Mark Martin: “I won my first ever Busch and NASCAR race (Dover) there in 1987”
Sep 20, 2007
CIA Stock Photos
This will be Mark Martin’s 43rd career cup start at Dover, where he has won four times. The four wins tie for the most ever at the track. Considered one of his favorite tracks on the circuit, Martin has 26 top-10 and 19 top-five finishes at the Monster Mile. The 19 top fives are the most of any driver. In addition, Martin earned his first ever career Busch Series win at Dover in 1987.
Martin was fast at Dover from the start, running fifth in the Mason-Dixon 500 in his first ever start at the one-mile track on 5/16/82. Martin started the event seventh, the first of his 26 top-10 starts at the track. Martin finished seventh there in the spring, his 26th top-10 finish at the 1-mile oval.
Martin has four poles at Dover and started in the top 10 in 26 of his first 38 races there and is the only driver to have won in all three of NASCAR’s major racing divisions at Dover. He has four wins in the Cup car, one in the Busch race in 1987 and one in the Craftsman Truck there last season.
This will be Martin’s sixth race in the COT this season and his second in the COT at Dover. Martin’s best finish in a COT came in the spring race at Dover, where he finished seventh. Martin has an average starting position of 21.2 in the COT and an average finishing position of 14.2. Martin and the team struggled to a 21st-place finish in the Car of Tomorrow two weeks ago at Richmond. This will be Martin’s final COT race of 2007. Next season Martin and NASCAR will run the COT in all 36 events.
“Dover is a track that I always loved and we always ran well there. I should have won there so many times and it just seemed like something would go wrong. Finally it all fell into place and we’ve had a lot of success there over the years. I won my first ever Busch and NASCAR race there in 1987. We’ve won in the Cup car there four times and we got a Craftsman Truck Series win there last year. It’s just the style of track that really suits my style of driving and it can be a lot of fun to race there.
“We had a good run there in the spring and that was actually our best finish in a COT race this season. I know that this team has been through a lot and we’ve struggled some in the last couple of races, so nothing would be better medicine for that than to come back to Dover and put together another solid run. These guys are as good of a race team as there is, and I know that Ryan Pemberton and the U. S. Army Team will bounce back this weekend, and I know that we’ll have a good car that will be competitive on the race track. “
• Martin has four wins at Dover, with the last coming in the spring of 2004. • Martin holds the track record at Dover (Cup), winning on 9/21/97 in 3:00:50 (132.717 mph avg). • Martin holds the Truck track record with 120.00 mph at Dover last year. • Martin’s 19 top-five finishes are the most of any active driver at Dover. • Martin has 26 top-10 finishes at Dover, including four top fours in the last six races. • Martin finished fifth in his first Cup race at Dover on 5/16/82. • Martin has finished in the top 10 in almost 60 percent of his races at Dover. • Martin finished one-two in both Dover races in 2004, three-four there in 2005. • Martin earned the first of his record 47 Busch Series wins at Dover in 1987. • Martin is the only driver to have won in all three of NASCAR’s major series at Dover.
