Mark closes one chapter of life, and opens another

Ford Racing.com
Interviews Mark
October 28, 2000

ABOUT 25 PERCENT OF YOUR BUSCH WINS HAVE BEEN AT ROCKINGHAM. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT?
"Wow. I guess here and Darlington, it's unbelievable. Darlington is gone and behind us, but I'm not running behind the trailer crying because I'm not going back next year. I'm certainly ready to lighten the load and lighten the plate a little bit. I am definitely going to miss day's like today (winning the pole at Rockingham) that remind me that I might be able to drive these things. This is a real competitive business and it makes me feel good when we can be successful on the race track and I'm gonna miss that about Busch racing, but I just don't have time to do it anymore. I will be relieved when I get Homestead done with, but at the same time I will miss the success that I've had and the way it makes me feel. It's been a very important part of my career and you never know, I never said I'd never drive a Busch car again. I probably won't race a Busch car if I'm racing a Winston Cup schedule, that's for sure. The demand is too great and it's just too much for me today. Five years ago it wasn't, it wasn't any big deal. But today with the demands that are on us, it's just hard to manage."

DO YOU THINK YOU'LL BE ABLE TO CLOSE THE CHAPTER ON YOUR WINSTON CUP CAREER AS EASILY AS IT APPEARS YOU HAVE YOUR BUSCH CAREER?
"That's a hard question to answer. I can't give you a definite answer on that. I can tell you what I think and I think that if I could win races in the last year that it would be wonderful and I think that it would be very gratifying for me. I hope I win races in my final season because that's the way I want to be remembered. I darned sure don't want to hang around and make laps and do the marketing thing and all the gigs and hang around. I'm a racer, that's what I want to do and this thing will have worn me to the ground. I'm gonna step off when I step off and that's that. I don't know. It may kill me, it may eat me alive and I may be back. I'm 41 and I have a plan. There are some guys out there that are 42, 43, 44 and don't have a plan yet, so I do have a plan and I feel real good about it and I just hope I can keep my eye on the target and that is to continue to win races and do that."

DOES YOUR PLAN INCLUDE JUMPING ON A TOOL BOX AND CALLING RACES?
"I wouldn't do that for anything in the world. First of all, I wouldn't keep coming to the race track in that capacity because if I was gonna keep coming to the race track I'd keep driving. I make a lot more money driving a race car than I can owning a race team, I can tell you that, I've seen that movie. I wouldn't keep coming and battling these race tracks, I just wouldn't do it. I'd keep driving because I could drive easy, easy 10 more years. I'm in better health than most of those guys out there. Rick Mears, no one could understand why Rick Mears retired as young as he did and as successful as he was, but he had a reason for it. Some do it the other way and I'm not gonna be one of those. I want to be a little more like Rick Mears and race and win and be remembered as a true competitor. I will continue to come to these race tracks, if my son races. That's my guess right now. I can't tell you, I might change my mind, but today what I think is is that I won't be back unless he races. If he races I'll keep coming, but that would be for the love of my son, it would be a totally different thing. I love racing and I want to continue to race, but in an hour-and-a-half at the quarter-midget race track, I have more fun than I have in a month-and-a-half at a Winston Cup race track. So I'm gonna go do that whenever I get a chance and before it gets too late. That's a long way down the road, we're talking a long, long time. We've got contracts that go through the end of 2005. There's no way of saying. Man, when I get to 2004 I may say, 'Well, I can't do it, man, I've got to keep going. This is great and everything is going good and I've got to keep going.' But I've got my plan set up where I don't have to, where I can make that choice and, for me, that works. I'm not just gonna keep riding and riding and riding this thing into the ground. If you would have asked me five years ago I would have said I'm gonna drive these things until I'm 55. Every time(Dick)Trickle ran good I stood up and cheered. 'Yeah, that adds five more years to the end of my career.' That's what I said five years ago, so everybody changes their minds. Five years ago I had every intention of driving these things into my mid-fifties, but racing has grown a lot in the last five years and these things are a lot more demanding and they're a lot more competitive."

