Mark Martin
- Height: 5-6
- Weight: 135
- Born: Jan 9, 1959, Batesville, AR
News and Notes
Nov 4
This week: Martin drove to victory for team owner Jack Roush in 1998 in the second Cup Series race at Texas. He has five top-five and nine top-10 finishes in 17 starts there, including two top-10 finishes in the last three races. He was 12th in this race last year and sixth in April. "I look forward to it (going back to Texas Motor Speedway)," Martin said. "We did get a chance to show what we had at Charlotte, and we didn't have enough that particular weekend. We were second fast in every practice. We were second fast in qualifying, but in the race we didn't perform quite like we wanted to so we get another chance. Texas is a different race track and a different day. It's been a good place before, but this is the time when we need to land on both feet."
Last week: Martin's dreams of escaping Talladega without disaster were ruined on the next-to-last lap of the race when he was part of the 13-car smash-up. His Chevrolet flipped over and landed on its roof, and he finished 28th. Martin led twice for seven laps. When asked what he saw at the end of the race, Martin had a short answer. "Nothing," he said. Later, he added, "It was just a wreck. I hope everybody enjoyed the show there. I don't know what it looked like. It looked pretty exciting from my viewpoint. I don't have a clue. I don't know what happened out there."
Etc.: Even though he needs some help to win a championship, Martin is happy to be back as a full-time competitor. "It would have been the biggest mistake of my career to have passed on this opportunity," he said. "I feel very good. I feel fresh and surprised that there's only three (races) left. The people at Hendrick Motorsports have made this a better year for me than I expected. The sponsors have been wonderful to work with, and it's beyond my wildest dreams. One thing is, the testing (ban) has helped enormously. I would not have re-signed for 2010 had the testing been brought back, much less 2011. That's huge. You know, when you're in a bad mood and something happens, it irritates the heck out of you and when you're in a good mood, and the same thing happens and it doesn't bother you. Have you noticed that? Well, that's where I've been there this year. I haven't been tired, burned out, frustrated and all those kinds of things. I'm fresh and enthusiastic and all those kinds of things."
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