Mark Martin

Mark Martin during qualifying of Pepsi 400 at Daytona.

Mark Anthony Martin (born January 9, 1959 in Batesville, Arkansas) is a NASCAR Nextel Cup and Craftsman Truck Series driver for Roush Racing. Martin is often nicknamed Mr. Consistency because he can always finish in the top five and, as of 2006, has always qualified for the Chase for the Nextel Cup. He is also the owner of the #17 NEXTEL Cup car driven by teammate Matt Kenseth.

Career

Martin has always been known as a "racer's racer". This basically means that he is willing to race any kind of vehicle in any kind of conditions anywhere in the world.

After racing in the short dirt tracks in the state of Arkansas for several years, Martin debuted in the American Speed Association (ASA) in 1977. He won the circuit's Rookie of the Year title in 1977 and then 3 consecutive championships from 1978 to 1980.

Martin began his Winston Cup career in 1981. After bouncing about with different sponsors and teams from 1981 to 1983, he returned to ASA in 1984. In his only full year in Cup during this period, he ran his own team and even had 5 top 10s, but ran out of money. In 1986, he won yet another ASA championship.

In 1987, he gave NASCAR racing another shot by running in the NASCAR Busch Series. After a win in Dover, Delaware, he was spotted by car owner Jack Roush. In 1988, Martin began a long relationship with Roush that continues to this day.

Overall, Martin has 35 career NASCAR Cup wins and has finished second in the Nextel Cup Series point standings four times (1990, 1994, 1998 and 2002). A cup championship still eludes him; however, he hopes to change that in the 2006 season. He has also achieved a record 48 victories in the NASCAR Busch Series. In 1990, a 46-point penalty at Richmond for using an illegal (but non-performance enhancing) carburetor spacer caused him to lose to Dale Earnhardt by 26 points in the final standings.

Martin finished off the 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup season with an exciting second-place finish in the season final race to fellow Roush Racing teammate Greg Biffle at the Homestead International Speedway. In doing so, he also secured a fourth place spot in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, just 105 points back from series champion Tony Stewart.

Martin has also won 5 IROC titles (1994, 1996, 1997 1998 and 2005) in addition to 13 races, both records for that series.

His sponsors have included Stroh Beer, Folgers coffee, Kraft, Valvoline motor oil, and Viagra/Pfizer, and his current sponsor is the American Automobile Association. Martin announced he would retire after the 2005 season; thus the season was called Mark Martin's "Salute to You" tour, as a "thank you" to his fans. However, he ultimately opted to run one more season at the request of Roush, who did not have a replacement driver lined up.

In June 2005, it was announced that Jamie McMurray would replace Mark Martin in the #6 car in 2007. This left Roush without a driver for that car in 2006. Martin later agreed to drive for the 2006 season. Ultimately, it was announced that McMurray would be released from his contract and would take over for Kurt Busch instead in car #26 (formerly #97), and Todd Kleuver would replace Mark Martin in the #6 AAA Ford Fusion in 2007. In 2007, Mark Martin was planning to run a full schedule in the Craftsman Truck Series and help out his son, Matt Martin, with his racing career.

However, on October 6, 2006, it was announced that Mark Martin will instead split time with current Busch Series driver Regan Smith in the MB2 #01 U.S. Army Chevy in 2007. Roush Racing announced that due to team limits imposed by NASCAR, they could not field a team for Mark for all 20 races he wanted to run in 2007, forcing Martin to move on.

As of August 5, 2006, Mark Martin holds the record for most races started in a row among active NASCAR drivers with 601 (and counting).

NASCAR All Series Statistics

• Nextel Cup Series Wins 35
• Busch Series Wins 47
• Craftsman Truck Series Wins 5
• Nextel Cup Series Top Tens 368
• Busch Series Top Tens 101
• Craftsman Truck Series Top Tens 10
• Nextel Cup Series Poles 42
• Busch Series Poles 29
• Craftsman Truck Series Poles 3

Trivia

• Martin loves to listen to rap music.
• During an interview with Chris Myers, Martin said his road racing experience probably came from his days driving on the winding roads of Batesville, Arkansas.
• Martin is listed as the official owner of Matt Kenseth's 17 car.
• Martin currently resides in Daytona Beach, Fla.
• Martin does not have a Nextel Cup championship, even finishing 2nd in points in 6 other occasions.

See also

• Featured Athlete on Fox Sports Net's Beyond the Glory

External links

• Mark Martin Official Website
• Mark Martin's career at racing-reference.info
• Official team website
• Mark Martin at nascar.com
• Coca-Cola Racing Family's Mark Martin profile