Bart Starr: The man in the motorhome

Most Mark Martin fans wouldn’t even know who he is, but he’s got a pretty sweet job. He made his fame by writing a few blogs, but has discontinued that practice for the meantime. Even his name reeks of fame. But this Bart Starr never played for the Green Bay Packers.

He has the job of driving Mark Martin’s motorcoach around the country, from racetrack to racetrack, city to city and every stop along the way.

“I like the longer trips, like California and back to the east coast,” he said. “You get to see the country and you have three days to do it.”

He didn’t start with Mark Martin, or even Roush Racing. His first job was driving the transporter for the #5 team years ago. “I actually started inside building some offices and just turned right into driving a truck,” he said. However, when he got to Roush he wasn’t even with the veteran driver.

“I applied for the job to drive the 97 truck with Kurt Busch and drove that truck about three years and then they switched teams,” he commented. When Mark Martin and Kurt Busch switched teams they switched personnel too. And the rest as they say, is history.

Working with high profile people is something that I have gotten used to. Just down the hall from our video office at the University of Cincinnati is the office of one of the hottest coaching names in college football—Brian Kelly. He treats me like he would any other person on the staff, and I like that about our head man. What does Bart think of working with Mark Martin?

He didn’t have to think long before answering, “It’s great, I love it. He treats you like a friend, not an employee. I appreciate that more than anything.” Mark’s business manager Benny Ertel concurred, nodding his head with every word Starr spoke.

(Photo from LAT archives)

“It’s hard to find somebody that will treat you with respect and friendliness instead of treating you like an employee,” he continued. “There are people who can treat you like that so that’s why I appreciate about him. He doesn’t just treat you like an employee.”

Although Mark has moved from Roush—where he and Starr got started together—to Hendrick Motorsports, Bart has noticed no difference in interaction with the teams. “All the guys are great,” he said, gesturing with his arms. “They’re all very nice and respectful.”

As for his time as a blogger, Bart reflected that he misses doing it, “A little bit. There was a lot of time that went into that.” He made a fame with certain Mark Martin fans, who asked me to ask him a few things. I obliged.

Does he ever wear that blue and yellow “Markaholic” t-shirt? “I don’t know if I’ve ever wore that,” he said, decked out in a “Mark Martin Enterprises” shirt. We’ll forgive him. He also added that although he doesn’t recall ever meeting any of the original members of the “6 Pfamily” or any “Markaholics” (until now) he did say, “I knew them more from online.”

He’ll keep trucking for as long as Mark Martin lets him drive his motorcoach. And, judging from the fun Martin is having this season, Bart Starr might be employed for at least a few more years. And a few more trips to victory lane.
----------------------------------------------
I’m waiting out the rain here in Indy. I’ll catch qualifying and practice if they go off here. Hopefully these scattered showers move out and the track dries. The problem with Indy and rain is the flat surface and the fact that it’s 2.5 miles around. It’ll be a while before the track is dry, but when it is, I’ll be watching live.