around the 1.54-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway to complete the
final NASCAR Winston Cup event of the 1999 season. His small but
muscular body had been strapped into the driver's seat for
some three hours. But Mark always said it's the most comfortable
place for him since first appearing on the circuit in 1981 and
on a full time basis in 1989.The last Winston Cup season of the 20th century was a tough one for Mark physically. A nagging back problem continued to have a heavy influence on his movements and, to a lesser degree, even what he was saying. He was in pain, whether walking, standing, sleeping or riding. Even though he was experiencing some success on the race track, his quality of life between races wasn't of the quality we'd expect.
Add to that a knee injury suffered at Daytona in July, and you can easily understand if Mark no longer enjoyed turning left. Getting into and out of the race car required assistance from his crew, and each time he did so, the twisting and turning required to maneuver his way into the driver's seat did nothing but aggravate the situation.
This final Sunday of the season ended one chapter in Mark's life and began another. Some 14 hours later, Mark's body lay hooked to medical monitors that further advanced the knowledge and precision of Dr. Chuck Kollmer, the individual who held the key to making Mark's life happy again. Mark hoped the lumbar fusion surgery that Dr. Kollmer was about to perform would finally leave him pain free. Needless to say, Mark was encouraged because he finally had an answer to his problem and time in the off-season to apply it.
"There was a trick to the agony of having it done," Mark syas. "I raced
at Atlanta and then I flew home (to Daytona Beach). At 5:30 a.m.I
went to the hospital, checked in at 5:45 a.m. and at 7:00 a.m. I was under
the knife. I was in my room fixed before I realized what happened
to me. That was good. It was an agonizing decision, but I didn't have
time to agonize over having it done. I never asked what the
recovery period was going to be or what it was going to be like
after the surgery because it needed to be done. It was quite a bit
more severe than I expected. But it needed to be done. In order
for me to be better, I had to go through the worst first. We had to
go through it to get to where we are today."But fortunately, the surgery was a success, and Mark's recovery so far can only be described as remarkable. It has added years to his racing career, and he no longer has to waste precious energy trying to block out the pain.
Team owner Jack Roush totally left the decision of when the surgery would take place to Mark. It was something only he could decide.
"That was 100 percent Mark's decision and a very personal thing," Roush says. "Certainly, I wouldn't have presumed to encourage him one way or the other on that. It was a surgery with some risk. There was an upside that was cetainly anticipated and predicted and there was a downside, which would have been difficult because it could have led to his retirement had it gone bad.
"Mark seriously considered doing the year before(1998) and then
decided he could stand the pain and could put it off another
year. That was his decision throughout the year."For many years Mark has placed personal pride in his daily workout regimen. His conditioning hs proved to be the reason he was able to return to driving so quickly after the surgery.
"My physical condition was a huge influence in the recovery," Mark said "When I woke up from the surgery, I was in almost no pain. They made me sit up, and when they asked me to stand, I stood up and walked. That day after the surgery I didn't want to stand up because I felt goofy and horrible from that stuff (anesthesia). But I walked to the door and back, which they don't normally do on the first day.
"The next day I walked down the hall and back, and the next day I didn't use the walker. I came back into the doctor's office for my three-week checkup and the nurses were saying 'Hey, he's not even using a walker.' I wasn't being a tough guy. It was that easy. They say it was my conditioning, I say it was the doctor."
On the other end of the spectrum, Marks' worst day may have been at Daytona last summer. That's where his red, white and blue Ford drifted high and crashed into the outside retaining wall during a practice session. The worst of his injuries was a broken wrist, which made driving almost impossible. He also suffered a broken kneecap, something he didn't realize until days after the accident.
"The most pain I felt was (at Daytona International Speedway
during the July 3 Pepsi 400)," Mark said. "I've never raced
in that kind of pain before or since in my career - and never
will again I'm sure. The wrist was what hurt in the race. It
hurt really bad. But I didn't know the knee was broken until
Wednesday."Roush, the owner of Mark's Fords since 1988, feels relief that his driver is better physically and is in better condition to withstand any possible crashes in the future. The two men have been longtime friends and business partners, and they genuinely feel a closeness for each other.
"I certainly feel better about his driving and racing," Roush says. "I was concerned that he might get hurt in an accident and make the situation worse. If you have that type of looseness in your spine, it seems to me it might make it more susceptible to nerve injury if he were to have a real bad wreck. So I was concerned about that, and I was concerned about his well being. I know his quality of life was diminished by the amount of pain he had day and night. So I truly had empathy for him, and I'm glad that the pain is gone. I feel he will be more able to take a lick if he hits the wall one of these days and gets shoved sideways in the seat.
"Now he can do with ease and enjoyment what he was doing with a measure
of agony before."To watch Mark in 2000 is like watching a calm stream on a quiet afternoon. Sure, there is the occasional ripple, but Mark can deal with those stresses now with a clearer mind. He's finally found peace over pain.
"I can smile more. I can be more patient. I can be more comfortable," Mark says. I still can't do some things. I can only wrestle with my son Matt to a certain degree. I have physical limitations based on my knee which appears that will never recover back to 100 percent. Based on the recovery stage of my back, it will continue to recover for a year,although 95 percent of it is done now. I've got to be smart not to mess it up. I still have to work with limitations.
