Mark Martin shares wisdom on years of experience at Indy

Not only did Mark Martin make the dreams of this young guy come true today, he said he was, “living a dream.” He ran five laps in the second practice and parked the car. It was just that fast.

But even before he got to run his first real laps at Indy in a Hendrick Motorsports car he reflected on the first half of the 2009 Sprint Cup Season. Even his most loyal fans couldn’t dream of the season that he’s had so far. He leads the series with four victories, he’s claimed three poles and he’s had the fastest car at many stops on the schedule.

“We try to win every race, every week, and always have. The thing is we’re having a good time,” he said. “We’re having a lot of fun.”

Mark Martin turned a lap that was .017 seconds faster than former Indy 500 champ Juan Pablo Montoya in the second practice session today

He’s got a new bounce in his step. He smiles more often and he’s even shown some emotion after winning races by pumping his fist after getting out of the car. He’s said time in and time out that it takes a lot more than having a fast car to win the race. “We’re going to try to cross all our t’s and dot all our i’s,” he said.

Since Mark has been so close so often to winning the Cup title he’s come out with the attitude that the trophy doesn’t mean anything to him. But, he feels he owes it to his team to go out and run for the Chase. “I’ll feel devastated for my team, but for me, I’m living well beyond my means right now. I feel like my race team deserved to be a part of that elite group but if we come up short it won’t be from lack of effort,” he said.

Former teammate Jeff Burton agrees. He said, “From the outside looking in, I thought Mark Martin in a Hendrick car, that's potential magic. He is the most dedicated driver in the garage. I try to be dedicated, but that man, he lives, breathes, sleeps it.”

Jeff Burton still has the utmost respect for his former Roush Racing teammate Mark Martin

As for Indy, well, Mark was on record last year saying, “It’d be the crown jewel of my career.” One year later his ideas haven’t changed. “It’d be a nice addition to the trophy case. A big trophy,” he said, smiling. “It’s definitely one of the crown jewels of stock car racing so you give it your best just like you do at all the others. There’s not much more you can do other than that.”

“It’s the history, the recognition,” he added.

He’s a man who was there for the first test in 1992, and he’s the only driver of the nine who competed that day who still runs full-time in the Sprint Cup Series. Bill Elliott will attempt to qualify for the Brickyard tomorrow, and he’s the only other driver who is still running in the Cup Series.

Bill Elliott is the oldest Brickyard 400 winner. He won at age 47. Can Mark Martin knock Elliott's name off that record in the record book?

Elliott has won at Indy, Martin has not. And, just like the 2007 Daytona 500, Mark likes to think back to a race that he “woulda, coulda, shoulda” won at IMS—the 1997 Brickyard 400. He reminisced, “I think about the one that got away; the year that Ricky Rudd won. Jack (Roush) said we had enough gas to make it and we had run out of gas so many times and we had run out of gas so many times that [crew chief] Steve Hmiel and I, we were chasing a championship instead of worrying about winning races.

“I’ll always question in my mind if we could have made it or not, but the decision was based on us probably running out of gas multiple times prior to that.”

50-year old Mark Martin has been the talk of Indianapolis sports news this evening

But even though he almost won that race you could tell from his demeanor that he wants to get on with the weekend and give his best shot to win on Sunday. He ran the quickest lap, a 49.822 second circuit in the second practice. He’ll go out third tomorrow morning for qualifying, which is a phenomenal draw for a pole run. Even if he doesn’t get the pole or the win he’s having fun this season, which is more than anyone would have guessed five years ago about what Mark Martin would be doing right now.

“I’ve been incredibly blessed with a great family, great friends, a great career,” he explained. “And now with a great team, we’ve had our share of success. It’s great. I don’t know how else to expand on it. I stay fairly even keel.”
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I’m heading out to the track to see Mark turn a fast lap tomorrow morning. There’s a 50% chance for rain according to Indianapolis TV stations, but I have faith that NASCAR will do whatever they need to do to get qualifying in. In 2005 they moved practices and qualifying to make sure qualifying was actually run. Hopefully we won’t need to worry about that though.

I’m attempting to get a hold of Bart Starr for my own version of a “Bart blog” for all the faithful Markaholics who have requested. Thanks for reading, tune in tomorrow to ESPN at 10AM to watch qualifying.

I’m just living the dream…From Indianapolis, good night.