M6M's web site dedicated to NASCAR Driver Mark Martin - #6 - AAA - Ford Fusion - Roush Racing

2006 Season Articles - May

2006 Mark Martin Track Notes - Sunday - June 4, 2006
Neighborhood Excellence 400 / Dover International Speedway
No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion
May 31, 2006
DRIVER: Mark Martin
TEAM: No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion
OWNER: Jack Roush
CREW CHIEF: Pat Tryson
THE CAR
Chassis: RK-315 last ran at Darlington and finished eighth. It finished ninth and sixth at two runs this season at California and Las Vegas. Mark also used this car in his win at Kansas last season.
MARK MARTIN FAST FACTS - DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY - NEXTEL CUP

Mark Martin has four wins at Dover, with the last coming in the spring of 2004.

Martin holds the track record at Dover, winning on 9/21/97 in 3:00:50 (132.717 mph avg.)

Martin's 19 top-five finishes are the most of any active driver at Dover.

Martin has 24 top-10 finishes at Dover, including four straight top-fours.

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 and three-four there in 2005.

Martin earned the first of his record 47 Busch Series wins, at Dover in 1987.

MARK MARTIN AT DOVER
Starts - 39
Poles - 4
Wins - 4
Top-5s - 19
Top-10s - 24
QUOTING MARK MARTIN AND CREW CHIEF PAT TRYSON ON DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
Mark Martin:
"Dover has always been one of my favorite tracks. We've had great success there over the years, including the last few years when we've been up front and a serious contender. The very first time I went to Dover, I loved it from the start. It is definitely in my list of top tracks and there probably is no cooler track to go and race on. I'm looking really forward to getting back up there this weekend and hopefully putting together another strong run.
"The team was outstanding last weekend at Charlotte. They gave me a great car and we had our best stops in the pits all season. If we can build on that and keep working just as hard as we have been, then we can put this deal in the chase and go for the Championship. We really like the next few tracks coming up, so we are excited about moving into the early summer stretch."
Pat Tryson:
"Dover might be our strongest track. It's special to all of us, because that is where we got our first win with Mark a couple of year ago, and we've been really good there over the last four or five races. This is a good part of the schedule for us and we are excited about moving forward. Mark loves to race at Dover, so our job is to give him the type of cars that he is used to there. If we can do that and keep up in the pits, we should be a serious contender on Sunday."

2006 Mark Martin Track Notes - Friday - June 2, 2006
AAA Insurance 200 / Dover International Speedway
May 31, 2006
DRIVER: Mark Martin
TEAM: No. 6 Scotts Miracle-Gro Ford F-150
OWNER: Jack Roush
CREW CHIEF: Mike Beam
THE TRUCK
Chassis: Truck No. 45 ran at Martinsville 2006 with a fourth place finish.
MARK MARTIN FAST FACTS - DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY - CRAFTSMAN

This will be Martin's ninth career Craftsman Truck Series race.

This will be Martin's first truck race at Dover.

Martin boasts four Cup wins at Dover and his first career Busch win came at Dover in 1987.

Martin has finished in the top 10 in seven of his eight truck starts, including wins at North Wilkesboro, Daytona and California.

Martin is scheduled to move into the Truck Series full-time in 2007.

Martin is scheduled to take part in 14 Truck Series races in 2006, one of 63 total races that he plans to run during his 'encore' Salute To You Tour.

QUOTING MARK MARTIN ON DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY - NCTS
"Dover is one of my favorite tracks on the circuit and I don't think that we go to a better track to race, so I'm excited about going back up there and running the Scotts' Ford F-150 for the first time. The team has done an exceptional job with the trucks this year and you can't say enough about Mike Beam and the guys on this race team. Hopefully we'll be able to go up there and give the fans something to cheer about and get that truck back in victory lane."

Martin, No. 6 AAA Team Turn in Solid Performance at Coca-Cola 600; Finish Fourth
Top-five finish advances Martin to third in point standings, as all five Roush cars finish top-10 at 600
Mark Martin and the #6 AAA Racing Team
Lowe's Motor Speedway/May 28, 2006
“If we can take this and put her in the chase and keep getting better as we go, then we’ll have a solid shot at going for this championship.” - Mark Martin after Sunday night’s fourth-place finish in the Coca-Cola 600
CONCORD, N.C. (May 28, 2006) – Sound strategy, patience, complete focus and a fast race car were the ingredients used by Mark Martin and the No. 6 AAA Race team for Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600. The result was a rock solid fourth-place finish in the longest race of the NASCAR Nextel Cup season. Martin joined all five of his Roush Racing teammates inside the top-10 and his second top-five finish of the season moved him up one spot to third in the Nextel Cup point standings. Martin passed Roush teammate Matt Kenseth in a daring pass on the final lap of the 400-lap race for the fourth position after moving into the top five for the remainder of the race on lap 367.
“It was a good, solid run by the AAA Fusion,” said Martin. “The team was the best we’ve been on pit road all year. I think we can take this and build on it going down the road. If we can take this and put her in the chase and keep getting better as we go, then we’ll have a solid shot at going for this championship.”
“We were off at the beginning and off at the two-third mark, and then we got a lot better again late. It’s a 600-mile race and we didn’t forget it. Pat Tryson and the team did a great job with the car and the strategy. The pit stops were just awesome tonight and the strategy was great. It was a good solid effort by the team and we’ll take this and build on it going into Dover next week.”
Martin started the race 21st after an early draw limited his qualifying effort on Thursday afternoon. Working with a new surface and a new tire, Martin struggled with a loose car early on, dropping back to 29th place by lap 11. Martin reported that the car’s handling had come around by lap 17, and Martin began to move back through the field. By lap 32 when the race’s first caution was issued after Tony Stewart blew a tire and crashed into the wall, Martin was back up to 23rd position. The team came down pit road for four tires and fuel and returned in 19th position after a stop of 14.083-seconds.
Martin had dropped back to 21st position when the No. 12 car spun out causing caution number two and the team came into the pits four fuel only and a chassis adjustment. The move took Martin up to 17th position when the field returned to green on lap 52. With strategy at a premium, the team took four tires under caution on lap 67 and two tires under caution on lap 92. The two tire strategy on the fourth stop moved Martin to third position when the field went green on lap 96. By this time Martin radioed the team that the car ‘would be great.’ Martin moved to second on lap 99 and briefly took the lead on lap 110, before settling back into second place where he was running when caution was called for the fifth time on lap 112. The team once again opted for fuel only and a quick chassis adjustment resumed the lead out of the pits on lap 113.
Martin would hold the lead until coming down pit road after caution number six on lap 130. This time the team took four tires and fuel in a fast stop of 13.5-seconds. As other teams were on different cycles, Martin went back out in 13th position as green flag racing resumed on lap 134. Martin moved back to 11th place before the car’s handling tightened up. Carl Edwards spun out soon after causing the yellow flag to be waved for the seventh-time of the evening. This time the team again took fuel only and loosened up the car’s handling with a wedge adjustment. The strategy again paid off, and Martin restarted in fourth position when the field went green on lap 145.
Martin was able to maintain his top-five position. The team opted for two tires under caution on lap 160, and Martin moved up to second when the field went green on lap 162. The car’s reaction to the two fresh tires was to become loose, as Martin had a difficult time ‘holding on’, dropping back to fifth by lap 181 before the handling began to ‘come around.’ Martin passed teammate Greg Biffle for fourth on lap 187 and Kenseth for third on lap 197. However the team ran into a stroke of bad luck when they came into pit under green on lap 198, just seconds before caution was issued. Martin was able to keep going down pit road and maintain position on the lead lap, but he would drop back to 12th, before coming into the pits on lap 203.
The No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion was still running in 12th position when caution number 10 was called on lap 234. This time the team again went with a two-tire strategy, taking right sides. Martin moved back up to fourth place when green flag racing resumed. The car again reacted ‘loose’ to the two fresh tires and Martin fell back to as far a seventh position. He was running in sixth when the team came in for a green-flag stop on lap 289 and he held onto sixth by the time the field had cycled through its stops. With the car a ‘touch tight’, Martin was running in seventh when the team came into pit under caution on lap 305 to again take fuel only. He returned in third when the field went green on lap 309. The team took fuel only again under caution on lap 317, regaining the lead out of the pits. The Ford Fusion was tight on the older tires and Martin eventually settled back into fourth place on lap 322. The handling got even tighter, as Martin fell back to sixth on lap 341, where he was running when the team came in for its last stop under green on lap 360.
Caution was called for the 14th and final time of the race two laps later on lap 362, and Martin stayed out and moved up to fifth place when green flag racing resumed for the final time with 33 laps remaining. Martin spent the remainder of the race closing in on Kenseth’s No. 17 Ford Fusion, finally over taking his teammate with a bold high-pass on the final lap that saw Martin use every bit of his driving ability to hang onto the car and the top-five finish.
The start on Sunday was Martin’s 650th career Cup start, and the finish was his 229th career top-five. It was Martin’s seventh top-10 of the season and his 11th top-15 in 12 starts. It also marked his 17th top-five finish at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Martin is now 209 points behind first place and 100 points out of second, as the team moved into Dover International Speedway where he has four wins, 19 top-fives and 24 top-10’s. Martin has scored four straight top-five finishes at Dover, including a win in the spring race in 2004.
Roush Racing is a subsidiary of Livonia, Mich., based Roush Enterprises which operates 14 motorsports teams; five in NASCAR Nextel Cup with drivers Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards, six in the Busch Series with Martin, Kenseth, Biffle, Edwards, Todd Kluever and Danny O'Quinn, Jr., and two in the Craftsman Truck Series with Martin, David Ragan, Michel Jourdain, Jr. and Erik Darnell.

Martin Has a Tough Night in Charlotte Busch Return
Early accident puts quick end to Martin’s chances at seventh Charlotte victory
Mark Martin and the #6 Ameriquest Racing Team
Lowe's Motor Speedway/May 27, 2006
“This was a pretty tough night for the No. 6 Ameriquest Ford. We had a lot go wrong, but we tried to hang in there and battle to the end." - Mark Martin after Saturday night’s Busch race at Charlotte
CONCORD, N.C. (May 27, 2006) -– Mark Martin wrote the record book on Busch racing at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, including a record six career wins, but his return to Busch racing at the track went anything but smoothly on Saturday night. Martin ran over a spring after Tony Stewart crashed into the wall on just the 10th lap of the race, causing severe damage to the front end of Martin’s car. The team was able to repair the car under caution and it appeared they would stay on the lead lap, until Martin had a tire go down on the left rear just before the field was about to go green on lap 22. Martin had to come into the pits and change the tire, resulting in Martin going a lap down. That, combined with a severe problem with the car’s steering and mechanical failure with just 12 laps to go, resulted in a long night for Martin and his No. 6 Ameriqest Racing Team.
“This was a pretty tough night for the team,” said Martin. “We had a really good car and were able to qualify the Ameriquest Ford up front, but we ran over a spring or something after the 33 car hit the wall and we had a flat under caution and went a lap down. Still everyone hung in there and we tried to fight it out to the end, but we had a problem there late and finally had to retire. I do think we were able to try a lot of stuff and it makes me feel better about our setup for the Cup car in the 600 tomorrow night.”
Martin will return to Busch action in July at Chicago. He will return to action in the Craftsman Truck Series next week at Dover. On the season Martin has two top-five finishes in four starts in the Busch series.
Roush Racing is a subsidiary of Livonia, Mich., based Roush Enterprises which operates 14 motorsports teams; five in NASCAR Nextel Cup with drivers Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards, six in the Busch Series with Martin, Kenseth, Biffle, Edwards, Todd Kluever and Danny O'Quinn, Jr., and two in the Craftsman Truck Series with Martin, David Ragan, Michel Jourdain, Jr. and Erik Darnell.

Mark Martin races with respect
By Mike Finney
delawareonline ¦ The News Journal
May 30, 2006
If NASCAR were to hire a Professor of Racing Etiquette to teach young drivers what is expected of them in the Nextel Cup Series, they would march directly to Mark Martin.
Since Martin joined forces with car owner Jack Roush in 1988, he has rarely been involved in anything controversial, on or off the racetrack.
Martin's outlook on racing is far different than the new generation of drivers such as Kurt and Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart and even four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon, who have had their share of skirmishes.
Martin is from another era, when only one driver -- Dale Earnhardt Sr. -- gained notoriety for using his front bumper to move cars out of his way.
"I've always tried to race people the way I wanted to be raced," Martin said. "I never wanted to be robbed, and so I never wanted to rob anyone.
"I had to fix my own wrecked race cars for a lot of years, and I had to race against a lot of people who had to fix their own race cars for a lot of years, and we raced hard and put on fierce races and had great shows. But we didn't run over each other, because we neither could afford it or had time to fix them."
Martin's style has served him well throughout his career. He has 35 victories in the Cup Series, and has won a record 47 races in the Busch Series.
His last Cup win came at Kansas Speedway in October. The 47-year-old, who is in his final season in Nextel Cup, also won at Dover International Speedway in June 2004.
Martin is looking forward to Sunday's Neighborhood Excellence 400 presented by Bank of America at Dover's high-banked, one-mile concrete oval.
"My expectations are extremely high for Dover," Martin said. "I think everybody knows I love this track. We're always excited about coming to race here. I haven't always had the best result, but since we've learned how to keep the air in the tires, we've had good results almost every time."
Martin has won four times at Dover, tying Gordon for the most wins among active drivers at the speedway. He has 24 top-10 finishes in 39 races at the track.
He showed extreme patience in winning in June 2004 while 30 other drivers crashed, including a 19-car pileup with 53 laps remaining.
Last June, Martin had high praise for Kyle Busch after the then 20-year-old was the only driver to compete in all three NASCAR races at Dover. Martin finished third to the victorious Busch in the Craftsman Truck Series race at Dover last spring.
"Kyle, to me, looked exactly the same way he has almost every time I ever watched him," Martin said. "He looked like he's been doing it for 15 years."
Those are the kinds of words for which Martin has gained a reputation. That, and being known as the best driver to never have won a Cup championship. He finished second in the points standings four times (1990, '94, '98 and 2002).
"I honestly think that the one thing people bring up first is that he left here and didn't win a championship, but I think everybody will overlook all that when they think of Mark Martin right off the bat," Stewart said. "I think that's the third or fourth thought that will come across their minds, as far as what he's done for this sport as a mentor to so many drivers.
"How he's really helped establish the etiquette of this sport is something I'll really remember him for. He's always been a very competitive driver, but he's a driver that everybody respects just because he's very fair about how he races everybody. He's very patient, and he's best at teaching other drivers about it."
Martin has earned the respect of Stewart and the other recent champions, who know he represents a more gentlemanly time in the sport rather than today's overly aggressive Chase for the Nextel Cup, where every race seems like it is do-or-die.
"Mark Martin has a great etiquette on the racetrack, shows a lot of courtesy," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. "He races really hard, drives his car really hard, but he treats people on the track with a lot of respect.
"But when it's time to go, time to race, he can get what he needs out of his car. Mark Martin is probably the guy that holds class every week for all of us that are still learning and still trying to understand a lot of the things that are going on out on the racetrack."
Martin has developed his reputation by not putting himself in a circumstance where he might find himself in the middle of controversy.
If he is in front of another car and believes the other driver is faster than him, he will move over and let him pass.
Chances are, Martin will see the driver again later in the race, heading in the opposite direction.
"I think Mark Martin's always one of the best gentleman-type racers out there," Gordon said. "He's a guy, even when he's in the lead, and he doesn't have the car that maybe the guy behind him has, he's really great at moving over, working on his car, getting his stuff better, then going back after those guys later."
Gordon admits he admires Martin for his driving style, but does wonder if drivers have to be more aggressive under the new Chase for the Nextel Cup points format.
"I think every year the sport gets more intense," Gordon said. "I think that there is a lot on the line. Every race and every lap is extremely crucial to a team's chemistry and their performance.
"Everything is so intensified, just by the competition getting tougher. Every race, you've got to perform. You've got to have good, consistent finishes to be able to be in the Chase and to have a shot at the championship."
Martin said if he does get a shot to capture that elusive Cup title at the end of this season, there will definitely not be a lack of fire sitting in his driver's seat. He is third in the points standings entering this week.
"I would have to think that people who have raced me would say that I'm a fierce driver. I believe I'm a fierce driver," Martin said. "I believe I've raced with great ferocity.
"Also, there is that other side of me, which there's not a lot of room for in today's racing. That era is pretty much going by the wayside."

