Daytona: Ageless Martin on historic run
DAYTONA BEACH (AP) – Mark Martin works out almost daily and scrutinizes everything he eats – dedication that has the 50-year-old driver in top physical condition.
He knows that intense focus on personal health won’t forever stave off the affects of aging. Eventual-ly, his eyesight my fade or his coordination will drop just a tick.
For now, though, the veteran is at the top of his game and ready to make yet another run at that elusive NASCAR championship.
Only this time, he’ll be in the very best equipment and surrounded by every resource imaginable. After two years of easing his way into retirement with limited Sprint Cup schedules, he was lured back to a full-time job by an open seat at elite Hendrick Motorsports.
It was an opportunity too good to refuse, perhaps the last-grasp chance to win the title that’s escaped him over a remarkable 26-year career.
No one involved in the effort – team owner Rick Hendrick, crew chief Alan Gustafson, or teammates Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. – doubt Martin will be a legitimate championship contender this season.
“There’s not a single time when Mark has gotten into one of our cars where I haven’t said to myself ‘Wow, this dude is crazy good. How has he not won 10 championships?'” Gus-tafson said. “This guy might be the best to ever do this, or at least one of the top five stock car drivers in history.”
Never mind that Martin has five more years on Bobby Allison, the oldest driver to win a championship when he did it at 45 in 1983. Richard Petty was 42 when he won the last of his seven titles, Dale Earnhardt was 44.
Since Dale Jarrett won the title at 42 in 1999, no driver over the age of 36 has claimed a Cup title.
Age is just a number to Martin. It’s the desire that actually means something.
“Certain things diminish with age: your eyesight, the color of your hair, the amount of hair,” Martin said. “One of the things that really happens when you get my age, to race car drivers, is it’s very common for that burning fire and desire, it seems to diminish to a degree. That hasn’t happened to me.
“I want this as bad as I did the day I got fired in 1983 or the day I went broke in 1982 or the first win I got in 1989. I want it as bad, at least as bad, as I ever have in my life and I’m willing to do whatever it takes.”
Martin proved he’s still at the top of his game in Sunday’s qualifying for the season-opening Daytona 500. With the second-fastest lap of the day, he earned a front row starting spot for the biggest event of the year.
The significance is not lost on him. He’s never won a Cup race at NASCAR’s most famous track, and his only shot at a Daytona 500 victory ended in a 2007 photo-finish second-place to Kevin Harvick.
The defeat was heartbreaking, but he wasn’t deterred. Martin knows his chances at a 500 title are winding down.