him that he's never won a Winston Cup championship. Ask him if it bothers
him that people ask him that all the time, or ask him if his career won't
be complete without one, and his answer tells you all about Mark Martin
that you need to know."I have a hard time understanding how finishing second in the Winston Cup championship is a bad thing," Mark says. "... I have a great career, lots of wins . I will either win every championship that I run for from now on, or I won't win any, or I'll win some in between. I don't know, but the effort will be the same."
Mark, who drives Jack Roush's No. 6 Ford in the Winston Cup Series, may have the purest heart of any racer who's ever lived. The 44-year-old Batesville, Ark., driver has 33 Winston Cup wins in his career, 45 in the Busch Series (the most of any driver), and he has won the International Race of Champions four times. But he has been to the brink of the Winston Cup championship -- and not quite gotten there -- more times than any driver you could name.
He's stared the ultimate disappointment, second place, in the face four times since 1990. In 1990, the difference between winning and losing was a scant 26 points, and he'd been penalized 46 points (some would say arbitrarily) for something he didn't even know was on his car. Last year, he drew another 25 point penalty that, while it wouldn't have made the difference between winning or losing the title, came at a time when it was a momentum-killer.
But every fiber of Mark's being tells you just what he would say: Life's not a destination; it's a journey. And so far, he's just enjoying the ride.
"Fifteen years ago I didn't know if I was going to make it or not," he said. "Even though there are a few things in my career that the media likes to focus on that I haven't done, I have achieved so much... . if you take the whole thing in perspective and look at it, you have to say that not only has NASCAR changed dramatically, but I have been really fortunate to have achieved a level of success that I have in it as well."
Mark's second-place finish to Tony Stewart for the title last year could have been disappointing, but you'd never hear him say that. He'd point instead to his good start this season. Going into this weekend's race in Las Vegas, Mark has finishes of fifth at Daytona and seventh at Rockingham. He's currently fourth in the Winston Cup points standings, only 39 behind his young protege, Kurt Busch.
The fact that he's old enough to have been around to push guys like the late Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip and the like, and still young enough to take the best shots from young guys like Stewart and Busch, is a point of pride to him.
"There is a certain degree of excitement to see incredibly young, incredibly talented new faces come into the sport. It's a thrill for me," Mark said.
As it must be for them. Take, for instance, Mark's crew chief, Ben Leslie. After Mark's disappointing season in 2001 (no wins, for the first time since 1996, and a 12th-place finish in the points), Roush tried an unusual move. He took Mark's long-time crew chief Jimmy Fennig and put him with the kid, Busch, and moved Busch's 29-year-old crew chief, Leslie, to Mark's shop.
The results were electric. Mark won one of the biggest races on the circuit, the Coca-Cola 600, and finished only 38 points behind Stewart for the championship. Busch won four races, including three of the last five, and finished right behind Mark in the run for the title.
Leslie, for one, keeps pinching himself.
"I knew where I wanted to be, but I didn't expect to get this far," Leslie said. "This was a little bit of a surprise that it came to me this quick."
It was a gamble on Roush's part -- and on Leslie's, since a bad year for Mark might have spelled the end of his crew chief career -- but it turned into the smartest bet anyone in racing made last year.
"If you switch and put your strong person with your weak person and vice versa, it brings your two rookie people up fast and, because of the rookies having a different outlook on things sometimes, it also takes the older, more experienced people and gives them a new look on some things," Leslie said.
Whatever it was, it worked. Now, Leslie said, all he wants to do is to step that up one notch. No matter how Mark sees it, Leslie would be disappointed in himself if he is unable to do that. If he can't take the guy he feels is the best driver in the garage and win a title, it's his shortcoming, not the driver's.
"He feels he has no reservations about anything that's happened in his career, or any championships that he might have won or might not have won, because he's had such a great career," Leslie said. "Myself, to be selfish, I would like to be able to put him in a position to win his championship."
If he gets one, fine. If he doesn't, Mark can live with it. But at this point, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone more deserving.
