December 8, 2006

By Michael J. Napper

Mark Martin

How does one become a Mark Martin fan?

My younger brother was and is an avid NASCAR and Dale Earnhardt fan. He dragged me to a recliner in his living room and said “You have to see this, Brother”. I had not watched a NASCAR race, nor had interest in doing so at the time.

He had a Big Screen Television with his stereo system wired in for sound, and once they fired the engines, I was hooked for life.

I've always liked Fords, so not having a particular driver as my favorite, that narrowed the field of choices of who my favorite driver was going to be. I believe the race was at Talladega and those foul words “restrictor plates” were not in my brother’s, nor my vocabulary.

I sat in that chair from green flag to checker flag, in awe!

The roar of those engines was music to my ears. Having spent the better of my adult life serving our country in the Marine Corps, my Sundays were usually spent getting ready for Monday or out on training exercises. From that day forward, I was obsessed with NASCAR.

During that initial race, I cannot explain why, but I was drawn to the 6 car. I will admit, at first, I liked the looks of it. My Brother explained to me -- who was driving it and how well he has driven the car since coming on board with Jack Roush. The rest of the time, he talked about Dale Earnhardt and just how great that number 3 car was.

I am from the Kentucky/Indiana area, so Batesville Arkansas meant nothing to me.

It was not until after the race, when the announcer interviewed Mark Martin, that he became my driver for life. He was running very strong in the race, and was run into and wrecked near the end of the race by one of the Bodine brothers (I was told by my brother that a Bodine brother being involved in a wreck was not uncommon).

During the interview, he was obviously distraught over being wrecked, but never pointed a finger nor said anything negative about the incident. He only thanked his crew and all of his sponsors and thanked Mr. Roush for giving him “this great opportunity to drive this great car”.

To me, he showed true class and sportsmanship, and during the many years of rooting for Mark since that day, his character has never wavered.

I now find myself at a crossroad, do I continue to cheer for the 6 car, (you know I will) or do I wait for Matt (Mark's son) to break into the ASA and move up to the Busch Series and then into Nextel Cup?

One thing is for sure, I will miss Mark Martin on Sundays.

The fact that I am a NASCAR fan will never change, but I will miss Mark Martin on Sundays as the sport is losing one of its most competitive drivers. God Bless him in his future endeavors.

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.