Roush teams withdraw from Lowe's testing
News-Record.com - Greensboro, North Carolina: Sports
By Dustin Long - Staff Writer
May 29, 2006
CONCORD -- Car owner Jack Roush says his teams won't take part in NASCAR's test of the car of tomorrow this week at Lowe's Motor Speedway because the car has changed.
Roush said he wasn't at a meeting last week that discussed the car, which will be used in select races next season, but said his understanding is NASCAR will shorten the car as much as six inches because of an aerodynamic imbalance.
"My point was that the car that we've got doesn't have the front end exactly right and it doesn't have the back end exactly right ... and for us to go out and try to do front splitter development and rear wing development would be a waste of time," Roush said. "So, it's morphing into something that I hope will do what we need for it to do, but it's definitely a work in progress."
NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp said series officials are considering shortening the car but have not decided to make the change.
"We're taking a look at the body of the car," Tharp said. "The (rear) wing gives us some aerodynamic things we didn't know. There is a possibility that we could shorten the car on the (rear) bumper. The chassis of it is set. With the wings we found some things in the wind tunnel. We're going to take a look at it out here."
Tharp said the next test for the car is scheduled for August at Michigan International Speedway. Among the drivers expected to participate in at least part of the test are Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Newman, Jeff Burton and Brian Vickers.

Mark Martin Post Race Notes and Quotes - Coca-Cola 600
Ford Racing: News
May 29, 2006
MARK MARTIN - No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion (Finished 4th)
"I'd say for the first time with the new asphalt it get an A. You don't get many of those. It was a good run by the AAA Fusion. The team was the best we've been on pit road all year. I think we can take this and build on it. If we can take this and put her in the chase maybe and keep getting better. If we can keep getting better once we get in the chase, then we'll have a shot at this thing.”
WAS PATIENCE A KEY?
"We ran pretty good in the middle of the race. We were off at the beginning and off at the two-third mark, and then got better again late. It's a 600-mile race and I didn't forget it.”
DID YOU GET TIRED OF PITTING ALL THOSE TIMES?
"I was wishing we weren't having to, but it was a good race. It's all good. I want to compliment Goodyear. It was a hard tire to drive on, but it was a good race."

Mark Martin Post Qualifying Notes and Quotes - Coca-Cola 600
Ford Racing: News
May 26, 2006
MARK MARTIN - No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion (Qualified 21st)
"I just told Todd Zeigler that I love driving his car. What a special guy he is here. It was a terrible draw. That will be 20th or 25th or something like that, but for when we went that's sweet. It was a good job by the AAA team and it's too bad we didn't have these qualifying deals switched around to where it started later so it was more equal on the draw. But I'm sure proud of these guys. It really is neat to drive their car."

NASCAR's Roush team likes its aero advantage
By Rick Minter
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
May 25, 2006
CONCORD, N.C. — A near-fatal plane crash would cause the average pilot to consider relying on commercial airlines.
But not for NASCAR team owner Jack Roush. Four years ago he hit a wire above a lake while flying a friend's airplane in rural Alabama and had to be pulled from the submerged craft by a bystander.
Roush said that in the days after his crash he enjoyed telling people that he didn't plan on flying anymore. Then he'd deliver the punch line: "But I don't plan on flying any less either."
He has been true to his word.
And he couldn't be more proud that four of his five Nextel Cup drivers — Mark Martin, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards — are accomplished pilots, too. Jamie McMurray is the only non-flier of the bunch.
Roush says it's natural for a skilled racer to be a capable pilot.
"There's a river that runs through people who are competitive and like to find perfection in themselves, with regard to their personal performance in complex situations," Roush said. "Airplanes, in that way, are a lot like race cars."
Although Martin said he flies mostly out of necessity, he understands how racing and flying are similar and how a shared interest creates team camaraderie.
"It doesn't make us work better together on or off the race track, but it does make us more compatible, and it can bring you closer together," Martin said.
The other members of "Roush Air" seem to be more passionate about flying.
"I think Matt and Carl and Greg and myself all are fascinated by the miracle of flight and understand the part a pilot plays in that," Roush said. "We're not career aviators, but we certainly enjoy the same excitement that career aviators do. For the limited time we're in the airplane we get the same kind of satisfaction as a pilot who really enjoys his work."
Edwards, who owns and flies a Piper Saratoga and a Piper Meridian, seems as exuberant about aviation as he is about racing. He said that if his racing career hadn't panned out, his back-up plan was to fly in the Air Force.
"I saw 'Top Gun' and thought that would be the coolest thing in the world," he said. "I love it. I envy fighter pilots. I was born to fly."
Kenseth, who recently obtained his pilot's license, has graduated from a single engine Cessna 182 to a twin-engine Cessna 340, which he flies to most East Coast races and appearances. He said flying involves more technical procedures than racing, but there are similarities.
"In racing you want to make it to the end, and you never want to wreck," he said. "That part is the same in flying."
Kenseth said his new-found interest has brought him closer to his team owner and boss.
"It gives me something easy to talk to Jack about when you're kind of out of something to talk about or you don't want the focus on what happened at the race last week," he said. "He's more fired up to talk about aviation than racing a lot of times."
Roush owns everything from three Boeing 727s, used to transport his race teams, to a small Piper Cub capable of top speeds around 65 mph. His prized plane is a P-51 Mustang, a restored World War II warbird that he flies on a regular basis. He's building another P-51 from plans obtained from the Smithsonian and expects to have it flying soon. The P-51 is one of the best-known warbirds from the second world war. It's powerful — as much as 1,600 horsepower — and capable of speeds to 400 knots. Restored P-51s can fetch more than $3 million today.
The plane's role in history fascinates Roush.
"The outcome of [World War II] had a lot to do with that airplane," he said. "Remembering the heroes who flew them and being a custodian of the technology from that time is pretty special to me."

2006 Mark Martin Track Notes - Sunday - May 28, 2006
Coca-Cola 600 / Lowe's Motor Speedway
No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion
May 24, 2006
DRIVER: Mark Martin
TEAM: No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion
OWNER: Jack Roush
CREW CHIEF: Pat Tryson
THE CAR
Chassis: RK-314 last ran in Texas, where it finished 11th. It finished second in its other run this season at Atlanta.
MARK MARTIN FAST FACTS - LOWE'S MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Mark Martin has four wins at Lowe's Motor Speedway, including the 2002 Coke 600.

Martin has 20 top-10 and 16 top-five finishes at Lowe's. The 20 top-10's are the most of any driver.

Martin has led 1,148 laps at Lowe's, the most of any active driver.

Martin has won six Busch races at Lowe's and two All-Star events (1998 and 2005).

Martin finished fifth at Lowe's last fall and won the All-Star race there in 2005.

Martin will make his 650th career Cup start this week at Lowe's.

Martin will take part in Cup, Busch and Truck races as well as the All-Star race in the next two weeks.

QUOTING MARK MARTIN AND CREW CHIEF PAT TRYSON ON LOWE'S MOTOR SPEEDWAY - NEXTEL CUP
Mark Martin:
"I tell you what I love about Lowe's Motor Speedway. In my opinion, it's the greatest place to race in the world. I can remember the first time that I ever went there in 1981 and thinking 'wow' this is just like a small quarter-mile track somewhere, except it's huge, but you could race just like that. Every time I go there, the first thing I do after the first lap is radio the team and tell them how awesome that track is. We were competitive in the All-Star last week, so I'm more optimistic going into the 600 this week.
"It's just been great driving these cars that the AAA Team give me each week. We were competitive again last weekend in the All-Star and we've had great cars all year. Pat Tryson and the team have done an excellent job with the cars this year and we are looking forward to having an even better car for the 600 this weekend and hopefully we can stay out of the wrecks and hang around long enough to compete for the win down the stretch."
Pat Tryson:
"We ended up having a pretty good car at the All-Star before we got in the wreck there, so we are pretty excited about going back this weekend, hopefully with a better piece. There is still a lot to learn about the new surface and you have to be careful with the setup, but we ran pretty good in the race on Saturday, so we'll just have to build on that and hopefully we can be competitive for a win."

2006 Mark Martin Track Notes - Saturday - May 27, 2006
Carquest Auto Parts 300 / Lowe's Motor Speedway
No. 6 Ameriquest Ford Fusion
May 24, 2006
DRIVER: Mark Martin
TEAM: No. 6 Ameriquest Ford Fusion
OWNER: Jack Roush
CREW CHIEF: Mike Beam
THE CAR
Chassis: RK-356 Brand new chassis that the team tested at Lowe's two weeks ago.
MARTIN ON RACING AT LOWE'S MOTOR SPEEDWAY - BUSCH SERIES
"Lowe's is probably my favorite track and we are excited about running the Ameriquest Ford in the Busch race. It's been a few years since we ran Charlotte in a Busch car, but we've had a lot of success there over the years and it should be a lot of fun to get back out there and see if we can take up where we left off."

Martin's Night Ends in Big One at All-Star Challenge
Mark Martin and the #6 AAA Racing Team
Lowe's Motor Speedway/May 20, 2006
Martin’s bid for back-to-back All-Star wins came to a crashing halt in multi-car accident on lap 48
“I came here to race and that’s what I was doing…I had another car that could contend for it…I was just in the wrong place and got collected.” - Mark Martin after Saturday night’s All-Star Race
CONCORD, N.C. – Mark Martin won last season’s Nextel All-Star Challenge in grand fashion, taking the checkered flag in one of the more memorable night’s in Lowe’s Motor Speedway history. Saturday night his bid for consecutive victories in the all-star event came to a crashing halt on lap 48 with Martin again battling for the lead. Martin had restarted second after a 10-car inversion after the race’s first segment. He took the lead on lap 41 and was battling Kasey Kahne for the lead, when Kahne lost control of his No. 9 car, drifted up the track and into Martin, causing a massive multi-car accident that would put an end to Martin’s night and bid for victory.
“It looks like it got away from Kasey there,” said Martin. “I came here to race and that’s what I was doing. I had me a great AAA Fusion and the fans are getting a great show. It’s an honor to be driving this stuff. I had another car that could contend for it. I got a little help with the inversion there and overcoming our start. If I had to do it over again, I’d have to do exactly what I did. I was in the wrong place and got collected.”
The Nextel All-Star Challenge is a 90-lap event, divided into three segments, with the first segment consisting of 40 laps, the second 30 laps and the final a 20-lap dash to the checkered flag. Qualifying consist of a two-lap run and a pit stop, and after a lug nut penalty during the session, Martin started the event in 16th position of 20 cars, after persistent rains delayed the race’s start. Martin’s car started out ‘loose’, as he and the team attempted to get a handle on the newly repaved surface at Lowe’s.
The car’s handling began to turn around and Martin had driven to 13th position by the time the team came in for a mandatory four-tire pit stop on lap 18. A quick stop of 13.5-seconds advanced Martin four positions to ninth once the field had cycled through on lap 29. Martin was still running in ninth when the evening’s second caution was issued on lap 33 after Kurt Busch lost the engine on his No. 2 car. The rains began to pick up forced a 20-minute delay in the race. Once the rain subsided, Martin restarted in ninth and held on to the position for the final six laps of the segment.
The field’s top-10 was inverted and Martin restarted in second, taking the lead just one lap into the segment. Moment’s later his No. 6 AAA Fusion would be slammed into the wall, taking on severe damage on both sides, as seven of the field’s 20 cars were caught up in the accident.
Martin and the team will return to action again next weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in the Coca-Cola 600, where Martin won in 2002.

Late Accident Costs Martin Shot at Victory at Lowe`s
Mark Martin and the #6 Scotts Racing Team
Lowe's Motor Speedway/May 19, 2006
“Mike (Beam) and the guys did a good job…We had a strong truck, but we got behind and we couldn’t get up front.” - Mark Martin after Friday’s Quaker Steak and Lube 200
CONCORD, N.C. (May 19, 2006) – Mark Martin started 10th, drove to second and looked poised to make a run at his third Craftsman Truck Series victory of the season, before contact with the lapped truck of Bobby Hamilton Jr. brought a premature end to Martin’s bid at victory in his first career start in the truck series at Charlotte. Martin restarted in fourth place after the race’s fourth caution on lap 99, but just one lap later Hamilton Jr. came down on Martin, cutting his left rear tire and forcing the night’s fifth caution. Martin came into the pits for new tires and for the crew to repair extensive damage to the rear panel of the truck. He returned in 19th position, but was able to drive back to 13th position in the race’s final laps.
“We had a really good truck and were able to run up front most of the night,” said Martin. “Mike (Beam) and the guys did another great job and I’m not sure if we could have won there, but we would have liked to have been able to take a shot at it.”
Martin qualified 10th earlier in the day and moved to sixth by lap 40 of the race. He came into the pits for the first time of the evening on lap 48, to take on four tires, fuel and make a track-bar adjustment. Excellent work by the No. 6 Scotts crew resulted in Martin gaining four positions on pit road, returning in second when green flag racing resumed on lap 51. Martin would not run outside the top-four again, until the incident with Hamilton Jr. on lap 100.
Martin will return to action in the truck series in two weeks at Dover, where Martin boasts four victories in the Cup series, including one in 2004.

Mark Martin Post Race Notes & Quotes - All-Star Challenge
Ford Racing: News
May 21, 2006
MARK MARTIN -- No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion (Finished 15th)
IN THE 600 WITH COLD TIRES WILL IT BE A CONCERN?
"You don't have to have cold tires to wreck like that. All you've got to do is just give it too much gas."
WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE WRECK?
"It looks like it got away from Kasey there. I came here to race and that's what I was doing. I had me a great AAA Fusion and the fans are getting a great show. It's an honor to be driving this stuff. I had another car that could contend for it. I got a little help with the inversion there and overcoming our start. If I had to do it over again, I'd have to do exactly what I did. I was in the wrong place and got collected."
JAMIE SAID YOU TALKED TO HIM ABOUT THE INCIDENT EARLY. WHAT HAPPENED?
"I made a couple of runs at him and he didn't give it up, and I made another run at him down there and got real close to him and he wiggled and I got into him. Stuff like that happens when you don't yield to a faster car I guess. That's why I usually get out of the way if somebody is all over me."

