contact with Casey Mears and hit the wall. Ryan Newman, during this caution, accidentally stayed out of the pits because of having radio problems. He was the only car that didn't pit. On the restart, Martin blows by Newman and cruises to his first win since August 2005.
This race didn't have a noticeable effect on points. Mark Martin, the winner of the race, jumped five spots to thirteenth in the standings. Dale Earnhardt, Jr., after wrecking late in the race dropped three spots. Also dropping three spots is Matt Kenseth, who at best had a mediocre race.