Mark Martin, Weekly Top-12 Hauler Chat at Chicago
USG Sheetrock 400, Chicagoland Speedway
Mark Martin, No. 01 U. S. Army Monte Carlo SS, met with members of the media and discussed teammate Regan Smith and his progress, what drivers need to do to win at Chicago, Ricky Carmichael, conversations with Bobby Ginn, and working and racing with teammates and relationships with them.
JAY FRYE SAID A COUPLE WEEKS AGO THAT REGAN SMITH IS GOING TO GO FULL TIME NEXT YEAR. DO YOU THINK THAT HE’S READY FOR THAT?
“Yeah. Regan’s ready. 100% ready. Everybody here is real proud of him and I know I talked to other drivers who all think that he’s doing a great job and think he’s ready. We’re excited about getting him going. “
ON INTERNAL TEAM ISSUES WITHIN GINN RACING:
“There’s certainly things going on here but here’s the thing that you have to remember. This has always been the little team that could and did. This team has won twice. It should have won 10 times. We’ve had a lot of back luck when they had the deals closed, inside of 10 laps to go sometimes. So the core group here are still here and will continue to be here.
The No. 01 is sponsored for 2008 and the driver lineup is set for 2008 and the crew chief is set for 2008 and I know the team members are the same team members that have been involved at that place for long time. So don’t forget that this is the little team that could. I look and I expect it to get back to that. Trying to go through explosive expansion is a really tough thing to do and for various reasons, haven’t been as successful as expanding as quickly they had hoped. They’ll be getting back to the core and getting stronger so it’s exciting for me in that respect. Because I see it getting stronger. “
WHAT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY THAT TEAMMATES HAVE FOR EACH OTHER?
“The responsibility is to do the very best for your own result. That’s your number one responsibility, is getting the best result that you can.
“(Your teammates) aren’t your teammates really because if they were, they would only be on the track to make sure you won. It’s not the correct terminology. That’s not correct, I don’t think. In any other team sport, the team is out there to win for the team. They’ve been called teammates here so long, that’s just what everyone calls them. At the end of the day, your responsibility is to do the best that you can for your own team, which is your crew chief, your sponsor, your people that work on your car.
Now you can’t do something dirty to someone that your owner owns their team too, or that you work together with to make a deal stronger. You work together off the race track. You work together in the shop and in the garage and when you go out on the racetrack and you don’t do something that’s not going to help you that hurts someone that is your ‘teammate’. At the end of the day, you’re not going to do something that hurts your effort to help your teammate, because then it re ally would be a teammate. Then you would only be out there to make sure that your teammate did the best that he could do. You work together. until it really comes down to the bottom line. ”
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