Jamie McMurray Post Race Notes & Quotes - All-Star Challenge
Ford Racing: News
May 21, 2006
JAMIE MCMURRAY -- No. 26 Irwin Ford Fusion (Finished 18th)
DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING FOR NEXT WEEK?
"It's not a big secret that we've struggled, especially on mile and a halves this season, but we actually felt like -- the first run we weren't that good and Bob adjusted on the car and we did learn some stuff to bring back to the 600 so that's somewhat encouraging. The cars have been very tough for me to drive this year and we haven't really been able to hit on what we need, but I think we might have found something today so that's encouraging."
DID MARK TALK TO YOU ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED IN THE FIRST SEGMENT?
"Yeah, he said, 'I'll take the blame for that.' I said, 'What happened?' And he said that I just got underneath you and I saw you wiggle and that was kind of it. It's the all-star race and I know Mark's side of that. He was racing me pretty hard. You want to let guys go, but I didn't ever really feel like he was far enough underneath me to let him go and then I got spun out. It's very unfortunate to have one of your teammates do that, but Mark and me, even when I wasn't with Roush Racing, always had a good relationship and it'll stop here. You can't let something like that go on. He didn't mean to do it, he's just racing hard."
WHAT HAPPENED ON THE BIG WRECK?
"I don't know. It looks like a Talladega wreck when all that happens. It happens so fast and there are only like six cars in front of you that the spotter just barely mumbled something and then he didn't say anything so I knew what was happening. It's just a big wreck and you hope you make it through and we didn't."

Kasey Kahne Post Race Notes & Quotes - All-Star Challenge
Dodge Motorsports
May 20, 2006
KASEY KAHNE -- No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger (Finished 14th)
"We went off the corner and everything was good and the next thing I knew it was backwards. I was just trying to get the lead and everything felt good all the way to the exit of the corner. Mark was tucked up beside me and took the air off my car, not a lot of grip as there is with this hard tire on this race surface. We're doing all we can to get these cars around it and instantly it was gone. It's nobody's fault. They made a super hard tire so it would last and we wouldn't blow out a right front. I had grip all the way through. I was surprised. Everything was good and the next thing I knew it was backwards and I was right in front of the whole pack. It was a bad deal. We won't be taking this car to the 600. It's going to be a long race. Obviously this race is a shootout. You want to go for everything. The 600 everybody is going to be cautious. If you're not cautious you're going to be crashed. We need to gain points. You're going to have to take it easy if you want to finish the race."

Mark Martin Says Coca-Cola 600 is a Longer Version Of the NASCAR All-Star Challenge
May 2, 2006
In the span of just eight days at Lowe's Motor Speedway, the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series goes from running its shortest race-the NASCAR All-Star Challenge on Saturday night, May 20-to its longest-the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday evening, May 28. The NASCAR NEXTEL All-Star Challenge, run in three segments totaling 135 miles, used to be a sprint race, and the Coca-Cola 600 was a 600-mile endurance test. But now young, aggressive drivers and more durable, equally matched cars have combined to make the 600 a longer version of the all-star race.
"The NEXTEL All-Star Challenge is a series of short runs," said Mark Martin, who won last year's all-star event and claimed the Coca-Cola 600 trophy in 2002. "But that's all we've got in Cup anymore. These races are just a series of 'short squirts.' You can't give up speed anymore figuring to get it back the last 20 percent of a fuel run. That's how you won races in the past, but that won't work anymore."
Teams used to bring fast, experimental cars to the all-star race and then use more conservative, durable machines for the 600. No more. While most teams still use separate cars, there isn't much difference in the engines or chassis setups.
"Six hundred miles is still a long way, but I expect it to be a series of quite a few short runs," said Martin. "To win, you'll have to race smart and do everything right. It's probably going to be difficult for any one driver to have a dominant car."
Martin has stood the test of time and no one currently racing in NASCAR has more time-honored wisdom than the 47-year-old veteran from Batesville, Ark. He first raced in what is now the NEXTEL Cup Series in 1981 and is the all-time leader in Busch Series victories.
Four times Martin has finished second in the Cup point standings. He's been fourth in each of the past two seasons and has finished in the top-five a whopping 12 times. When Martin won last year's NASCAR NEXTEL All-Star Challenge, many saw it as the great farewell victory of his career as 2005 was supposed to be his final season as a full-time NEXTEL Cup driver.
In fact, after Martin's victory in the all-star race, team owner Jack Roush said, "I'm holding out hope that this won't be Mark's last Challenge," and, at the time, most thought the remark had been made at least partly in jest.
But at Roush's behest, Martin eventually reconsidered his plans for 2006 and is back in the seat of the No. 6 AAA Ford. In fact, Martin is racing more than ever and is scheduled to compete in each of the four major races this month at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
Martin will defend his title in the NEXTEL All-Star Challenge and attempt to win a second Coca-Cola 600 trophy. The CARQUEST Auto Parts 300 on Saturday night, May 27, could turn out to be Martin's seventh Busch Series victory at LMS, and he will also compete in the May 19 Quaker Steak & Lube 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race.
"I had fun last year, which was really cool," Martin said. "It was the best year of my life professionally and personally, so I just want everybody to make sure they know they're talking to a guy who had a blast last year.
"I've got a lot of balls in the air. Jack (Roush) has a strategy that says, 'Don't worry about it. I know you. Just go have fun with it this year. The pressure is off and you might do better than you ever have.' Boy that sounds real good to me."
Tickets for all May events at Lowe's Motor Speedway, including the May 20 NASCAR NEXTEL All-Star Challenge and the May 28 Coca-Cola 600, can be purchased by calling 1-800-455-FANS or online at www.lowesmotorspeedway.com.

Mark Martin Rap Anthem Set to Debut All-Star Weekend
Title of Official Anthem is "Start Your Engines"

Concord, N.C.(May 19, 2006) – When it comes to musical taste, not many people know that Mark Martin, driver of the No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion, is a big fan of rap music. Yes, that’s right, rap. When he’s not piloting the No. 6 Ford Fusion for Roush Racing in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series, Martin is listening to beats that fill the Billboard charts. With this knowledge, the owners of Round House Multimedia set out to produce what would ultimately become the official Mark Martin rap anthem, “Start Your Engines”.
Derrick Garrett and Kevin Dent, owners of Round House Multimedia, contacted Sam Belnavis, Chief Diversity Officer and Owner Designate for the Craftsman Truck Series for Roush Racing, with the idea back in December 2005 in an effort to help build the diversity bridge.
“Rap is a universal language among the music population and Mark’s anthem will certainly add to the popularity of the music,” said Dent.
The project has now evolved into a two minute and 39 second song covering Martin’s career dating back to the start of his career in Arkansas through the present time. With 35 NEXTEL Cup, 47 Busch and three Truck Series wins to date in addition to a record five IROC championships, recording artist Budda Early has plenty to rap about. Martin also maintains the record of most consecutive starts in the Cup series, currently at 591.
“Mark and I go back a long time,” said Belnavis. “He was the first driver to drive the Miller High Life Gold race car during my Miller days. It’s an honor to present Mark with his own anthem that will further immortalize his contributions to our sport.”
As for Martin, he can’t believe his career has been converted into a product that he enjoys.
“I consider it an honor that there are people in the rap music industry that feel I am deserving of my own rap anthem.” Martin continued, “The song sounds great and I hope all my fans enjoy listening to it as much as I do.”
The Mark Martin rap anthem will debut during the NEXTEL All-Star weekend (Martin won the 2005 event). To listen to a clip of the song, click here. To purchase a copy of the song, please visit the official Roush Racing gift shop located in Concord, N.C. or the official Mark Martin trackside merchandise trailer.
About Roush Racing:
Roush Racing is a subsidiary of Livonia, Mich., based Roush Entersprises which operates 13 motorsports teams; five in NASCAR Nextel Cup with drivers Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards, six in the Busch Series with Martin, Kenseth, Biffle, Edwards, Todd Kluever and Danny O'Quinn, and three in the Craftsman Truck Series with Martin, David Ragan, Erik Darnell and Michel Jourdain.

Martin's Challenge
By Jerry Bonkowski, Yahoo! May 19, 2006
CONCORD, N.C. – Opinions of Mark Martin vary widely.
To some, he's the most hard-nosed racer in NASCAR. To others, he's nothing short of a whiner and pessimist.
But either way, there's no disputing that he's a man's man.
That fact becomes clear when talking about Saturday's Nextel All-Star Challenge at Lowe's Motor Speedway, the exhibition race that Martin won last year in emotional fashion.
When asked whether the format of the points-free, $1 million-payoff event lends itself to teams and drivers playing the inversion game – letting up in the first two rounds so as to have a strong starting spot in the final 20-lap shootout – Martin doesn't mince words.
"Only sissies play that game; you're not talking to a sissy," Martin said Friday.
Martin is hard to understand at times, but there's no misunderstanding his motivation as a driver. He's old school, giving it his all while going for it all.
To Martin, anything less than going all out, all the time in the Challenge is cheating the fans, the competition level and the core concept of the event.
"I try to win every segment," said Martin, who will make his 17th career start in the Challenge on Saturday. "That's what the fans pay for. If you're so cheap that you've got to play some other game, have at it. I'm here to whoop you.
"Ninety percent of my career, I've tried to set fast times and come from the inversion to win. The real men set fast times, come from the back and win. That's what the real men do."
Some drivers take a laissez-faire approach to the Challenge, while others are focused solely on that $1 million prize. For Martin, it's about going for the jugular right from the first drop of the green flag.
"The money, the trophy, ego, pride, what drives you? It's all big in this race," Martin said. "It doesn't matter what drives you."
It's not uncommon for drivers to position themselves for better starting spots in the final segment rather than simply trying to win and risk starting at the rear in the final dash. But Martin believes that coming from the back is what fans want to see. Simply, it's more exciting that way.
"That's the essence of the race, the heart of the race," said Martin, who also won the 1998 Challenge, known back then as The Winston. "I have always tried to win every segment, and I try to finish as high as I can, no matter what."
As for those drivers who do lay back for position? They don't even belong in the race, according to Martin. Rather, reward the guys who work for it.
"This race is designed to try to put the guy who should win at a disadvantage and at a challenge," Martin said. "If a guy that should win is challenged greatly, it is a good show – even if he wins, because he had to overcome great obstacles. It's set-up to mix it up and make it exciting for the fans."
So let the sissies race like, well, sissies. Let 'em hang back so they can start the next segment higher. Let 'em worry about strategy rather than simple pedal-to-the-metal racing.
All the while, Martin will be racing hard. That's what separates the men from the boys.
"I just want to win it again" he said.

Mark Martin, left, and team owner Jack Roush, right, checks monitors in the garage area during practice for Saturday's NASCAR Nextel All-Star Challenge at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., Friday, May 19, 2006. (AP Photo/Rick Havner)
This time, Martin won't be talked out of retirement
By Jenna Fryer
AP Motorsports Writer
May 19, 2006
CONCORD, N.C. (AP) - Amid confetti and champagne after last year's All-Star win, it became abundantly clear that Mark Martin was already having second thoughts about ending his Nextel Cup career.
"Thank you guys! Thank you!'' Martin screamed as he crossed the finish line. "I'll be back next year if you give me a ride!''
At that moment, Martin was only considering coming back for another Nextel All-Star Challenge. But as the months dragged on and his car owner struggled to find a suitable replacement, Martin was talked into postponing his retirement for another year.
So here he is a year later, in his second farewell tour with time running out on an illustrious 25-year career. He'll make what is supposed to be his final appearance in the Nextel All-Star Challenge on Saturday night, when he'll attempt to defend his title.
Then he'll finish out the season, which he's certain will be his last of full-time Nextel Cup racing.
"I never say never because how many times can you get away with that?'' he said. "But I will say I am not going run another full schedule. I have 13 more weekends off in 2007 than I will have in 2006, and no event is going to get those - no broadcasting, no racing.''
His family isn't so convinced that Martin will be able to walk away so cleanly.
"All this changing his mind, he's starting to look like an idiot!'' his 14-year-old son, Matt, said Friday. "He said last year was going to be his last, then he came back this year. Now this year is going to be his last, but then he says maybe not.
"I think the problem is how much he knows he's going to miss it.''
Perhaps that's what happened to Martin last year, when Jack Roush twisted his arm to return to the No. 6 Ford.
Roush didn't have anyone ready - or worthy - to step into one of the most respected rides in NASCAR, and Martin refused to leave his longtime car owner in a lurch.
The only problem was that Martin had already committed to running a significant portion of the Craftsman Truck Series schedule. He also agreed to some Busch Series races, and to the IROC schedule.
So, instead of scaling back, Martin is doing more than ever. So much so, that his wife is eager to find the light at the end of the tunnel.
"I told him `No more,''' Arlene Martin said. "I'm ready for him to be home and I think he will be unless something really, really exceptional comes along.''
A full truck schedule has already come along for 2007, and few people would be surprised if Martin isn't talked into another race here or there. It can sneak up on a guy like Martin, who is passionate about racing and winning.
"I'm no Kenny Schrader, but I am racing quite a bit this year - that's for sure,'' he said. "I just wound up involved in a lot.''
But all that racing takes energy and desire, something the 47-year-old Martin sometimes struggles to find within himself. He's feeling good right now, in fourth in the points and in solid position to make the Chase for the championship.
That's always the way he's wanted to go out - at the top of the game - and a title wouldn't be too bad, either. Martin has famously failed to win one over his career, something his fellow drivers hope doesn't stain his legacy.
"I honestly think the one thing people will bring up first when they talk about Mark Martin is that he left here and didn't win a championship,'' two-time champion Tony Stewart said. "But I really think people need to overlook that because that should be third or fourth on what he's remembered for.
"I think what he's done for this sport as far as mentoring so many drivers, how he really established the etiquette for this sport, and how he's always been a really competitive driver are more important. There is not one driver in this series that doesn't have the utmost respect for Mark Martin as a driver.''
Martin is constantly cited as the example on how to correctly do things on and off the track. His dominance of the Busch Series, he has a record 47 victories, is envied. And his skill is unquestioned and backed by his five IROC titles.
But Martin doesn't waste time trying to figure out what his spot in NASCAR history will be.
"I just want to be remembered,'' he said.

Driver Mark Martin smiles during an interview at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., Friday, May 19, 2006.
Martin is the defending champion for Saturday's 135-mile All-Star Challenge auto race. (AP Photo/Rick Havner)

Martin doesn't make enemies
By Jim Gintonio
Arizona Republic
May 18, 2006
Cheap shots, reckless driving and, at times, just plain stupidity.
It would be hard to find a driver in NASCAR, a world where alpha males rule, who at one time or another hasn't resorted to a bit of ungentlemanly behavior to gain the upper hand.
Then there's Mark Martin.
He drives hard and smart, like the others do, but here's the thing about the 47-year-old veteran: He knows when to draw the line.
Martin is usually on the top of rivals' list when they're asked to name "Mr. Clean."
A big reason is probably that he's from a different era than many of his Nextel Cup competitors, and he believes respect is a two-way street.
"I've always tried to race people the way I wanted to be raced," Martin said in a conference call. "I never wanted to be robbed, and so I never wanted to rob anyone. I had to fix my own wrecked cars for a lot of years, and I had to race against a lot of people who had to fix their own race cars for a lot of years, and we raced hard and put on fierce races and had great shows.
"But we didn't run over each other because we neither could afford it nor had time to fix them . . . I believe I've raced with great ferocity. Also, there is that other side of me, which there's not a lot of room for in today's racing. That era is pretty much going by the wayside."
Martin, presumably in his encore season in the Cup series, defends his All-Star Challenge title Saturday at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., a non-points race, as he tries to join Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon as three-time winners. Next season, he plans to drive full time in the Craftsman Truck Series.
Martin is fourth in the Cup standings, and he would like nothing better than to go out on top, with his first championship. He is a four-time series runner-up.
But there is one thing that could make him re-evaluate his future, and that's how rapidly his 14-year-old son, Matt, develops. The kid won a late-model race last week - something he told his father about while Martin was racing around the track in the Dodge Charger 500 in Darlington, S.C.
Like any dad, Martin worries, something that reached the point of a premonition on the afternoon of his son's victory.
"I had an urge to call and tell him not to race," he said. "I just didn't feel good about it. I wasn't going to be there, and not that it wouldn't make any difference, but I felt like I know they have a lot of crashes in that division. I was just uneasy about it."
The kid came through without a problem. He's racing only an abbreviated schedule at this point, just enough to keep him motivated and interested, Martin said. He wishes he could be there for every race, saying that sharing track experiences with his son is special.
"It was cool for him to tell me while I was still on the racetrack at Darlington how things turned out . . . really happy," he said.
And speaking of cool, how about this?
Dr. M is in the house!
Never heard of him? Well, he just happens to be the best rapper in the land . . . of NASCAR.
Martin, apparently with too much time on his hands, will debut his rap tribute to auto racing today at the Lowe's Motor Speedway.
"I'm 47," Martin said. "Most people don't expect me to listen to rap and hip hop, but I do and I really like it."
Surprised?
This explanation from Martin may illuminate a few things: "I'm driving by myself, and the radio station I was listening to, AC/DC comes on, and I get myself a headache. And I do have brain damage from listening to AC/DC at painful levels of volume."

