When Mark Martin was growing up in the 1970s in Batesville, Ark. (pop. 9,445), he tried all the usual team sports-football, baseball and basketball—without success. It wasn’t until he got behind the wheel of a fast car at age 15 that he found his true calling.
“When I started driving race cars, I found something I was good at,” says the clean-cut, gray-headed Martin, 50, the oldest full-time driver in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series.
Yet despite his decades of racing experience and recent good fortune, Martin still measures his self-worth by his triumphs on the track. “I’m embarrassed about that,” he concedes. “It’s pretty immature, but I can’t help it. When it doesn’t go good on the racetrack, I struggle with things. When I don’t go to the racetrack at all, I feel lost.”
“He’s like a 50-year-old guy in a 35-year-old body, a fitness fanatic,” said racing team owner Rick Hendrick last summer when announcing Martin’s signing to a two-year contract. “When you mention his name, it’s immediate respect and admiration. He’ll make us all better.”
Martin began his NASCAR quest in 1981, debuting on the Winston Cup circuit and performing well for a rookie on a limited schedule. But after a personally disappointing 1982 season, followed by his firing the following year, Martin hit a crossroads.
“I didn’t expect to ever come back to NASCAR,” he says of his three-year hiatus from the stock car racing’s premier division. “I didn’t leave saying ‘I’ll be back.’ I left saying, ‘I’ve got to rebuild my career.’”
After returning to ASA racing and winning his fourth title, Martin’s fortune took a turn for the better in 1987. At the invitation of NASCAR team owner Jack Roush, he raced in the Busch Series, NASCAR’s junior division. The Roush-Martin union prospered for the next two decades, during which Martin logged 35 Winston Cup/Nextel Cup victories, plus an all-time Busch/Nationwide Series record 48 wins. In all, the sport has yielded Martin four runner-up Cup titles, and some 125 paved-track victories in 2,600 career starts. American Profile
Gustafson, finally earning praise for his work at Hendrick, grew up a die-hard fan of Martin. He hung pictures of Martin in his room, then admired him from afar when he broke into NASCAR. It’s Martin’s fierce, determined, no-excuses attitude that Gustafson admired as a kid and awes him even more while working together on a daily basis.
“I don’t know if me growing up and being a big fan has contributed to me trying to impersonate him or what, but the way we race, and our attitude about it are very similar,” Gustafson said.
If the Chase began this week, Martin would be the top seed because of his four victories. Three finishes of 40 or worse, however, have him perilously close to missing out on the Chase. Matt Kenseth trails Martin by only one point, and Greg Biffle is 10 points shy of cracking the top 12, setting up seven frantic, crucial races before the Chase field is set.
Martin and Gustafson both believe they can qualify for the Chase and win it all. The Canadian Press
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