“It’s hard to make a car good enough to win, and it’s ten times harder to win one,” Mark Martin said after capturing his first victory in four years last April in Phoenix. “We didn’t fall into this one, we took it.”
Hendrick Motorsports has had a strangle hold on Phoenix since 2007. The only driver to win at Phoenix since the spring of 2007 not named Jimmie Johnson is his teammate Mark Martin.
Hendrick Motorsports has had a strangle hold on Phoenix since 2007. The only driver to win at Phoenix since the spring of 2007 not named Jimmie Johnson is his teammate Mark Martin.
Martin and the No. 5 team celebrate their first win of 2009 (Motorsport.com photo)
Last year Martin won the pole in Phoenix, his third of the 2009 season to that point. Unfortunately for Martin and the No. 5 team, they hadn’t been able to put together a run that matched their qualifying effort. “I remember being nervous for that race. But that's only because I knew how good our car was,” Martin said this week. “We had a winning car from the time we rolled off the truck last year. The guys knew it, too, and I was so concerned with not disappointing them.”
After Mark Martin won it was time to do a quick victory lap with the checkered flag (Motorsport.com photo)
“We had a great race. Perfect pit stops. Very few adjustments all night long.”
Martin and crew chief Alan Gustafson made the right moves all night long in the desert. In the end though, Martin and two-time champ Tony Stewart had to battle for the win. No matter who took the checkers first, sports writers would have a multitude of storylines for the next week.
It was either Martin, the 50-year-old wily vet, who had come back from part-time racing to join the “superteam” of NASCAR for a chance to win races or Stewart, who left a ride with Joe Gibbs Racing to start his own team. But in the end Martin prevailed, leaving writers and broadcasters, fans of the sport and fans of all sports to rejoice, praising the “Old Man” who dominated a group of athletes younger than him.
Stewart wasn’t too disappointed though. He said, “We’re going to win one of these soon. [But] I’m glad to see Mark get this win. He deserved it. He had the fastest car.”
Before capturing the win at Phoenix in April of '09, Martin's last win was in 2005 at Kansas (Motorsport.com photo)
Martin said post race, “This is big for me. The response from my fellow competitors means more than any trophy to me.”
This week he reflected back on that weekend, saying, “When we finally won, it was such a mix of relief and gratitude. It was an amazing night. One of those wins that I’m sure I’ll never forget. Absolutely incredible.”
It was just the beginning for Martin in 2009. He went on to win four more races, and was a player in quite a few more.
In April of 2008 he had the field covered at Phoenix in the No. 8 U.S. Army Chevy, but running low on gas late in the race, Martin pitted and yielded the lead to Jimmie Johnson. In 2009 Martin came in as a darkhorse favorite at Phoenix. FOX analyst Larry McReynolds picked Martin to win too. And he was right.
As a Mark Martin fan it certainly was a memorable night. And this weekend we look for nothing less from Martin and the No. 5 GoDaddy.com team. But, this weekend, Martin won’t be looked at as a darkhorse to win. He might be the favorite, that is, if four-time Cup champ Jimmie Johnson isn’t the favorite.
Johnson (left) and Martin have been pretty stout at Phoenix the past few years. Can anyone stop them? (Getty Images)
If anyone has the tools and the will to defeat Johnson it’s the other Hendrick teams, most notably Martin. And if this battle sounds familiar, well it is. Martin and Johnson dueled at Indianapolis last year and dueled in the points battle all the way down to the final few races of 2009.
Who will win this weekend? Tune in to FOX tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. for the start of the first night race on the 2010 schedule.
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