Winston-Salem Journal | Martin, Busch struggle in testing
By Mike Mulhern
May 19, 2006
Mark Martin, last year's all-star race winner, got a head start on his competition here by Truck testing yesterday for tonight's 200-mile race. But Martin was yesterday's first victim, cutting a right-front tire and slamming the wall on his third lap.
When Kyle Busch followed with two cut tires, including one that sent him into the wall, there were questions whether Goodyear - going with a thinner-gauge rubber to counter heat buildup - might have gone too thin with its tires and taken out too much cut resistance.
But Goodyear's Rick Heinrich said there were no unusual problems yesterday, that it was a computer sensor that cut Martin's tire, and that a pop-rivet apparently cut Busch's tires.
Busch, a second-year Nextel Cup star making a rare Truck start this week, said he's been trying to keep a lower profile the past few weeks. Busch has had a run of mishaps from Daytona to Texas: "It's very difficult to make good news for yourself, but it's very easy to make bad news for yourself."
Tires weren't the only stories yesterday at Lowe's Motor Speedway. So was Toyota.
First, when it comes to NASCAR's Truck tour, the hot nameplate is Toyota. Second, this month's hot story in the Nextel Cup garage has also been Toyota. Toyota teams have been the subject of a war of words, highlighted by last weekend's announcement by Michael Waltrip that he has hired Dale Jarrett as his Toyota Cup teammate for 2007 and 2008, and perhaps beyond.
The hottest Toyota driver in NASCAR is Todd Bodine, who has won five of the past eight Truck races and who leads the tour standings, ahead of teammate Ted Musgrave. The two ran 1-2 the last time out, at St. Louis' Gateway track three weeks ago.
So, with Toyota's Cup teams and executives apparently running out of time to line up all the six or seven Nextel Cup drivers they'll need next year, Bodine, 42 and a 14-year NASCAR veteran, would seem a logical option. But Bodine said he has had no calls, and said he's having so much fun running for the Germain brothers (who own a number of luxury-car dealerships with $1 billion a year in sales) that it would take "a boatload of money to leave."
Bodine said he and the Germains have studied stepping up to Cup racing with Toyota. But they haven't found sponsorship for what he estimates would be a $20 million to $30 million step.
So Bodine said he, like his fellow drivers, is just studying Goodyear's new rock-hard tire and Humpy Wheeler's new, smooth-and-fast asphalt: "It's really strange, in that the more you run this tire, the faster you go," Bodine said.
"Usually you'll get your fast lap after two, three or four laps, and then it starts dropping off. But we've got 18 laps on this set and each lap it just gets faster. That's the same thing we all saw in the Cup and Busch test - it just doesn't slow down.
"The tricky part is the first few laps on the tires; they're so hard you really need some heat in them to get them to stick.
"So the problem will be restarts, when the tires are cold. You'll have to be careful not to overdrive."
Bodine said a driver might go 200 miles on a set of tires without needing to change. "The right sides would be close, though, and I wouldn't want to be the guy who goes that far on his right sides," Bodine said.
But can drivers run side by side here?
"That's a good question," Bodine said. "I've pushed up into the second groove today - not that I wanted to - but it seems there's good grip up there. However it becomes an issue of aerodynamics when you're going this fast.
"So I think you'll see a lot of outside passing - someone will just sail out to the second groove and try to go around. And when you get on the outside of somebody, the guy on the inside loses air on the spoiler and has to check up.
"A perfect example was Atlanta (in March, when Bodine beat Martin) - at the end I knew I couldn't let Mark get outside of me, or I'd lose. Fortunately he got under me. I pinched him down and it sucked his truck around, and he had to lift, and I had clear sailing."

Martin back for curtain call, hoping to find the NASCAR all-star magic again
By David Poole
The Charlotte Observer
May 18, 2006
One year ago, at a place where he's always loved to race, Mark Martin had one of those magic moments.
The 2005 NASCAR Nextel All-Star Challenge at Lowe's Motor Speedway had some of the fender-banging and fist-shaking that has marked that event since its inception in 1985, but most of it came early.
Near the end of the 40-lap first segment, nine cars piled up in the frontstretch, and that left Joe Nemechek and Kevin Harvick exchanging pleasantries in grand all-star tradition.
"Kevin Harvick thinks he owns the world and he ain't squat," Nemechek said. "He's just being an idiot, just being Kevin."
In the end, the non-points event was less about confrontation and more about coronation. Martin jumped past Elliott Sadler on the restart of the final 20-lap segment and spent the final 19 laps doing exactly as much as he needed to win in his No. 6 Ford.
Whatever it might have lacked in drama, Martin's victory made up in emotion.
In what was supposed to be his final season as a full-time Cup driver, Martin won the Challenge in dominating fashion.
He'd won the all-star event in 1998, but on that night he'd merely inherited the win as Jeff Gordon inexplicably ran out of fuel just after taking the white flag.
Martin was grateful for that good fortune, but it was just different – and immensely more satisfying – to win the way he did the second time.
"I felt like I made the largest contribution in my career to winning a race," Martin said. "Every move I made, luckily, was the right move. I drove probably uncharacteristically aggressive, and everything I did on the track happened to turn out to be the right thing."
It was just right, in many respects.
"I think most everybody in motorsports knows this is the race track that sets the standard in my world," Martin said. "I've said this is the greatest race track in the world, and it certainly is to me, anyway."
Martin's wife, Arlene, and his son, Matt, were there to share in the afterglow as 125,000 fans exulted in seeing one of the sport's most highly regarded veterans pick up a valedictory victory driving a car featuring a retro paint scheme that harkened back to earlier times in a career that was beginning to ramp down.
"I think some people there remembered that far back and remembered us out there battling in those years," Martin said of the look of his No. 6 Ford. "I think it meant something to those fans that have been around for a while, and I think it was real special to everyone."
Caught up in the joy of that victory, Martin was barely past the checkered flag when he radioed his crew and told them if they'd give him a car to drive, he'd be back in 2006 to try to defend his Challenge title.
At the time, he thought running the all-star race again would be no more than a competitive cameo against drivers he's raced with and against with such distinction. The plan was for Martin to be a full-time driver in the Truck series this year.
Plans, of course, change.
Within a few weeks after that victory last May, word spread that Jack Roush might need Martin for one more year. Kurt Busch had decided to leave Roush's organization after the 2006 season, but wanted out a year early.
Sponsorship sands also were shifting beneath the five Cup teams that Roush, Martin's long-time car owner and friend, was fielding.
Martin loved his team, a group of guys who'd remained loyal and worked diligently to try to help him go out on top, and it became apparent that unless he would agree to do one more full season, their future as a unit might be imperiled.
But Martin didn't know if he had another season in him.
"I tried to get them to split the season with Bill (Elliott) or Rusty (Wallace)," Martin said. "Rusty was interested but backed away. Bill was more than interested and finally said, ‘Let me check with Ray (Evernham) and I'll get back with you.' But he never got back. Roush was very uninterested. They didn't think they could sell that to a sponsor."
Meanwhile, Martin was well down the road toward making his deal for the Truck Series. Eventually, Roush roped him into driving several Busch Series races, too, and Martin also agreed to come back to defend his International Race of Champions title.
So instead of scaling back, Martin is doing more racing now than he has in years.
"I'm no Kenny Schrader," he said, "but I am racing quite a bit this year, that's for sure.
"I just wound up involved in a lot. Definitely, my heart was in the truck thing. I wanted to start working with my team and learn a little bit about the series and the vehicles and get my team working, and that grew into a bigger schedule than I had planned. And, I got myself tied up to a number of Busch races that I hadn't expected to.
"Of course, IROC wrote me a check for $1 million in November. Even though I didn't need to be racing in any more races, when they come calling, you can believe I will be there."
When Martin arrived at Daytona in January for Cup testing, he was still not certain he could find the energy and the desire for what was ahead.
He admits finishing last in the opening IROC event at Daytona, virtually making a sixth series title impossible, drained some enthusiasm for that pursuit. But otherwise, he has been pleasantly surprised.
"I went into February at Daytona not knowing what to expect and very concerned that it might be a tough year for me to meet it with the kind of fire that I needed to," he said. "But it feels like home when I strap into that race car. The fans have been overwhelming with their response to my coming back. I'm living a dream."
In many ways, there's something incongruous about having Martin as the reigning champion of the All-Star Challenge. This event's heritage includes arguments, aggravations and antagonisms that have produced long-lasting illness between some of the sport's greatest drivers. But it is hard to find anyone who is held in higher regard among his peers than Martin.
"I always try to think, ‘Would Mark Martin have done that?'" Matt Kenseth said this year after getting bumped out of the way by Busch on Busch's way to a victory at Bristol, Tenn. "If Mark Martin would have done it, then that was probably a fair move. If Mark Martin wouldn't have done that, then it probably wasn't fair."
Martin is not completely comfortable with being the template for fairness.
"I'm subject to blow a gasket as well," he said. "Everyone makes mistakes and has bad days. But it certainly feels good to be admired and appreciated."
Martin most definitely is appreciated. Tony Stewart said when Martin leaves, the Cup series will be without a "great teacher." Four-time Cup champion Gordon said Martin has always been one of the best gentlemen on the track.
"Even if he's in the lead, and he doesn't have the car that maybe the guy behind him has, he's really great at moving over, working on his car, getting his stuff better, then going back after those guys later," Gordon said.
Harvick said Martin could be the smartest driver on the track each weekend.
"Mark is one of the hardest racers, but he doesn't appear to be that way because he's probably the smartest racer on the track as well," Harvick said. "He can let somebody go by and not affect the guy he let go by, not affect his lap time and not lose any more time than he would have lost if he'd have sat there and raced that guy for two or three laps.
"He just knows when to do it. He pays attention and when you catch him from a straightaway, you don't even miss a beat until it's 25 or 30 laps to go, then he becomes one of the hardest guys to pass because he's so good with his car."
Martin still makes it a point to correct anyone who mistakenly refers to his future racing plans, which now include a full Truck Series run in 2007, as a retirement.
But one day he will have finished racing. He'll have the memories of nights like the one he enjoyed here a year ago.
Asked to write his career epitaph, to say how he'd like fans and fellow competitors to remember him, Martin's answer is simple and profound.
"I just want to be remembered," he said.

2006 Mark Martin Track Notes - Saturday - May 20, 2006
All-Star Challenge / Lowe's Motor Speedway
#6 AAA Ford Fusion
May 18, 2006
DRIVER: Mark Martin
TEAM: No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion
OWNER: Jack Roush
CREW CHIEF: Pat Tryson
2005 EVENT WINNER: Mark Martin
Martin took the lead for the first time on lap 34 and went on to win the race’s first segment. After a six car inversion, Martin regained the lead again during the third and final segment of the race on lap 71 and used the remaining 19 laps to pull away from the field to take home the victory and the million dollar bounty awarded the All-Star winner.
THE CAR
Chassis: RK-231 Once the top car in Martin's fleet, 231 made its last start at Michigan last summer; running to a third-place finish. Nicknamed the "Batmobile," after running two different Batman themed schemes, the car has finished in the top-seven in all three of its outings last year.
MARK MARTIN - FAST FACTS - NEXTEL ALL-STAR CHALLENGE

Mark Martin will compete in his 17th - straight All-Star event.

Martin won the event in 1998 and last year in 2005.

Martin has posted five top-five and six top 10's at the All-Star event.

Martin finished third during his first All-Star, back in 1990.

Martin is one of only two active drivers to have won the event twice.

MARTIN MARTIN AND CREW CHEIF PAT TRYSON ON RACING IN THE ALL-STAR CHALLENGE
Mark Martin:
"I'm looking forward to the All-Star race. It's always great to take a week off of point racing and just go out there and shoot for the win. Second means nothing in a race like this so you can just go for it all. Last year we were able to do just that and we got one of the coolest wins of my career. It was a really special night for this team and hopefully we'll have a chance to go out and do that again. I love racing at Lowe's Motor Speedway and I've always enjoyed the All-Star race so, that combined with the truck race on Friday, should make for a great weekend of racing.
"We've been able to run well at a lot of the tracks this year where we struggle, so if we can run that well at the tracks that we really like that are coming up, we should be pretty strong going into the summer. The team has done a great job with the cars this year and it's really been fun driving cars like this each week that have a chance to run up front and compete for wins."
Pat Tryson:
"We had a great run in the All-Star last year and we are looking forward to going back this year and trying to repeat as the winner. The All-Star is a good event for the teams, as we don't have all the pressure of point racing, and they kind of make the night about the teams. We think we have a good car for the race and we are excited about getting back to Lowe's."

2006 Mark Martin Track Notes - Friday - May 19, 2006
Quaker Steak and Lube 200 / Lowe's Motor Speedway
May 17, 2006
DRIVER: Mark Martin
TEAM: No. 6 Scotts Miracle-Gro Ford F-150
OWNER: Jack Roush
CREW CHIEF: Mike Beam
THE TRUCK
Chassis: No. 43 or No. 39
MARTIN FAST FACTS - CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES

This will be Martin's eighth career Craftsman Truck Series race.

This will be Martin’s first truck race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

Martin has finished in the top 10 in each of his Truck starts, including a wins at North Wilkesboro, Daytona and California. He has won 42 percent of the truck races he has taken part in.

Martin is scheduled to move into the Truck Series full-time in 2007.

Martin is scheduled to take part in 14 Truck Series races in 2006, one of 63 total races that he plans to run during his 'encore' Salute To You Tour.

MARK MARTIN IN THE CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES
Races - 7
Wins - 3
Top 5 - 6
Top 10 - 7
Laps Led - 249
Poles - 1
QUOTING MARK MARTIN ON LOWE'S MOTOR SPEEDWAY - CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES
“I love racing the truck and I love racing at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, so it’s hard to look forward to Friday’s race. Mike Beam and the team have done an outstanding job with the Scotts’ Trucks this year and hopefully we’ll be able to contend for the win and take our Ford F-150 back to victory lane.”