IS IT THE BUSINESS ASPECT THAT'S EATING YOU UP?
"I love racing. I do love racing, it's my life, but racing is a lot different today. I'm honest with you, I have so much fun when I go to the race track with my son, I just can't tell you. It does not compare. It reminds me of when I started racing, it makes me feel the same way, it's a ball. And it's not just my son. I watch some of those other kids drive and I get so inspired and so excited. Everybody works hard through their life so that they can do what they want to do and some day I want to do what I want to do, not what the schedule says."

IS PART OF YOUR DECISION MAYBE BASED ON WHAT YOU SEE WITH DARRELL WALTRIP?
"I can't go there. You understand I can't answer that question, I can't go there. But I can say that I don't want Matt's friends to not know that I ever won any races. You can race long enough for fans to not know that you've won races. I mean, if you go long enough and you do poor enough long enough, you'll have new people come into this sport that didn't know you won 85 races or 75 or 35 or whatever the number might be, and I don't want to go there. I want people to say, 'Man, I don't know why he quit. He can still win.'"

THAT'S THE SAD PART ABOUT DARRELL IS THAT THERE IS A WHOLE GROUP OF FANS WHO DON'T KNOW HOW GOOD HE WAS.
"Yeah, he was awesome and that's very true and that's what I've told some of my friends. It's like, 'Golly, there are a lot of people that don't know he won 84 of these things.' What a show that guy put on for so many years and I still admire and respect that, but there are some people that follow this sport that don't know that. But there's more to it than that. I mean this when I say that some day I want to do what I want to do. I'm gonna do what I want to do, not meet the schedule. I don't know when that is, but I want to do that. I look forward to that. I hope that nothing happens to me in my life so that I can't do that because I've been so dedicated for so many years, just like I (was) in the Busch race (at Rockingham). I could just say, 'Aw, it's almost over with, it don't matter. Forget happy hour, I'll go out and make a few laps and park that thing.' I bleed for it. I'll bleed for that win because that's what I do and that's the kind of person that I am. As long as I race, I'll bleed for it. I won't let myself have very much fun and that's how I do my deal and, some day, I want to say, 'From now on, I make the schedule. From now on, I do what I want to do.'"

AT VEGAS THIS YEAR YOU TALKED ABOUT THIS WEARING YOU OUT AND THAT WAS ONLY THE THIRD RACE OF THE YEAR. WHAT WILL IT BE LIKE NEXT YEAR WITH 38 RACE WEEKENDS?
"Let me tell you something about Vegas, I went to the press room five times in Vegas. I remember (laughing). That's too many times in a weekend, five times I went to the press room. But that's an example, so, yeah, that was the third race of the year and it does wear you down. Unfortunately, I haven't made as many visits to the press room since, but that was a good example. By the end of Sunday at Vegas, I was shaking my head like, 'Man, I don't know how much more I want to do of this. That wasn't the only thing I did all that weekend. I ran back and forth between two cars and I signed autographs for all the folks in between and I did TV deals and appearances and promotions and all that stuff. That's just an example and, yeah, you're right, we've got 38 of these things we're facing next year and I sure don't want to be caught running to the press room five times in a weekend and running back and forth between two cars and trying to sign autographs and going and doing this promotion and going and doing this press thing and this hospitality. It's gotten larger and that's the nature of the business. That's where we're at today."

OTHER THAN WORKING WITH MATT, WHAT ELSE WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO?
"I'd like to have some friends. When I have family members die, I'd like to be able to go and see my family and do things like that. You have to maintain friendships and I don't really have time for that. If a friend requires very much time to maintain, then I've got to get rid of him (chuckling). I've had a good deal of misfortune in my family and I haven't been able to spend any time with the members that are left behind. I'd like to be able to go do that. I'd like to be able to just dedicate time, instead of meet that schedule. My schedule is a scream everyday, everyday, everyday. Monday is like a fire drill and then Tuesday is better and Wednesday slows down and Thursday you leave. Plus, then maybe you do an appearance or something and, man, if you've gotta be gone all day on a Tuesday, then Wednesday is as bad as Monday. Then you leave on Thursday, so if I have a travel day or something that ties me up one day of those three -- Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday -- then I have two fire drill days and then I go off to the race. When I got to Rockingham I thought, 'Whew, man, this has got to be like a vacation compared to this week.' I was so busy during the week that when I got there I thought it was gonna be better and I was gonna be able to rest. That's how I felt because I went all day and half the night all week, and I thought when I got there that I would maybe get a chance to rest."

