Johnson, Martin suffer damage on pace lap

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Mark Martin was cruising through the tri-oval on the final pace lap Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, focused solely on the task at hand.

VIDEO CLIPS Trouble for the points leaders before the green flag falls. Play video Mark Martin struggles to a 30th-place finish. Play video  •  More videos  •  Results  •  Standings

As is customary, he was weaving back and forth, warming up his tires when the steering column of his Ford locked into place. His car shot to the left and into Jimmie Johnson's Chevrolet, dropping the top two drivers in the championship points race from competition before they ever got started.

"The steering locked, then it unlocked," Martin said. "It was some kind of hydraulic problem, I think. I never put it in that position again in that situation during the race. After the race I tried and it did the same thing. So it's some kind of hydraulic flow problem in the power steering, I think."

Johnson suffered extensive damage to the right side of his car, and subsequently was forced to pit just as the green flag fell. He returned to the track on the lead lap, but was quickly caught and passed by the race leaders.

At one point, he made his way back to the lead lap, but couldn't remain there. Late in the race he broke a valve spring and finished 37th. Johnson wasn't alone. All six cars with Hendrick engines suffered precisely the same fate, the team said after the race.

Johnson entered Sunday's race as the series points leader, but now stands third, 82 points behind leader Tony Stewart and 10 points behind second-place Martin.

"It's just unfortunate that a mistake by 6 car cost us a chance to win this race," said Chad Knaus, Johnson's crew chief.

Following Sunday's incident, NASCAR's 25-point levy against Johnson for a suspension-related infraction at Daytona in July seems more significant.

NASCAR forced Martin to pit following the incident. As he coursed down the pit lane, he screamed to his crew that the problem had been corrected, but the No. 6 crew opened the hood for a look nonetheless.

Martin returned to the track about a half-lap behind the leaders, who eventually caught him and put him a lap down. After suffering a flat tire late, he finished two laps down in 30th position.

"That's the kind of blow that really takes you out of these things and we can't afford for that to happen anymore," Martin said.

"It was a great fight for the race team, but we had a flat too and that cost us probably another 10 spots. We did all we could do under the circumstances and that's all we can do."