Roush to Make 255th Consecutive Start in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Competition at Lowes Motor Speedway
May 17, 2006
When the green flag flies over the starting field of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Quaker Steak and Lube 200 on Friday night, May 19, Roush Racing will take ownership of the longest running consecutive start streak. Roush has been involved in the series since its inception in 1995, and also holds the record for series victories.
When Ultra Motorsports closed its doors before the 2006 season got underway, it marked the end of an era, as team owner Jim Smith held the distinction and honor of being the sole owner to have fielded an entry in every race since the ‘95 inception. Smith‘s streak of consecutive starts ended at 272, a mark Roush will surpass with the November 10 event at the Phoenix International Raceway.
“The Craftsman Truck Series has been great for us at Roush Racing,” said team owner Jack Roush. “We‘ve been able to use the series to develop drivers, and help launch their careers. We‘ve had a lot of accomplishments in the series over the past few years, and we look to continue that. We‘ve had a great start to 2006, and we intend on building on our early successes.”
The consecutive start streak began when Todd Bodine started the October 15 event at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield, California. He started the event in the second position, and finished eighth in the No. 61 Roush Performance Products Ford F-150.
Roush currently fields three Craftsman Truck Series teams, with Mark Martin and David Ragan splitting driving duties in the No. 6 Scotts Miracle-Gro Ford, Ragan and Michel Jourdain in the No. 50 Ford, and Raybestos Rookie of the Year contender Erik Darnell in the No. 99. Five races into the 2006 season, Roush has two wins, four top-five and six top-ten finishes.
“We‘ve been involved in this series over 10 years now, and we hope to be around for a long time to come. Mark Martin has said time and time again that the best racing in NASCAR is with the Craftsman Truck Series. It‘s been a great tool for us, and it‘s been a source of great excitement. We won our first NASCAR championship in the trucks with Greg Biffle back in 2000, and that is something I‘ll remember with great fondness.”
Roush Racing is a subsidiary of Livonia, Mich., based Roush Enterprises which operates 14 motorsports teams; five in NASCAR Nextel Cup Series with drivers Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards, six in the Busch Series with Martin, Kenseth, Biffle, Edwards, Todd Kluever and Danny O‘Quinn, and three in the Craftsman Truck Series with Martin, David Ragan, Erik Darnell and Michel Jourdain, Jr. For sponsorship inquiries, contact Robin M. Johnson, Roush Racing, (704) 720-4645.

Q & A - Mark Martin - Nextel Cup
May 17, 2006
THE MODERATOR:
Joining us today is the defending champion of that event, Mark Martin, who drives the #6 AAA Ford for Roush Racing. He also won the All Star event in 1998, so he has two victories in that event. The record for All Star victories is three; Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon both won it three times.
QUESTION:
How do you feel about your chances of tying that record this Saturday night?
MARK MARTIN:
We've really been performing well. We've had really outstanding cars this year with our Fusion and, I don't know, you know, I don't like to make predictions, but I don't think that it would be a prediction to say that we expect to run real well here. I'd say that's more of an expectation than a prediction.
QUESTION:
Could you talk about the effect of the hard tires there, we're getting indications from some crew chiefs that this is going to be -- that grip is going to be awfully hard to get even on new surfaces. Is this going to be -- you're always talked about by other drivers as one of the most ethical drivers and in control out there. Is this going to be a race that cars are going to be slipping and sliding around and kind of almost a dirt tracker's type thing?
MARK MARTIN:
I think it will be -- I think there will be a lot of mistakes made because it's -- you know, it's going to be a little bit more tricky. It's different than Darlington, because at Darlington, the tires give up, and you can -- you actually slide like you're sliding on a dirt track. What we have here is when the traction breaks away, you lose -- let's say you lose 90 percent of the grip or 80 percent of the grip. When the traction broke away at Darlington with that surface and the way that tire was, you only lost 50 percent of the grip. So you had a lot more control once the car started to slide.
The challenge that's going to be to the drivers and the crews is going to be, you know, keeping the cars under control when you push them right up to the edge where they start to slip. Because once they start to slip, it's a lot more difficult because of the speed and because of the fresh asphalt and the way the tire matches up to that asphalt. Once it starts to slide, it's going to be a great challenge to keep the cars, you know, under control and off of one another. So, you know, I think that the prospect of having better racing from a driver's point of view at this race is good than a year ago.
QUESTION:
When you talk about losing 90 percent of the grip, a, does it mean that the grip is going to go away so suddenly that it's sort of an all or nothing thing; and b, the guys who like loose cars and former dirt trackers and all that, they are going to have no advantage whatsoever in this situation, right?
MARK MARTIN:
Less advantage. The first statement that you made was right on. The second statement we need to correct by saying, you know, if you like to slide the car, it will be much more of a challenge to reap a benefit from that under these conditions. It's going to be a very challenging, but I don't think, you know, catastrophic kind of thing. You know, last year we had, you know, problems -- all kinds of problems, not just -- not just a challenge to drive, but a challenge to keep the tires on and the air in them and the grooves were good in some spots and not good in others. I'm trying to say that I feel that we're in good shape with this racetrack going into this weekend's racing. The best shape of anywhere that I can ever remember with a new paving job.
QUESTION:
Is the difference maybe going to be in who is smart enough to lift a little bit when they need to and who just kind of refuses to lift; is that going to be the key between getting grip and all of a sudden losing it?
MARK MARTIN:
You know, I think the most decisive will be much like a lot of places where the most decisive factor in this racing will be track position and how well your car works. If you have a better working car, you're going to be able to drive it, you know, harder and still have -- still have grip or still have control of the car. So I think that we're going to be in good shape for racing this weekend. I'm very proud of the paving job that they have done here. You know, I will be honest with you, it will be much better in two or three years than what it is going to be this weekend. I think this weekend will be a start, and by the time we get to the 600, we're going to have a lot of rubber on it and a lot of racing on it, and I think that we've got good tires that will hold up.
You know, they may be a little bit too conservative -- I would much rather have than the tire issues. And this is going to be a preview. This weekend, the truck race and the All Star event are going to be a tremendous preview for what's to come the next week, and with every race that they run here, this racetrack will get better and better, this racetrack surface will get better.
QUESTION:
Do you have desires to get more involved in ownership in this sport once your driving days are done?
MARK MARTIN:
Absolutely not. It is not a good business plan, business model. I tell you, I just don't have -- it's hard to control and contain and predict your costs with the way -- especially with Toyota coming in as well. That's going to make it even more difficult to predict your costs and lay out a long range plan and make a long term commitment with a sponsor and all those things, and then implement those. I would be broke no matter how much money I got for sponsorship because of the escalating Scotts of things, and my competitive nature, I wouldn't have the discipline to run it like a business.
QUESTION:
The truck that you were going to drive this year that I assume you're still going to drive next year, would that be something -- would you own that or would Jack own that or what would the ownership situation be?
MARK MARTIN:
I'm doing a total of 14 races, but it's running a full schedule with Scott s sponsoring the full schedule, it's the No. 6 truck, David Regan will drive it in the races I don't drive in. The sponsor of the team, the number, the whole thing, will run the full schedule, and then I'm slated to be in it next year full time at this time.
QUESTION:
Can you talk about the impact of your first trip to Daytona and how it set forth your future in racing?
MARK MARTIN:
You're talking about before I raced, as a spectator, okay. It was as a true fan. I mean, it was my dad and his buddies and I got to go along, and some of my friends. We went down as fans. For me to be able to sit in the stands with binoculars and look down on to pit road and see the pit crews and see the cars and everything, was the first glimpse that I got of truly big time racing. Only thing I had seen prior to that was the dirt tracks in Arkansas. I was already right at the beginning stages of starting to drive myself on the dirt tracks. That was the first time that I really saw it live and in person. You know, it's hard to describe the feeling that you get. But, you know, that was the thrill -- that was the thrill of my life and something that I may be in my wildest dreams would have liked to be a part of but didn't allow myself to expect to ever be able to do that. It was the thrill of my life.
QUESTION:
Do you remember the day, do you remember who won, do you remember the impact that it had on you, was that what told you, hey, I've got to get out of the dirt tracks and move on to bigger and better things if I ever want to race at that level?
MARK MARTIN:
In a sense. It didn't happen exactly like that because I was just starting dirt track racing and I was just getting a visual of what the real big time racing was all about. You know, it was exciting. I don't remember the particular race. I remember, I was sitting in the stands when Petty and Pearson tangled at the finish line. That was more like about '76 though, I think. I had been there, you know, where they crashed coming through the finish. I think that was '76. But I was there, you know, back up in '73 or 74, the first time that we went.
It was just a progression from that, and then after racing on the dirt tracks in '74, '75, and '76, that in '76 is when I said, you know, I might as well -- we may as well start racing on pavement, because we're having to travel around to tracks out of state to really find the competition that challenges us the way we need to be challenged. And there is no -- the Daytona 500 is not on dirt, so it's time to move into the pavement racing. So it was '76 before I really realized, you know, that that was something I was really going for. But in '76, the Daytona 500 had made an impression deep enough in me, I was just 17, that it was time to switch from dirt track racing to pavement racing.
QUESTION:
You had said I think last year that Tony Stewart was the best driver you ever raced against. I wonder if there's anyway to quantify that, because, you know, NASCAR has that whole stat package this year and this driver rating, compares all these numbers, average running position on the lead lap and most laps led and all this stuff. Does all that quantify, you know, that Tony Stewart is the best driver you've ever raced against, is there any way to quantify that?
MARK MARTIN:
Let's start by saying, that's my opinion. So I'm -- you know, I'm the expert on my opinion. So let's start with that and say that that's my opinion. Next of all, my opinion, also, is I don't know what those stats say, but I don't care, because those stats don't, you know, they don't prove anything to me where they say he is or he's not, based on those stats. Because a lot of things can manipulate those stats, like luck, like equipment, team, you know, the kind of team or how the team is performing, all those things. That doesn't mean that he's not the most skillful or fierce driver, whatever any stats say.
I say that about Tony because I think I know -- first of all, I'm the expert on my opinion, and I think I know what I see in racing. And I see a guy that can wheel a large variety of cars on all kinds of situations from road courses to Super Speedways to Sprint cars, World of Outlaw cars to midgets, dirt midgets, asphalt midgets, you name it, he can happen in and go. Very much like Al Unser, Junior. My No. 1 guy before Tony Stewart, believe it or not, was Al Unser, Junior. He was the one I thought, you know, was I thought the most versatile. Tony Stewart, he's just the man, in my opinion.
QUESTION:
In your expert opinion, do you think you're the fifth best driver out there, because that's where you're rated right now.
MARK MARTIN: (Laughing)
I'm humbled by that. It's nice to be considered that, especially at 47 years old when I'm sure most are 15 years or more younger than I. So at this stage of the game, that's very humbling. I feel honored. But I do also feel that, you know, in my expert opinion, that's why I say I don't know what the stats say about Tony, but it doesn't matter -- like to me, it doesn't matter that I haven't won a NEXTEL Cup championship. You know, that doesn't determine whether or not I'm any good, you know what I'm saying? Because things can manipulate that particular result.
QUESTION:
Are you accusing NASCAR -- no, I'm just kidding.
MARK MARTIN:
No, I'm talking about the things I said about Tony. Your team, your car, your gas mileage you name it, but I forgot, I wouldn't even have thrown in that other part, but you're right, that could even -- especially in days gone past, it's less likely something like that might happen today. You know, results aren't -- to me, the trophy doesn't make the man, I know you've heard me say that. Looking at the stats in Tony, I don't know where that puts him.
QUESTION:
Well, he's No. 1 right now, so you're right on spot there?
MARK MARTIN:
But if they didn't, I'd still say that about Tony. I'd still say, because to me, I don't care if he didn't lead any of those races or whatever it was. Doesn't mean he wasn't driving the fool out of his stuff and getting more out of it than the other guy. Sometimes you can't judge someone by the results. You've got to judge them by -- it's grayer than that.
QUESTION:
Your son, Matt, won a late model race last weekend. How would you care him to how you were, and the second part of the question is, how hard is it from a father's standpoint to not be there to watch him week after week on his local track?
MARK MARTIN:
It's interesting, last week, Saturday afternoon, I had an urge to call and tell him not to race. I just didn't feel good about it. I wasn't going to be there and not that it wouldn't make any difference, but, you know, I just felt like that I know they have a lot of crashes in that division. I just was uneasy about it. But, you know, he's younger. He's been racing seven years. He's 14 now. I didn't start until I was 15. So he is definitely ahead of where I was, you know, getting started.
But his competition for the greatest part is that young as well, you know what I'm saying. Everybody gets started -- like I was considered young as a race car driver at 15 because I started in stock cars, but everybody couldn't get over me being so young. Well, if you started at 15 now, man, you'd be behind. So it's a different world now.
There are a lot of great, young, really young, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 year old talent with a lot of experience today. But yeah, that was really, really great. He qualified well and he ran a fantastic race and he did finish second to Sam Watts. But Sam was considerably light after the inspection. So something that I never expected us to be able to achieve this year because you know in the late models down there, that's pretty -- that's pretty, you know, almost over our heads. But he's just really caught on real well, incredibly talented driver, but he only races about probably -- I'm going to say once a month, and he races against folks that race every week, sometimes twice a week.
But that seems to work well for us. Keeps him motivated, interested, desire, and, you know, he seems to do better when he's challenged than trying to just do repetition over and over and over again. So he doesn't race as much as the guys that he races with. But we're just having fun. That's one of the most cool things and just one of most cool experiences that he and I have had. It was cool for me to be in the car and cool for him to tell me while I was still on the racetrack at Darlington to tell me how things turned out, really happy.
QUESTION:
What inspired your rap anthem as opposed to a country, and are you a big fan of hip hop and rap?
MARK MARTIN
I am. First of all, I'm 47. Most people don't expect me to listen to rap and hip hop, and I do, and I really like it. But, I will say this. I mean, still I mean, I'm coming home from somewhere the other day, rare occasion I'm driving by myself, and the radio station I was listening to, AC/DC comes on, and I did get myself a headache and I do have brain damage from listening to AC/DC at painful levels of volume. So I mean, I do listen to everything. I do listen to country. I do have a love for AC/DC. The greatest singer alive is Stevie Nicks; I listen to Neil Young. But I certainly do enjoy the latest stuff that's out there and rap and hip hop as well.
QUESTION:
What's the inspiration to come out with a rap anthem? What prompted you to do rap?
MARK MARTIN:
Well, that's I guess because it's unexpected for me, or was, you know, until about a year ago. So that's kind of at the top of my list today of what I listen to.
QUESTION:
Can you talk about the difference of mentality in racing this weekend versus a regular points race?
MARK MARTIN:
Well, you know, it is a little bit, because it's not a points race, you know, your concern about things going back, either being in an accident or taking a chance, taking a risk, whether it be pit strategy or anything else, it means less. It's more okay. In other words, if you're running along, you're running good, but you're probably not going to be able to win the race. To take a stab at the -- the difference between running sixth and taking a chance to win, you don't hedge for that. You just go for the win.
If you're racing in the 600 and you're trying to make the Chase, you probably don't want to take a risk. You probably want to take your 6th place finish rather than risk a 20th place finish trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat, if you can follow me a minute. It's more than driving recklessly. We can drive recklessly all the time, all the time. We have to drive with the desire of not wrecking, so we drive as reckless as we can all the time without, you know, overjeopardizing ourselves. So I think it's more in other decisions rather than it is how wild do you drive.
QUESTION:
Has there been in one of these All Star races that you can point to, maybe a move that's helped you in one of those two that you might not have made if it were a points race?
MARK MARTIN:
No, I drive these things very much like I do any other race. It is so far to go -- after the green flag comes out, I don't consider it a short race. I consider it whatever it is. When the green flag comes out, it's time to go and I race accordingly. So in the short race, you don't rest. You've got to be getting with it all the time. And in a 600 mile race when the green flag comes out, you can kind of rest a little bit. You don't have to be incredibly intense, and the intensity builds, and at some point in that race, it becomes just as short as the All Star race. You see how my philosophy is?
QUESTION:
Yeah, it's just compacted, is basically what you're saying.
MARK MARTIN:
Yeah, it's almost over when it starts, where the 600 only gets to that when it's almost over. But it's still the same thing. You strategize, you think, you put yourself in a position, you do everything you can; in the All Star race, you just can't wait and think about it as long. You've got to start doing things and putting yourself in position now, whereas the 600, you have to gradually ease yourself into that, and then at some point, it's only so many to go, and at that point, you'd better be making things happen just as you did in the All Star race. So I approach these races obviously different because I never hear anybody else talk about that. But you know, when they talk about the 600 being so long, you know, after you get the green flag, it's 399 to go, 399 laps to go. I don't think about being -- at some point, it's 99 to go, which makes it -- at that point it's the same as every other race at that point. I don't know, that's sort of my philosophy on these things.
QUESTION:
You've addressed this in different ways, I'll ask you straight out: What do you want your legacy to be when you leave the sport?
MARK MARTIN:
Let me just rearrange that just slightly because I've come up with an answer to how do you want to be remembered. My answer is: I just want to be remembered. (Laughing) I hope that I'm respected for the drive and desire and commitment that I've made to my career.
QUESTION:
One of the things that seems to jump out about you more so than anybody else, year after year after year, being a very clean racer.
MARK MARTIN:
I try. I've always tried to, you know, to race people the way I wanted to be raced. I never wanted to be robbed, and so never wanted to rob anyone. I had to fix my own wrecked race cars for a lot of years, and I had to race against a lot of people who had to fix their own race cars for a lot of years, and we raced hard and put on fierce races and had great shows. But we didn't run over each other, because we neither could afford it or, you know, had time to fix them. So you know, we made this stuff -- we were able to race without, you know, running over each other. I don't know, I would have to think that people who have raced me would say that I'm a fierce driver, I believe I'm a fierce driver. I believe I've raced with great ferocity. Also, there is that other side of me, which there's not a lot of room for in today's racing. That era is pretty much going any the wayside.
QUESTION:
The growth of NASCAR since you broke in 25 years ago has been maybe, in a word, remarkable. Today the Busch Series is all but confirmed to be expanding to Montreal next summer which is going to put that series in three countries. I wonder if you can talk a little bit about your feelings about expansion of this sport and the demands for NASCAR racing far seems to exceed the supply, and how it's grown beyond your wildest expectations since you first got involved?
MARK MARTIN:
Oh, certainly. I'd have to say that one of the reasons you don't hear me criticizing NASCAR on a regular occasion is because they have to be quite a bit smarter than I am. Just look, you know, look at the success. I have great respect for NASCAR, the France family in what are and what they have done. I know that not everyone's like me, but for me, it's not surprising because I meet up with it. I love it, too. I can see how the growth would be possible but it still was driven and led by brilliant people at NASCAR.
QUESTION:
Have you had a chance to see a Formula 1 race in Montreal, at least to see Villenueve (ph) and if you can comment on how you think stock cars are going to be able to navigate that track?
MARK MARTIN:
I'm sure I've watched them race there on TV but I didn't look at it in that context, so I didn't -- I don't remember, so actually I don't know what the course looks like, even though I may be watched it, I don't remember thinking it was in Montreal or whatever. I was just thinking about watching the Formula 1 guys race. I really don't know, but I'm sure that it will be a spectacular success.
QUESTION:
Have you raced in Canada before and it is exciting for you to see Canada move into international markets, to see it expanding into different countries, too, must be quite something.
MARK MARTIN:
It's something, all right. I raced in Cayuga for years. ASA had races will and stuff and I've been to Canada a number of times. You know, out there, working on cars and building cars and racing in Cayuga and all that. You know, it's just not really surprising. Logically, it's really, really tough. But that's why this thing is becoming more and more a young man's sport.
QUESTION:
Three out of the past four years, you've finished in fourth, would you say this season is going according to your plan or where do you think it stands right now?
MARK MARTIN:
I'd say overall, I'm thrilled. I am really thrilled with the way things are going. But I would say that the cars I'm driving are as good as I ever drove in my life and better than last year. We do have we are having -- we do have some minor issues that have held us back from doing better on the racetrack, and, you know, we're working to try to sort those out, you know, with pit stops particularly, which is a great challenge today. And we'll get those sorted out. If we make the Chase, by then, we'll have them sorted out and hopefully we'll get them sorted out, you know, gradually, soon, so that it doesn't take us out of a shot to be in the Chase. But at this point in time, my luck has been better than almost ever, and the car's performance itself has been better or as good as ever. And my relationship with AAA and the issues that we've been able to work on with the team, driving safety, seat belts and those things like that with AAA has been incredibly rewarding for me. I'm having the time of my life.
QUESTION:
What about the next two tracks, Charlotte and Dover? You've consistently been up front. You said that your luck has been better than almost ever; can we expect you to be up front in both of these races?
MARK MARTIN:
My expectations are extremely high for Dover. My expectations are just in limbo for Loews based on the new pavement. I don't know, I can't guarantee, I can't let myself expect to be. I just have to wait and see on Loews to see how we adapt and perform on this payment. I know we're going to run good. I just don't know if we're going to go out there and kill them or not. We go to Dover, I would expect, I really have expectations for there.
QUESTION:
You were mentioning Toyota and I know that Jacques has been out spoken on the fact that it's going to be bringing so much money into the sport, while Toyota is saying that they are not doing that. So you were reflecting on the business plan, what part of that do you think will be unpredictable in the costs?
MARK MARTIN:
Let me just put it to you this way. It's already bad enough in our sport today. If a race team has everything, every piece of the puzzle is really good on the race team, but they need one thing and let's just say for example a shock specialist, that's all they need, and they would have it all. Well, teams are a lot more willing to pay a huge sum of money for a shock specialist just to close the deal out so that they have got it all.
You know, I don't care what Toyota says. Once you bring more teams and more funding, that just makes that more out of control, then you end up paying for what you were going to pay your shock specialist for the next three years, and now if you want to keep yours, you're in trouble or you've got to train a new one, one of the two if you follow me. That's sort of how it works.
So you didn't have any expectation of one of your employees, one of your positions over the course of two or three years, what they would make, doubling. That's just an example of how hard it is to contain the costs.
QUESTION:
I see what you're saying. And another question on an unrelated topic, are you actually rapping on the CD, or is it someone else and it's to benefit like something that you're promoting, but are you actually doing the rapping?
MARK MARTIN:
No, I don't really have any rhyme, rhythm. I can't dance and I sure can't sing and I won't even try like old Darryl does all the time. I'm not even going to try because I can't sink as good as DW.
QUESTION:
So it's someone else on the CD?
MARK MARTIN:
Yes.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks for spending a little extra time with us today. We appreciate it. Good luck this weekend and thank all of you for participating.

