Marlin's title hopes take big hit after crash

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Sterling Marlin, who had not completely recovered from a brutal crash three races ago, was lucky to escape unharmed Sunday from a hard crash in the Protection One 400.

	Sterling Marlin's No. 40 Dodge suffered heavy damage.

After he finished 33rd, Marlin fell to fifth in the standings, 121 points behind new leader Jimmie Johnson.

Marlin, who came into the race fourth in the standings, 81 points behind leader Mark Martin, was racing behind Johnson and Mike Wallace when he came through Turn 2 on lap 148.

Marlin and Burton thought Wallace slowed, causing Burton to tap Marlin.

"I think the 99 got into us," Marlin said. "I don't know. It was just hard racing and a slow car checked up, or something, and he (Burton) hit us. It was just hard racing and that's part of it."

Burton's car's engine failed after 222 laps and he finished 29th. His Roush Racing teammate, Martin, also blew up, finished 25th and fell to second in the standings.

"I hate it that I got into Sterling," Burton said. "I feel absolutely awful about it -- I don't want anything to do with helping determine who the champion is."

Burton immediately told his crew on his in-car radio that he had done all he could to avoid Marlin, but slightly tapped him.

"I know that people are gonna say that I'm Mark's teammate and I meant to do that, but people know me better than that -- I'm bigger than that," Burton said. "When you get run over from behind, it's the guy behind you who is at fault so it's my fault."

After the contact -- Burton's right front to Marlin's left rear -- Marlin's car wobbled, and then spiked the outside wall with its right front corner.

It arced across the track, trailing fluids, before sliding across the infield grass. It came to rest in front of a safety vehicle station on the inside of the backstretch.

After several minutes, Marlin exited his car without assistance and walked to an ambulance. He said his radio connector probably disconnected in the impact, causing his crew some momentary concern.

	When it was over, Marlin's car -- and his title hopes -- took a big hit.

"It probably hit harder than Richmond," Marlin said after exiting the track's infield care center, "but I think it pulled some of the soreness out. I'm nowhere near as sore now as I was at the start of the race."

As he did at Richmond, Marlin praised his car's safety equipment.

"All the (safety) stuff did a good job inside the car, the Hutchens Device and all," he said.

Less than 25 laps later, second place point man Johnson suffered a flat tire that put him a lap down, but he came back to finish 10th and take the lead over Martin, by 11 points.

When Jeff Gordon won and third place point man Tony Stewart finished eighth, Marlin fell to fifth in the standings. The worst aspect was he fell back to only 16 points ahead of sixth place Rusty Wallace and 34 ahead of seventh place Ryan Newman.

"This really is a big hit (in the championship) -- it really hurts," Marlin said. "Today I really thought with some adjustments on the car we had a good top-five car and we could have gained back a good bit.

"Mark was having trouble and we might could have outrun Tony (Stewart) and Jeff (Gordon).

"We were just racing hard and this stuff happens. That's racing, that's part of it. We've had some terrible luck the past few weeks (but) stuff happens and we'll come back."

Team owner Chip Ganassi, with business responsibilities and running his Indy car teams, does not always get to Winston Cup races, but he was in Kansas on Sunday.

"I don't know if we're out of it (championship)," Ganassi said. "You have to be in a position to win the championship. Right now, we're in a position where bad luck hurts us."