Notes: Martin marks return with another top-five finish

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Mark Martin is back in the title hunt again. At least this week.

The Nextel Cup veteran returned from his three-week vacation to drive in Sunday's Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, and he proved the time off wasn't a problem.

Martin scored yet another top-10 finish in his highly publicized and often doubted part-time schedule by bringing his No. 01 Chevrolet home in third place.

Lap-by-Lap: Texas

Kurt Busch had the lead when he went in for a green-flag pit stop. Then the yellow flag came out for debris, effectively ending his chance to win.

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"This team is awesome," Martin said. "They're the best I've ever worked with. The closer we got to the front, the better it got. About halfway through the race we stopped adjusting on it and just made it go."

He's been able to do that a lot this season. Martin has entered only five of the seven races, skipping the two Car of Tomorrow events at Bristol and Martinsville. When he opted to stick to his part-time schedule and not run at Bristol, he walked away holding the points lead. Since then he fell to 15th in the standings, 337 off the lead.

Until Texas.

His third-place finish bumped him up to 11th in points, although he lost ground in terms of points -- he's 342 behind.

With the COT reappearing at Phoenix next weekend, Martin will take his first laps in race conditions driving the new machine. Then he'll take a week off. Regan Smith will again fill in while Martin skips Talladega.

"I have hit the lotto, no question," Martin said. "To be able to drive these cars for this team is a dream come true and to be able to step away when I want to step away. I just couldn't ever imagine having that kind of privilege."

Busch gets hurt by caution

At one time it appeared the shift of power had gone to Kurt Busch's ride when he motored past Dale Earnhardt Jr. to take the lead halfway through the race.

Jeff Gordon began chipping away at the margin as green-flag pit stops approached, so Busch dipped his No. 2 Dodge onto pit road to make his stop and give up the lead on Lap 292. A lap later, the caution came out.

A huge chunk of debris sat in Turn 2 near the high groove, forcing the yellow and trapping Busch one lap down. Busch made up his lap when the leaders pitted and was able to rebound for an 11th-place finish.

"Our hearts dropped when we saw the yellow pop out, being in position for a real good run," Busch said. "It felt like we had everything in place for what we needed to do for the [team] to win."

But Busch acknowledged his heartache was nothing compared to the struggles of his crew chief Roy McCauley, who took a leave of absence earlier in the week to be with his wife, Amy, who is battling cancer.

Troy Raker filled in for McCauley atop the pit box.

"I think the crew did a great job with Troy Raker stepping in as crew chief because Roy has his personal thing with his wife," team owner Roger Penske said.

Two out of three isn't that bad

Chip Ganassi Racing scored two top-10 finishes on Sunday with rookie Juan Montoya placing eighth and David Stremme two spots behind him in 10th.

It was Stremme's first top-10 finish of his career.

"It's a career best, but I thought we were headed for a better finish [Sunday]," Stremme said. "Still a top-10 at Texas is pretty good and we moved back up to 12th in the series standings. We've done what we set out to do in these first few races."

For Montoya, it was his second top-10 on a 1.5-mile track (he was fifth at Atlanta). Yet he, too, was striving for better.

"It's funny. You know, I was very happy with like a 19th in Martinsville two weeks ago and finish eighth [Sunday] and I'm a little disappointed," said Montoya, who had a problem in the pits as well as making contact with Tony Stewart on Lap 240.

The third part of the Ganassi team -- Reed Sorenson -- had a strong run going until retiring on Lap 197 with engine trouble. He finished 40th.

Texas-sized storage unit

Why was a third of the Nextel Cup garage full of cars, under covers, 45 minutes after the Samsung 500? They're part of a cross-country exodus to Phoenix, site of the series' next race.

"NASCAR and the racetrack are allowing us to leave them here to make the swap and go on to Phoenix," said Peter Jellen, transporter driver for Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 18 Chevrolet.

Other haulers were leaving the garage area. A NASCAR inspector said teams were making the exchange in a variety of ways, with some trucks returning to the Charlotte, N.C., area from Texas on Sunday while others will come from the Carolinas carrying Cars of Tomorrow for Phoenix, exchange equipment, pick up the Texas cars and head back home.

Dave Rodman contributed to this report.