NOTE: As a continuation of the Salute to You Tour the official Mark Martin rap anthem, "Start Your Engines," will debut during the Nextel All-Star weekend.
The rap song was inspired by Martin's career and love of rap music. The song is being promoted in conjunction with Roush Racing's diversity initiative.
Round House Multimedia owners Derrick Garrett and Kevin Dent are the executive producers of the song.

NASCAR.COM - Martin recalls all-star races lost, not won - May 17, 2006
CONCORD, N.C. -- Mark Martin insisted he couldn't remember what happened at his first appearance in NASCAR's all-star race. Something about losing too many brain cells during the past 47 years.
In the same breath, he recalled how he had the 1990 race won until Terry Labonte blew an engine on the last lap.
He remembered how Labonte's misfortune forced a one-lap shootout in which there was a double-file restart, not single-file as is the case in a points event.
He recalled how that put Dale Earnhardt in the fast groove on the outside, pushing the seven-time Cup champion to the win and leaving him a disappointing third.
He didn't remember that was his first all-star race.
"When you get as old as I am your brain gets kind of rough and you don't remember much,'' Martin said as he looked ahead to Saturday night's race at Lowe's Motor Speedway. "I don't remember much anything else except the last one. That's the only one I care to remember.
"It's a good one.''
It certainly was.
Martin, in what was supposed to be his final Nextel Cup season until team owner Jack Roush asked him to stay in the No. 6 Ford another year, led the final 19 laps to win the annual shootout and the $1 million prize.
He then dedicated the win to the fans that supported his career and promised to keep coming back for the event as long as Roush gave him a car, which became a non-issue when he opted to extend his farewell tour into '06.
"It was just really incredible to share that with my team and with my family and the fans,'' said Martin, whose retro paint scheme resembled the red, white and blue car he drove in 1993.
"It showed tremendous respect. Even those that weren't my fans were happy, and that shows great respect.''
The rest of Martin's All-Star memories blur into one. Oh, he recalls Dale Earnhardt's famous "pass in the grass'' to beat Bill Elliott in 1987 even though he wasn't in the race.
He also remembers the controversial 1989 race in which Rusty Wallace spun out fan favorite Darrell Waltrip.
But ask if he remembers a key moment when he won the event last year or in 1998 and his answer is the same.
"Nope,'' Martin said.
But Martin does remember his first impression of Lowe's Motor Speedway, which he doesn't hesitate to call his favorite on the circuit even after a repaving job that has drivers, NASCAR and Goodyear wondering what to expect this weekend.
"I remember taking about three laps and coming on the radio and saying, 'Man, this is great! It's just like racing this quarter-mile [track] back home, only bigger,''' said Martin, who first ran at LMS in 1981. "What I meant by that is I was just as comfortable as I was on any quarter-miler.
"It was a Busch race and we qualified second and finished fifth. I had huge success and loved the place.''
The love affair continues. Martin has won four points races at LMS, tied for second among active drivers with Jeff Gordon and one behind Jimmie Johnson. His two all-star wins at LMS are one shy of Gordon and Earnhardt for the most in the event.
Yet Martin doesn't take any more chances in the All-Star event than he does in the Coca-Cola 600 the following weekend, which goes against the trend in an event promoted as no-holds-barred racing.
Sometimes that works against him, which may explain why his average finish in 16 races is 10.94 and he has seven finishes of 16th or worse.
"It's set up so the guy that's got the biggest advantage to win doesn't win,'' Martin said. "That's the whole point of the whole format, to get somebody else to win instead of the guy that's got the hammer.
"It's entertainment, man. They wrote me a check for a million dollars.''
At the same time, Martin doesn't claim to be as much of a gentleman in this event as many of his peers make him out to be.
"I'm not polite,'' he said. "I just race right.''
And he always races the same way, whether it's the all-star race or a 600-miler.
"I race to win,'' Martin said.
That's why he remembers the details of the 1990 race. He tends to remember the ones he should have won more than the ones he won.
"They put Eanhardt on the outside of me and we couldn't get it done from there,'' said Martin, shaking his head as though he'd just lost again. "That was a disappointment, not realizing the rules were Saturday night short-track racing instead of typical NASCAR stuff."

Old-school Martin has some new-school tastes
By Mark Decotis
floridatoday.com
May 17, 2006
Mark Martin is as old-school as drivers come in Nextel Cup. So what's the fully gray 47-year-old son of Arkansas doing making a rap anthem, of all things?
Because he's a big fan.
"Most people don't expect me to listen to rap and hip hop, and I do, and I really like it," Martin told reporters in a teleconference on Tuesday.
In fact, Martin admits to having wide-ranging interest in music and likes to play it loud, which is no surprise.
"I did get myself a headache and I do have brain damage from listening to AC/DC at painful levels of volume," he said. "I do listen to everything. I do listen to country. I do have a love for AC/DC. The greatest singer alive is Stevie Nicks; I listen to Neil Young. But I certainly do enjoy the latest stuff that's out there, and rap and hip hop as well."
Who would have ever known?
But before you reach for the ear plugs, Martin does not perform on the song.
"No, I don't really have any rhyme, rhythm," he said. "I can't dance and I sure can't sing and I won't even try like old Darrell (Waltrip) does all the time. I'm not even going to try because I can't sing as good as DW."
Light moments aside, Martin's session did have its serious moments, especially when it came to Toyota, which is creating big waves as it prepares to enter Cup next season.
So while Martin is new-school enough to embrace what passes for modern music, his old-school sensibilities cannot cotton to how rivals contend Toyota is conducting itself as it lays the foundation for 2007.
"You know, I don't care what Toyota says," Martin said. "Once you bring more teams and more funding, that just makes that more out of control, then you end up paying for what you were going to pay your shock specialist for the next three years. And now if you want to keep yours, you're in trouble or you've got to train a new one.
"So you didn't have any expectation of one of your employees, one of your positions over the course of two or three years, what they would make, doubling. That's just an example."
To that end, not surprisingly, Martin said he has no interest in owning a race team once he fully retires, saying he would not have the discipline to run it like a business.
And racing, especially at NASCAR's elite level, is as much a business as a business can be, much to the chagrin of many old-time, old-school fans.
However, old-school Martin clearly understands the new-school thinking behind the sport's search for new markets and new ways to avail itself to a new generation of followers.
It must be the rap music.
But before you think Martin is ready to chuck all his old-line thinking to embrace a new way of doing everything, there's one place where he was, is and always will be an old-timer. That's on the racetrack where he embodies the axiom of racing hard but racing clean.
"I've always tried to race people the way I wanted to be raced," he said. "I never wanted to be robbed, and so never wanted to rob anyone. We made this stuff -- we were able to race without running over each other. I would have to think that people who have raced me would say that I'm a fierce driver, I believe I'm a fierce driver. Also, there is that other side of me, which there's not a lot of room for in today's racing. That era is pretty much going any the wayside."
And that, in the end, is too bad. Any guy who is new-school enough to embrace today's cutting-edge music but old-school enough to hold his own -- and excel -- in the rollicking world of big-time stock-car racing will be sorely missed when he rides away with the roiling rhythm of rap rhyming along the way.

Martin poised to complete sweep at Lowe's
TruckSeries.com Report
May 16, 2006
Mark Martin (No. 6 Scotts Ford) can make history this week by winning the Quaker Steak & Shake 200. The victory would give Martin a first ever sweep of major NASCAR events at Lowe's Motor Speedway in May.
Martin, a two-time and defending winner of Saturday's NEXTEL All-Star Challenge, counts a Coca-Cola 600 victory among four NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series wins. Three of his six NASCAR Busch Series wins came in next week's CARQUEST Auto Parts 300.
Mark Martin is an all-star at Lowe's Motor Speedway.....
NASCAR NEXTEL Cup:
Starts - 42
Wins - 2
Top 5 - 16
Top 10 - 20
NASCAR Busch Series:
Starts - 26
Wins - 6
Top 5 - 13
Top 10 - 13
NEXTEL All-Star Challenge:
Starts - 16
Wins - 2
Top 5 - 5
Top 10 - 7
The ever upbeat Martin, who comes into this week's race fourth in the standings despite starting only four of five events, is one of the track's biggest fans.
"Lowe's has always been one of my favorite tracks on the circuit and we've had a lot of success there over the years," he said. "The 600 win in 2002 and the win last year in the All-Star are a couple of the biggest wins of my career. Every time that I go to Lowe's I get on the radio and I tell my crew after the first couple of laps on the track, 'man, I just love this place.'
"I can't wait to get out there in the trucks as well."
Martin and his rivals will test the track's newly resurfaced track during 7-1/2 hours of testing beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET Thursday. Bodine and Erin Crocker (No. 98 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge) will be available for interviews beginning at 2:45 p.m. in the Lowe's Motor Speedway Media Center.