SO THE LAST FIVE YEARS HAVE REALLY HAD AN IMPACT ON YOUR SCHEDULE?
"I think that the sport has grown and there are so many more sponsors and so many more fans, heck, you know what it was like. I mean, there is twice as much coverage of the sport, there are twice as many fans, there are more sponsors and the sponsors are having to pay more, so they're working their deal. To be honest with you, to race these cars takes more focus than it did five years ago. It's just harder. I don't know if it's because you've got these young boys in here that can really get the job done, or what it is, but you have to think about this stuff a lot and work on it and squeeze your guts all the time. You're just squeezing and squeezing and squeezing. You can be off this much and you run 18th instead of eighth. I mean, we ran at Martinsville and nothing went wrong and finished 18th. Nothing went wrong. We didn't have a flat tire or anything, we just finished 18th. If that would have been five years ago, that would have been eighth, so there's a lot of pressure."

WHAT IS KEEPING YOU HERE NOW IF THERE'S A LEVEL OF UNHAPPINESS?
"I didn't say I was unhappy, but I did say I will bleed to win. That's my own sickness. As long as I race I'll be that way. I tried to explain that with the Busch race. This Busch race, in the scheme of things, doesn't mean much but it does to me. I'll bleed for it and that's how I am about racing because I want to win. I'm a competitor and I want to win, that's what I do. I'm not ready to quit today or at the end of this year. I've made a commitment to Roush Racing and to Pfizer and to my team and we're all committed to continue this thing. You may have misunderstood me to some degree. I didn't mean I was that miserable, it's just that some day I want to make the schedule instead of the schedule make me, that's all. Everybody works for something, that's what I'm working for, for the day that I can say, 'Yeah, I've planned for this for a long, long time.' I've started planning for this about a year ago and it's a long-range plan. A lot of guys that are older than me don't have a long-range plan and I do. That's just kind of how I like to do things, but part of your question is why don't I take some of that -- because of my success in this sport I should be able to say, 'I'm not doing that or I'm not doing that. I'm gonna take this time.' That is my problem. I'm that kind of competitor. I can't. I can't do it. I can't not do the business just as hard as I do the racing. As long as I'm in, I'm in all the way and that's just me. I wish I was different, but I can't. I can't ever look at one race. A Busch race shouldn't mean anything and I'm not just talking about (Rockingham), I've been at other races this year. Charlotte, for example, we changed more springs in that car on Friday afternoon than any other car there, no doubt about it. We strained our whole selves to death trying to get good enough to win that race just because we want to win. It didn't have to be that hard, but that's how I do things. That's the kind of racer I am."

IS IT ALL WORTH IT FOR THAT VICTORY LAP?
"Well, that's the good part. Shoot man, I wasn't in any hurry after we won Martinsville. I stayed until we did the last interview and that's what it's all about. Yes, that's what it's all about. I don't love to make laps and I don't love to drive a car fast, I love to beat everybody. That's what I love -- winning, beating everybody, sitting on the pole, breaking the track record, winning the race -- since I was 15 years old. That's why I race. If you said on a Tuesday morning, 'Hey man, we can go to the race track, I've got a great car for you to drive. You can go and run all day.' It's like, 'No, I don't want to do that. Who is gonna be there?' 'Nobody.' 'Shoot, I'm not going. I'd rather sit on the couch or something.' Making laps is not for me, it's all about the competition."

WITH YOUR SCHEDULE ARE YOU EVER TIRED IN THE CAR?
"I think the adrenaline really drives us all. I never feel tired in the car, I don't, but I have felt tired before the race. There have been times where I didn't feel like getting up or going to do this or that, but as far as driving a race car it's never ever crossed my mind -- the fatigue part of it. It's just not part of the deal. The adrenaline just takes over."

