July 8, 2008
By Allen Madding
Why would 49-year-old Mark Martin consider running fulltime for Hendrick Racing in 2009 (when he will then be 50)?
It is pretty simple if you are a racer. Mark Martin is still getting it done. Despite not logging a win in the Cup Series since 2005, Martin has continued to record top five and top ten finishes. Compare that to the last four years for 52-year-old Bill Elliott, 51-year-old Terry Labonte, and 51-year-old Dale Jarrett. Elliott has not recorded a single top ten since 2004. Jarrett and Labonte’s last top ten finishes came in 2006.
Quite frankly, Mark Martin is still putting up the numbers. Remember that Mark Martin narrowly missed capturing a NASCAR Winston Cup Championship in 1990. He finished runner up for the championship again in 1994, 1998, and 2002. Bill Elliott, Terry Labonte, and Dale Jarrett have all won a NASCAR Winston Cup Championship, a feat Martin has yet to accomplish.
While Martin has recorded 35 wins, 241 top fives, and 391 top tens during his NASCAR career, a list of accomplishments many racers would consider a success by any measure, he would still like to walk away with a NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship trophy to make his career complete.
Martin was set to retire at the end of the 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. He had received the rocking chair gift from Darrell Waltrip and the folks at Fox Network. He was making plans for his son Matt to carry the torch, and Martin was seeing to it that the younger Martin has the proper tutelage. Mark Martin had planned his retirement focusing on spending time with his wife Arlene and furthering his son’s racing career.
But things change, Martin was confronted with a request from the benefactor responsible for the majority of his career, Jack Roush, to stay in the seat just one more year. He elected to assist the man to whom he felt he owed his career. A limited schedule with Bobby Ginn followed and then the opportunity to run a limited schedule in a DEI car detracted him one more season. Matt was enjoying a good deal of success in racing, but decided to pursue other passions and walked away from racing.
Mark Martin found himself in a peculiar position. His legacy apparently was not going to be carried on by his son, he had been logging top ten and even top ten finishes when other men his age were no longer doing so, and now he had an offer to drive a full season for Rick Hendrick. At the same time, the leadership at DEI was making it clear that they did not have time to bother with part-time racing efforts in the NASCAR Cup Series as they were moving Aric Almirola to driving the DEI No. 8 Chevrolet fulltime in 2009.
Mark Martin had not captured a championship while driving for Jack Roush and no one could offer him a better opportunity to claim the ultimate prize in the NASCAR Sprint Cup ranks than Rick Hendrick. After all, Terry Labonte had won the championship driving for Hendrick in 1996, and Jeff Gordon had won the championship in 1995, 1997, 1998, and 2001.
After a discussion with his family and gaining their approval, Mark Martin made a very logical choice for a man who has enjoyed so much success in a 35 year career – to pursue the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship in 2009 with a team that he believes offers him the best opportunity to gain the title at the age of 50.
My hat is off to him, and I wish him success in his pursuit of the highest prize in NASCAR racing.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
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