Martin Brings Home Top-10 Finish at Darlington
Martin posts 10th top-15 finish in 11 races this season
Mark Martin and the #6 AAA Racing Team
Darlington Raceway/May 13, 2006
DARLINGTON, S.C. – Mark Martin and the No. 6 AAA Race team ran to their sixth top-10 finish of the season with an eighth place run in the Dodge Charger 500 at Darlington Raceway. The run marked the team’s 10th top-15 finish in 11 races in 2006. With the finish Martin remains in fourth-place in the Nextel Cup point standings.
“That’s what we needed,” said Martin. “We always had a good car on the long run. We’d lose quite a bit of ground but then our car would be awesome and we would gain ground on the leader the second half of a run. We got a green flag at the end and that’s what we needed to do the best we could. We lost a lot of ground many times in the race and we made a lot back up. It was a great effort by the AAA team.
“I was saying before, I don’t know if I should be frustrated because we’re not finishing as good as we run or happy that we’re running good knowing that we’re going start finishing like we run. Either way, this is better than the last few weeks.”
Martin started the race 17th and needed only 50 laps to break into the field’s top 10. He moved all the way to ninth by the time the night’s second caution was issued on lap 68. The team came into the pits for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment and fell back to 11th place after a 15.602-second stop. Martin moved back inside the top-10 on lap 75, just three laps after the field returned to green. He moved into ninth place on lap 91, where he was running when caution was called on lap 94.The team again came into the pits, this time for four tires, fuel and a wedge adjustment, redeeming itself with a 13.7-second stop that advanced Martin to eighth when the field returned to green on lap 99.
Martin remained in ninth for the next several laps, before radioing the crew that he had worn his right-rear tire out. He dropped back to 11th by the time caution was called on lap 149. The rear-tire changer lost his footing on the stop, causing a 16-second stop and the team fell back to 14th when green flag racing resumed on lap 153. Martin again began a patient movement forward, breaking back into the top 10 on lap 207. Martin was still running in 10th position when the night’s sixth caution was issued on lap 247, and the team came down pit road for the sixth time of the race, taking four tires, fuel and making another wedge adjustment. The team turned in a 13.43-second stop, and returned to the track in 12th place when the field went green on lap 253.
Martin again moved back inside the top 10 on lap 273, where he would run the remainder of the race, taking ninth place on lap 283, before settling into eighth on lap 312. The team would pit for the final time of the evening under green on lap 316 and he was still running in eighth when the field cycled through on lap 321. He would be able to hang onto the position for the remainder of the race, bringing home the eighth-place finish.
“Every race we run better than we finish,” added Martin. “I don’t know if that’s frustrating or if that’s a good thing. I don’t know. We’ve been running good, but we’re not finishing as good as we run so if we can fix that and not lose the other, we should be pretty stout.”
Martin and the AAA Team will return to action next Saturday night as they head into the Nextel All-Star Challenge as defending champions of the all-star event.

Martin Finishes Fourth at Darlington Busch Race
Mark Martin and the #6 Ameriquest Racing Team
Darlington Raceway/May 12, 2006
“We just couldn't quite get it within striking distance,” added Martin. “We kept inching closer and closer, but just couldn't quite contend for it." - Mark Martin after Friday night’s fourth-place finish at Darlington
DARLINGTON, S.C. – Mark Martin started eighth and ran virtually the entire race inside the top-10 en route to a fourth-place finish in Friday night’s Diamond Hill Plywood 200 Busch Series race at Darlington Raceway. The finish is Martin’s 13th top-five in 27 Busch attempts at the famed 1.366-mile Speedway. Martin broke into the top five on lap 87 for the second time of the day and he would run the remaining 60 laps of the race.
“We didn't mean to set it up that way, but it was really strong on the long run. I was very pleased with my truck team here taking care of the Ameriquest Ford this weekend, and we're having some fun."
Martin started eighth and wasted little time moving to the front of the field. By lap 10 he had powered his No. 6 Ameriquest Ford Fusion all the way into sixth position, before breaking into the top five on lap 53. By the time Martin passed Tony Stewart on lap 59 for fourth position, he was turning the fastest times on the race track.
The night’s third caution on lap 62 brought the team down pit road for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment. The team lost four spots in the pits and Martin returned in eighth position when the field went green on lap 66. By lap 87 he had moved his Ford back inside the top five where he would run for the remainder of the race. Martin passed Greg Biffle for fourth place on lap 129 and would pull in on the leaders, but several late cautions would halt his progression.
“We just couldn't quite get it within striking distance,” added Martin. “We kept inching closer and closer, but just couldn't quite contend for it."
Martin will return to Busch racing in two weeks at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, when he makes his first Busch start at Charlotte since 2000. Martin has six Busch wins and 13 top-five finishes in 26 Busch starts at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Martin will run all three series and the Nextel All-Star Challenge at Lowe’s in the next two weeks.

Mark Martin Post Race Notes & Quotes - Nextel Cup - Dodge Dealer 500
Ford Racing: News
May 13, 2006
MARK MARTIN -- No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion (Finished 8th)
"Every race we run better than we finish. I don't know if that's frustrating or if that's a good thing. I don't know. We've been running good, but we're not finishing as good as we run so if we can fix that and not lose the other, we should be pretty stout."
HOW WAS THE CAR ON THOSE LONG GREEN FLAG RUNS?
"That's what we needed. I guess I just drive too easy. We always have a good car on the long run. We'd lose quite a bit of ground but then our car would be awesome and we would gain ground on the leader the second half of a run. We got a green flag at the end and that's what we needed to do the best we could. We lost a lot of ground many times in the race and we made a lot back up. It was a great effort by the AAA team. I was saying before, I don't know if I should be frustrated because we're not finishing as good as we run or happy that we're running good knowing that we're gonna start finishing like we run. Either way, this is better than the last few weeks."
CHARLOTTE AND DOVER NEXT -- GOOD TRACKS SO YOU MUST BE HAPPY.
"I am, but I will say that we've been running good at the places I don't run good at and hate, so I don't know what that means. Hopefully we'll run real good at the places I love too."

Mark Martin Post Qualifying Notes & Quotes - Nextel Cup - Dodge Dealer 500
Ford Racing: News
May 13, 2006
MARK MARTIN -- No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion (Qualified 17th)
"I'm disappointed but it's better than we practiced. I was hoping for a miracle there and we didn't quite get it. We just haven't managed to get it just right yet. We just really haven't had enough practice and enough tires to get the car where we need it. We'll just have to start in the back of the pack and see if we can work our way up."

Mark Martin Post Race Notes & Quotes - Busch - Diamond Hill Plywood 200
Ford Racing: News
May 12, 2006
MARK MARTIN-6-Ameriquest Mortgage Ford Fusion (Finished 4th)
DID YOU NEED A LONG GREEN-FLAG RUN AT THE END?
"Well, that was our strong suit. It was just accident. We didn't mean to set it up that way, but it was really strong on the long run. I was very pleased with my truck team here taking care of the Ameriquest Ford this weekend, and we're having some fun." WAS IT THE SAME OLD DARLINGTON TONIGHT? "Yes, it is. We just couldn't quite get it within striking distance. We kept inching closer and closer, but just couldn't quite contend for it."

AAA-Sponsored NEXTEL Cup Series Car to Feature Special Paint Scheme During ``Neighborhood Excellence 400'' at Dover International Speedway
AAA Newsroom
May 9, 2006
Orlando, Fla. - No. 6 Ford Fusion Driven by Mark Martin to Highlight Insurance Products from AAA
AAA, 2006 sponsor of Roush Racing’s No. 6 Ford Fusion driven by NEXTEL Cup veteran Mark Martin, today announced it will introduce a special paint scheme highlighting AAA’s insurance products the weekend of the “Neighborhood Excellence 400” at the Dover International Speedway in June. Weekend events also include the “AAA Insurance 200” NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event.
The special AAA design also may be used selectively at other NEXTEL Cup events throughout the 2006 season. It features a dominant, dark blue background and chrome lettering while maintaining key elements of the traditional AAA No. 6 paint scheme.
“The dynamic look of this design reflects the contemporary nature of AAA’s highly successful and respected insurance products,” said Spencer Roman, chief executive officer, AAA Mid-Atlantic Insurance Group, which is sponsoring the “AAA Insurance 200.”
AAA clubs provide a variety of insurance products and services as member benefits. These include automobile and homeowners insurance, as well as life, accident and health insurance.
AAA also said die-cast replicas of the No. 6 car featuring the special paint scheme will be available to the public in late summer or early fall.
As North America’s largest motoring and leisure travel organization, AAA provides more than 49 million members with travel, insurance, financial and automotive-related services, and member-exclusive savings.
Contact: Tom Calcagni
Email: tcalcagni@national.aaa.com
Phone: 407-444-8000
Contact: Cathy Rossi, AAA Mid-Atlantic
Phone: 302-299-4424

2006 Mark Martin Track Notes - Saturday - May 13, 2006
Dodge Charger 500 / Darlington Raceway #6 AAA Ford Fusion
May 10, 2006
DRIVER: Mark Martin
TEAM: No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion
OWNER: Jack Roush
CREW CHIEF: Pat Tryson
2005 EVENT WINNER: Greg Biffle
MARK MARTIN - 2005 EVENT
May 7, 2005
Dodge Charger 500
Started 20th, Finished 4th
DARLINGTON, S.C. (May 9, 2005) – Mark Martin and the No. 6 Viagra® (sildenafil citrate) Racing Team turned in one of their strongest performances of the season Saturday night at Darlington Raceway with a fourth-place run and advanced five places to sixth in the Nextel Cup point standings. Martin made it interesting, spinning out with only three laps to go while attempting to move into third position, but the team was ready for the challenge, quickly rebounding for the fourth place run.
MARTIN LOOKS TO TAME THE LADY IN BLACK
After an 11th-place finish at Richmond last weekend, Martin and the No. 6 AAA Race Team head to Darlington for their second-consecutive Saturday night race. Martin, who has scored 10 top-15 finishes in 11 starts this season, goes into Darlington looking for his second win at the historic track.
BACK TO THE DOUBLE
Martin will return to double duty action this weekend, running both the Busch Series race on Friday and the Cup race on Saturday. Martin will look to add to his lofty total of eight Busch wins at Darlington, as well as his all-time series record 47.
WORTHY NOTE
Martin finished seventh in his first career Cup race at Darlingon in 1982.
THE CAR
The team will run RK-315 this weekend at Darlington. RK-315 finished ninth this year at California and sixth at Las Vegas. Martin used the car last season in a victory at Kansas and a second place run at the season finale at Homestead.
MARTIN AT DARLINGTON
This will be Martin's 40th career Cup start at Darlington Raceway, where his 16 top-five and 24 top-10 finishes are the most among active drivers. Martin has finished inside the top 10 in 62 percent of his races there, where he has finished seventh or better in four of his last five and top five in three of his last five. He will be looking for his fourth straight top-10 at Darlington this weekend, where he made his first start on April 4 of 1982, when he finished seventh. He won the famed Southern 500 there in Sept. of 1993; his only Cup win at the track. His eight Busch wins at Darlington are a track record, setting him as one of the most successful drivers in the tracks famed history.
Starts: 39 (20)
Wins: 1 (-)
Top 5's: 17 (11)
Top 10's: 24 (16)
Poles: 2 (2)
Highest finish: 1st (9-'93)
First time: 4/482 (7th)
Last time: 5/7/05 (4th)
MARK MARTIN - FAST FACTS

Mark Martin's 24 top 10 and 17 top-five finishes are the most of any active driver at Darlington.

Martin won the famed Southern 500 at Darlington in Sept. of 1993.

Martin has finished inside the top-seven in four of the last five at Darlington.

Martin has finished inside the top-five in three of the last five at Darlington and he has posted three consecutive top 10's there.

MARTIN STEADY DOWN THE STRETCH
Martin's 11th place finish marked the ninth time in 10 races this season he has finished inside the top 15, making him one of only two drivers to do so. Martin has finished inside the top 10 in ll but one race dating back to last fall at Atlanta. On the season he has led in six of the 10 races for a total of 200 laps.
AAA AND MARK MARTIN
Martin is sporting a different look and sponsor this season. As North America's largest motoring and leisure travel organization, AAA boasts more than 48 million members.
ENCORE SALUTE IN '06
Martin had planned 2005 as his final in NASCAR's Nextel Cup Series, but when called into action by Jack Roush he opted to return for one more go around. Martin's fourth-place finish in the points in '05 proved he is still one of the fastest stars in NASCAR and he plans on using 2006 as an encore performance of his highly popular "Salute To You" Tour, where he will continue to take the time to thank each and every person that he feels played a role in his success, including the team members, the fans, NASCAR and the media.
QUOTING MARK MARTIN AND CREW CHIEF PAT TRYSON ON DARLINGTON
Mark Martin:
"Darlington is a cool track that I've always liked. I ran second there to Dale Earnhardt twice in '89 and '90 and finally won in '93. Sometimes I think that people seem to forget that I won a Southern 500. I've had a lot of success at Darlington and an enormous amount of Busch wins. The place brings back some great memories of some great battles. Actually the win in '93 was four in a row and that was a big deal.
"It's a jagged oval. It's not a smooth radius turn. The wall goes in and out and in and out. Your line is as smooth as anywhere else, but the track's all over the place. You go from touching the apron to touching the wall and you've never even changed directions. It's really narrow and banked a lot. The cars go really fast and the track goes everywhere so it's always a challenge."
Pat Tryson:
"We really like the car that we are taking to Darlington this weekend and we know it's the type of track where Mark's talents can really stand out. We had a really good run there a year ago and we were really good there two years ago as well, so it's been a place where we've had success lately and it will just be up to us to put all the pieces in place and go out there and hopefully compete for the win."

2006 Mark Martin Track Notes - Friday - May 12, 2006
Diamond Hill Plywood 200 / Darlington Raceway
May 10, 2006
DRIVER: Mark Martin
TEAM: No. 6 Ameriquest Ford Fusion
OWNER: Jack Roush
CREW CHIEF: Mike Beam
MARTIN MAKES DARLINGTON BUSCH RETURN
Mark Martin will make make his return to the Busch Series at Darlington Raceway this Friday night, when he makes his third Busch series start of the season.
THE CAR
Chassis: The team will run chassis RK-356 at Darlington this weekend. This is the same car that Mark drove at Texas earlier this season.
MARTIN IN THE BUSCH SERIES
Martin made a name for himself in the Busch Series, taking a series record 45 checkered-flags from 1987 until he 'retired' from the series in 2000. Martin posted an additional two wins last year, boosting his record total to 47. All in all Martin has run 215 Busch races, collecting 137 top 10's and 100 top fives. Martin has won 22 percent of all the Busch races he's entered and finished inside the top 10 sixty-four percent of the time. Martin has led 5,247 laps in the series.
MARTIN AT DARLINGTON
This will be Martin's 27th Darlington start in the Busch Series, where he has dominated over his career, running to a track record eight victories and eight poles. Martin won both events from the pole there in 2000, the last year that he raced the Busch car at the 1.366-mile historic track.
MARK MARTIN - FAST FACTS - BUSCH SERIES

Martin's eight Busch wins at Darlington are a track record.