HOW MUCH OF A DISTRACTION HAS THE PERSONNEL TURNOVER ON YOUR TEAM BEEN THIS YEAR?
"I think that's a good question. When we moved down to Mooresville, a majority of our team was young but very mature and very experienced for their age. They were like nothing I had ever worked with before -- what an awesome group. They hung together in '98 and '99 and half a year this year and then we had some turnover, but not more than would be expected. I think that threw a glitch into our pit stops, which cost us opportunities to contend at two races for sure and we had another problem in a third race that cost us. Unfortunately, those were the only three that I ran good enough to be a contender to win in the last 10 races, but we're working on that. It's just as good to be now (the turnover) as it would be in February or March of next year. In a lot of ways, I think that it's gonna work out better that it came at this time rather than at the end of the season. We'll use the change to make our team stronger with young people again. This sport is lending itself to youth and it's gonna be more and more dominated by young, strong, aggressive, driven talent. We're gonna use this opportunity to influx more of that into our team and I think we'll be extremely strong from that as we can build that. I've been real fortunate. In the last three years I have worked around people that I could feel were looking up to me. I haven't always had that and it makes it hard. You feel different when you lay down at night and get up in the morning when you know that the guys that are working on your car admire you. I've been real blessed with that, not just with Jimmy obviously, but with all the guys that work on our team. That's what really makes it enjoyable. That's the greatest part of what I do is hanging out with my guys because my guys are my family. They're my family and my friends. I spend all my time with the guys that work on my race car, just about, and when that's good, life is pretty good. You still need some good runs on the race track to keep it excellent, but that's the biggest portion of it. So I feel good about it, I feel good about the people that we have, but, yeah, we have felt the effects of it."

IF MATT GOES INTO RACING WOULD YOU WANT HIM TO APPROACH IT LIKE YOU HAVE?
"Gosh, wouldn't that be aggravating (laughter). Yeah, he'd aggravate me to death if he was like me. I hope he's not. I don't know. The thing is that's a double-edged sword, him racing. Just about the time I'm ready to step out of the circle, he's gonna be just about ready to come in. I don't know. I can tell you this much, in the last six weeks he has really, really, really impressed me. He has really turned the corner and I'm real proud of him. The biggest thing is we're having fun and I hope to continue to have fun. I can't imagine how much fun this year has been for Dale Earnhardt. I mean, I think you can still have fun in Winston Cup racing, but I think if you expect to win that it takes some of the fun out. After you win 30 or 40 or something of these things, it's probably not as much fun as it is to come in with a kid that you didn't expect to win and win with, like Dale experienced at Texas and Richmond and like Matt Kenseth experienced at Charlotte. I think I would have more fun like that, than I would if I won myself. I know when Matt Kenseth won his first Busch race (at Rockingham), not only was I relieved but I was happier than if I had won the race. I had gone out on a limb for him pretty good, so it was a relief to me he won. I don't know how to explain that to people other than somewhere along the line you have to decide what makes you really, really happy. So, somewhere down the road I'm gonna look and say, 'I want to change directions here, I want to be happy, I want to have a really, really good time here.' Man, nothing in the world could be as cool as what Dale Earnhardt's experienced this year -- seeing his son do and have the success that he's had. That's why I'm working with kids right now -- kid kids -- seven, eight, nine, 10, 12-year-old kids right now. I don't have it all worked out just yet, but for me, seeing those guys succeed is as much fun as my succeeding 20 years ago. That's fun and exciting and I want to do that. I don't quite have my formula worked out, but I'm working on stuff right now and I've got my eyes on some kids. In the future I want to help bring some 16-year-old kids to the truck series that just knocks your socks off and by 18 in the Busch Series and by 21 in the Cup Series they're winning races. That's the kind of challenge that I look for, instead of trying to be a hog and try to continue to get whatever I can get out of the thing. That, for me, would be more fun than trying to squeeze out that very last win and go from 32 to 33. It would be more gratifying to help someone else get there for me, and I'm not talking about 2001 because in 2001 I'm gonna be working on my numbers, but not forever -- not for 10 years. I don't want to work on my numbers for 10 years. Some day I want to have the gratification and the thrill and the excitement of seeing someone else get their chance that deserves it, that might not have gotten it if I wasn't able to help them do it."