This will be Martin's 26th Busch race at Darlington.

Martin's eight Busch wins at Darlington are a track record, as are his eight poles.

Martin's 47 wins in the Busch Series are the series record.

Martin's 28 career Busch poles tie for the most ever in the series.

ON THE POLE
Martin won his 28th career pole last September at Richmond. The pole tied for the most career poles ever in the Busch Series.
QUOTING MARK MARTIN ON DARLINGTON
"We've had a lot of fun over the years with the Busch race at Darlington. We've been able to have some great battles and get a lot of wins there. It's a great track for racing and this will be our first Busch race there in five or six years, so I am excited about getting back out there for the Busch race."

Martin Weathers Tough Night in Richmond for 11th-Place Finish
Martin posts ninth-top 15 finish of the season, advances to fourth in Nextel Cup points
Mark Martin and the #6 AAA Racing Team
Richmond International Raceway/May 6, 2006
RICHMOND, VA. – Mark Martin and the No. 6 AAA Racing Team were able to survive an untimely caution early and a late miscommunication on pit road to run to their ninth top-15 finish in 10 races this season. The 11th-place finish might not have been indicative to the type of car Martin had for the 400-mile event, but it was good enough to move Martin up one spot to fourth in the Nextel Cup points race. Martin, who qualified second and led early, gained eight points on leader Jimmie Johnson and 86 points on third-place Matt Kenseth.
“It was a tough night,” said Martin. “We ended up with a solid finish, but we had a car that was good enough to win this race, so it’s really hard to be in a real good mood about tonight. I guess when the smoke clears and the dust settles, we ended up with a good points night and we almost got a top-10 out of it. It would have been nice to contend for the win – like I think we could have – but we’ll take this and move forward to Darlington.”
Martin started the race second based on Friday night’s strong qualifying effort. He led lap two, before settling back into second for the next 20 laps. Martin continued to run in the field’s top three for the next 46 laps until caution was called on lap 66 bringing the race leaders down pit road for four tires and adjustments. Martin lost two positions in a heated battle on pit road, restarting in fifth when the field returned to green.
Martin had driven all the way back to third, before coming into the pits under green on lap 185. In a stroke of bad luck, teammate Carl Edwards spun out attempting to enter pit road behind Martin. The spin brought out the caution just as Martin had entered the pits. The veteran was able to wisely drive on through the pits and stay on the lead lap, but he lost position back to 14th as the field returned to green on lap 191.
Martin began patiently working his way back through the field. By lap 251 Martin had maneuvered his No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion back inside the field’s top 10. He moved into ninth place on lap 315, where he was running when caution was issued after Robbie Gordon cut a tire and spun into the turn one wall on lap 346. In a crucial error of miscommunication, Martin – along with Jeff Burton – entered pit road while the pits were closed. The result was that Martin had to go to the tail end of the longest line, in 15th position, when green-flag racing resumed on lap 352 with only 48 laps to go. Martin was able to battle back to 11th position, fighting for 10 th down to the final lap of the race.
The team returns to action next weekend at Darlington International Raceway, where Martin has one win, 16 top-fives and 24 top-10 finishes in 39 starts at the historic 1.366-mile track.

Note: Mark finished 11th in the Crown Royal 400....Another note...Way to go Mark for giving Mike Wallace that little "love" tap! :)
Mark Martin Post Qualifying Notes and Quotes - Crown Royal 400
Ford Racing: News
May 5, 2006
MARK MARTIN -- No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion (Qualified 2nd)
HOW WAS THAT RUN?
"It was great. I didn't notice any wind or anything. The car worked fantastic. I can tell you that this makes 19 years that I've been in that 6 car and obviously I take it for granted from being in it for so long, but something like that -- to drive a car like that -- really reminds me of what an honor it is to drive that 6 car. I've been really lucky for a long, long time to be strapping in that thing and that reminded me just how lucky I am."
IT HAD BEEN FIVE YEARS YESTERDAY SINCE YOUR LAST POLE. MAYBE WE SHOULD ASK BIFFLE WHY HE DIDN'T LET YOU HAVE IT AND LET YOU IN THE SHOOTOUT NEXT YEAR.
"I've said all along that the Bud Shootout and the All-Star race were races that I was interested in doing, so even if I would have been gone truck racing I would have wanted to be in the shootout. But let me tell you one thing, though, talking about Biffle letting me have a pole. Listen, that ain't gonna happen. I don't know if you all were paying attention at the banquet last year at New York but listen, every driver's nightmare is to wake up every day knowing that they've got to race against Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and now Jamie McMurray in the same stuff. I'll be honest with you, when I found out that Biffle hadn't gone yet, I knew I was had because nobody gets on the wheel like Greg Biffle."
A NICE COMEBACK FROM LAST WEEK TO PUT IT BEHIND YOU.
"Last week's race was beyond making me mad. I mean, it was just beyond that. Now I will say that last year in the chase when we went into there second or third or whatever we were in the points and wrecking before the first pit stop, I had real trouble with that for a long time. But this race I blew off because we've run so good this year. We've scored a lot of points and it was just so out there that I couldn't even get mad about it. We ran great. We ran OK in the test here. We ran great at Phoenix and we came back here and we worked a little bit more after learning some things at Phoenix and tried to make some additional adjustments that maybe made the car a little bit better. As Casey (Mears) said, he ran the same speed he did in the test. When I tried to qualify in the test, I ran a .40 and I thought I was gonna be last place. I thought I'd have to use a provisional here, so those little changes that we made to the car moved us way up the grid. Some of that is just luck and some of that is magic. You strap into that 6 car and sometimes there's magic dust flying around."

Ford Post Qualifying Notes and Quotes - Mark Martin - Crown Royal 400
Ford Racing: News
May 5, 2006
MARK MARTIN -- No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion (Qualified 2nd)
"It was a good run, but I just want to thank everyone on the AAA team, Ford and everybody that supports us, especially Jack Roush and AAA and Pat Tryson and everybody that works on the 6 car. It's an honor to drive the 6 car. I've been in it a long time and sometimes I forget, but that just reminded me what a true honor it is to drive the 6 car."
DID YOU KNOW IT WAS A GOOD LAP?
"Yeah, I knew it was pretty good. I certainly didn't expect the pole and I don't expect the pole. That would be too much to ask, to ask for the pole here but it's gonna be a real good starting spot and I do like that."
DOES THAT GET YOU CRANKED UP?
"The car did the work. The first lap was pretty good and the second lap I got into one too easy and it kind of made me mad, so I figured I'd kill turn three so I went in over my head and made it through there and I guess I made up what I threw away going into one."
THAT MUST BE A RUSH.
"I was glad I made it. I didn't know if the second lap would be faster than the first and it was about a quarter-of-a-second faster so it just goes to show I don't know what's going on out there."
HOW WILL THE CAR RACE?
"The car is awesome in race trim. We always race better than we qualify."

2006 Mark Martin Track Notes - Saturday - May 6, 2006
Crown Royal 400 / Richmond International Raceway
#6 AAA Ford Fusion
Roush Racing
DRIVER: Mark Martin
TEAM: No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion
OWNER: Jack Roush
CREW CHIEF: Pat Tryson
2005 EVENT WINNER: Kasey Kahne
MARK MARTIN - 2005 EVENT
May 14 - Chevy American Revolution 400
Richmond International Raceway
Started 14th
Finished 15th
RICHMOND, Va. (May 14, 2005) – Mark Martin and the No. 6 Racing Team fought to a 15th place finish Saturday night in the Chevy Revolution 400 at Richmond International Raceway. The finish was Martin’s sixth top-15 finish in 11 races. Martin sits at 10th in the Nextel Cup standings, only 63 points outside of the top five and 218 points behind first.
The team started the race 13th and Martin struggled with his Viagra® Ford’s handling for most of the night. Martin brushed the wall early, but sustained little damage. The team was never able to truly find the handle on the car, but Martin maintained positioning inside the field’s top 20 all evening long, fighting several times to stay on the lead lap and secure the top-15 finish.
“We just weren’t very good tonight,” said Martin. “It was a great effort by the team and they didn’t give up. The car just wasn’t very good and it was hard to drive. We gave it all we had and I’m proud of the guys and we’ll just have to regroup and come back at it next week.”
The trend for the night would be a ‘loose’ handling car early in a run that would become ‘tight’ late. The team worked with the car during several adjustments, but to little avail. Martin was able to fight to as high as 12th position as late as lap 342 of the 400 lap event, but he would be unable to break into the top 10. He restarted in 15th place after the day’s eighth caution on lap 376 and he would be able to hang on to 15th through one more caution and the race’s final 24 laps.
The highlight of the night was the Viagra® Team’s work in the pits that included stops of 13.6, 13.74, 13.59 and 12.75 seconds, gaining the team several positions and securing their place on the lead lap.
MARTIN, NO. 6 LOOK TO REBOUND RICHMOND
Martin and the No. 6 AAA team will to bounce back from their worst finish of the season last week at Talladega, where Martin was caught up in an accident on just the eighth lap of the race. Martin will look to do just that at Richmond, where he will make his 43rd Cup start, dating back to Sept. 13, 1981.
THE CAR
The team will run RK-221 at Richmond this weekend. The car was extremely fast in its last run at Phoenix two weeks ago. It finished 13th at Richmond last fall, despite losing a lap early with a flat tire. The car ran seven times in 2005, boasting four top-fives and a win at the All-Star race in May.
WORTHY NOTE
Martin won the in his first Cup race at Richmond in 1981.
MARTIN AT RICHMOND
This will be Martin's 43rd start at Richmond, dating back to Sept. 13, 1981 when he earned his second career Cup pole in only his fourth career start. Martin rolled on to a seventh place finish, the first of his 22 career top-10 finishes at Richmond, where he's finished top 10 in five of his last seven.
MARK MARTIN - FAST FACTS - RICHMOND

Mark Martin has finished inside the top 10 in five of his last eight races at Richmond.

Martin earned his first career Cup top-10 finish at Richmond on Sept. 13, 1981 finishing seventh.

Martin sat on the pole at his first career Cup race at Richmond in 1981.

Martin has one win, 22 top-10 and 12 top-five finishes in 42 races at Richmond.

Martin earned his 41st career Cup pole at Richmond in Sept. of 2001.

Martin has five Busch wins at Richmond and will race in the Busch race this Friday night.

MARK MARTIN AT RICHMOND
Starts - 42 (21)
Poles - 3 (1)
Wins - 1 (1)
Top-5s - 12 (6)
Top-10s - 22 (11)
Highest finish: 1st (2-'90)
First time: 9/13/81 (7th)
Last time: 9/10/05 (13th) and 5/14/05 (15th)
ON THE POLE
Martin earned his second career Cup pole at his first start at Richmond in 1981 and his 41st pole there in Sept. of 2001.
STREAK COMES TO AN END
Martin's streak of 12 consecutive top-15 finishes came to an end when he was caught up in an accident on lap eight at Talladega. The streak had dated back to Atlanta last fall.
AAA AND MARK MARTIN
Martin is sporting a different look and sponsor this season. As North America's largest motoring and leisure travel organization, AAA boasts more than 48 million members.
ENCORE SALUTE IN '06
Martin had planned 2005 as his final in NASCAR's Nextel Cup Series, but when called into action by Jack Roush he opted to return for one more go around. Martin's fourth-place finish in the points in '05 proved he is still one of the fastest stars in NASCAR and he plans on using 2006 as an encore performance of his highly popular "Salute To You" Tour, where he will continue to take the time to thank each and every person that he feels played a role in his success, including the team members, the fans, NASCAR and the media.
QUOTING MARK MARTIN AND CREW CHIEF PAT TRYSON ON RICHMOND
Mark Martin:
"Richmond has been a good track for us through the years. We've had a lot of good runs there and although we have been off a bit the last few times, we had a great test there a few weeks ago and we really like the car that we are taking this weekend. I've always liked racing there and we are pretty optimistic going into the race this weekend. The car was just incredible at Phoenix, so hopefully we'll be able to hook it up again and put Talladega behind us with another strong run.
"Now that we have Talladega behind us the strong point of our schedule is coming up and we are very excited about Richmond, Darlington, Charlotte, Pocono and Dover. We couldn't ask for a better string of race tracks moving forward and I'm excited about going there with this race team and seeing what we can do."
Pat Tryson:
We are taking the same car that we ran a Phoenix and it was one of the fastest cars there that we've had in a long time. We were fast at the Richmond test, so we have a lot to be optimistic about going into the weekend. Hopefully we'll be able to go there and compete for the win."

Mark Martin Post Race Notes and Quotes - Aaron's 499
Ford Racing: News
May 1, 2006
MARK MARTIN -- No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion (Finished 35th)
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?
"I wrecked. I don't know. Please don't ask me what happened. I don't know. It's Talladega."
HOW FRUSTRATING IS THIS FOR YOU?
"It's Talladega."
IT'S LIKE A REPLAY OF LAST YEAR.
"I don't even remember last year. It's what it is. I don't know. There are too many cars in one pack."
ARE YOU ANGRY ABOUT IT?
"No. It's ridiculous. It's way beyond being angry. It's stupid. It would be ignorant for me to be mad about it. I'll just be glad when I don't do it anymore. It's a tough deal. It's too bad. It was one of the most fun places I ever came. In 1982 it was just a blast to race here, but in today's day and age it's hard to have fun when you know that the pin is out of the grenade. It's just a matter of time before it goes off."

Martin Gets Caught Up in Early Accident at Talladega
Martin maintains top-five position in point standings despite early wreck
Mark Martin and the #6 AAA Racing Team
Talladega Superspeedway/May 1, 2006
TALLADEGA, ALA. – Mark Martin was not a huge fan of restrictor-plate racing heading into Monday’s rain delayed Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway; the latest installment at Talladega did little to change that opinion. Martin and his No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion were caught up in a multi-car accident after only eight laps of the 500-mille, 188-lap event. The Fusion sustained severe damage and had to be taken behind the wall for extensive repairs. Martin and the team would later return to the field, picking up the pieces for a 35th-place finish.
“I don’t really know what happened,” said Martin moments after the accident. “It’s Talladega – what can you say. You have all of those cars running in one pack like that and it’s only a matter of time.
“It would be ignorant for me to be mad about it,” added Martin. “I’ll just be glad when I don’t do it anymore. It’s a tough deal. It’s too bad. It was one of the most fun places I ever came. In 1982 it was just a blast to race here, but in today’s day and age it’s hard to have fun when you know that the pin is out of the grenade. It’s just a matter of time before it goes off.”
Martin started the race 10th and was shuffled back to 24th by lap four. A handful of cars in front of Martin attempted to go five wide through turn three and the result was a multi-car accident that saw Martin and several other cars caught up in a chain reaction that saw the majority of those involved either forced from the race or behind the wall for repairs.
The AAA crew worked feverishly to repair the damage and Martin was able to return by lap 88 of the race in 37th position. He was able to stay ahead of those around him, while picking up two positions to 35 th. The finish marks the third consecutive race for Martin at Talladega where he has been caught up in an accident and finished 33 rd or worse.
“The team did a really fine job of getting in there and repairing the damage to the car,” said Martin. “We were beat up pretty bad, we were able to go back out and pick up a lot of points, which can be really important down the stretch.”
Martin and the AAA Team will look to rebound next weekend when they travel to Richmond for a Saturday night race. Martin has 12 top five and 22 top-10 finishes in 42 starts at the .75-mile short track.
After nine races, Martin is currently fifth in the Nextel Cup point standings, 184 out of first place and just three points behind fourth.