"I think it's pretty important to wrestle with Matt. That's some of the most direct interaction that we have."
Teammate Jeff Burton has worked closely with Mark over the past two years and realizes what he has gone through, both in the race car and out of it.
"It's good to see him not suffering, because he has suffered for so long," Burton says. "It goes beyond being able to perform better. It is also better for his everyday life. He hasn't been able to joy life very much, but the fact he has improved the quality of life is more important than anything else, I believe. It's good to see him feeling better.
"I don't know how much it was hurting him in the race car. He never complained about it much as far as being in the car. I think the mental aspect of hurting all day and having to get into the car was tough. When you hurt, you don't get in the car like you need to."
In the weeks and months prior to the surgery, Mark tried various avenues to deal with the frustrating pain he constantly felt. He tried acupuncture. The procudure took some of the pain away, but that meant it went from excruciating to tolerable. Other chiropractic methods were used with only short-term results. As time went on, Mark knew he was going to have to take more drastic measures to rid himself of the constant discomfort.
"My back only hurt when I moved," Mark says. "I feel better and now I'm not making a special effort. I just didn't realize how bad it was bothering me until I had the surgery. I feel younger, I feel a lot better."
Now that NASCAR 2000 Winston Cup season is well underway, Mark seems to have a whole new outlook on life. Like anyone who has a new lease on life, the flowers smell sweeter, the sun feels warmer and the smiles come easier. Mark is ready for what could be his best championship run to date.
"We're charged up and loking forward to it," he says. "My back is healed up and strong. My doctor, Chuck Kollmer, and Chuck Steiman, my physical therapist who worked with me over the first few months, had a goal to be bulletproof for the Daytona 500, and I felt bulletproof for the February date.
"I wasn't sure about that for the first six weeks. After the surgery I wasn't sure if we were going to be ready or not. The progress really came on from there on out. I could tell a difference every week - a considerable difference every week. It's a lot easier to smile this year, and I'm planning on having more fun this year."
With the pain gone. Mark felt more than ready mentally to get on with his normally active lifestyle. But good judgement was the catalyst for making sure his back problems would be reduced to a minimum for the long haul.
"It was kind of hard to be as active as I am and not be able to get up and move very much, that was pretty hard on me," Mark says. "The thing that seemed to get me through was going to my office every day, getting on the phone, the address book and note pad and laying on my stomach to take care of business. The days passed a lot quicker that way. There was an enormous amount of stuff taking place that we got done. The business side of the racing world seemed to continue on, even though I wasn't going places. At least the wheels didn't stop turning."
Mark's schedule was slightly different than normal, but he still
managed to adjust well. Time was what he needed most to complete
the healing process."I was on a couch, but I didn't watch hardly any TV at all. I worked hard, and it made the days pass. I finished my therapy, got showered up and had breakfast around 9:00 a.m., and that's late for me. I'm usually done at 7 a.m. The therapy I was doing was a bit later than I am used to, so it was 9:00 a.m. when we started. From there until 5:00 p.m., it was work like I always did. The difference was I wasn't going anywhere, I stayed stationary.
"It was pretty uncomfortable the first three weeks, then I started my physical therapy. That was three weeks instead of three months - their typical time frame for this type of surgery. That was great, even though it wasn't like lifting weights or working out, it was more like stretching rubber bands and stuff. It was great to get started.
"About the time I started going to the office and taking care of business, I don't know how to explain the way a race car driver has to work at a desk. I can't explain it. All I can say is there is a lot to be done. There is a lot of planning. There is a lot of working, negotiating, fulfilling, scheduling, planning; there is just so much involved, and the wheels just kept rolling. That kept me going. I couldn't lay idle for that period of time. Obviously, I wouldn't mind laying idle for a short period when I felt good, but I didn't feel good. So this was no vacation.
"People would ask me how my Christmas was or how my holidays were. They weren't really that good. Yes, I was home with my family, but it wasn't a vacation. It was a necessary process that had to be gone through in order to get better."
The big test came in January when Mark climbed back into his Roush Racing Ford for the first time since his doctors made the crucial repairs to his vertebrae The game plan called for an afternoon of non-aggressive activity. Mark's degree of ability was the main focus.
"The first time I got into the car was January 21 (exactly 60 days from his last race)," Mark says. "I went to Daytona for a test and was pretty tender, and I was a little bit edgy getting into the car. I ran 32 laps in one drafting segment, and I was a little bit uncomfortable afterwards. Not during, but afterwards.
"I was tired from being at the track all day and standing up a lot and driving the car and everything. The difference is it doesn't bother me to get in or out of the car or drive the car, nor does it make me tired. I don't get tired. I can go wide open from 5:30 in the morning until whatever time at night, and I feel great."
In 1998 Mark turned to physical fitness as both a hobby and training to become a better race driver. His recovery period after the surgery seemed miraculous, but it was mostly because he was physically strong and up for the test.
"The importance of being physically fit is obvious to anyone who wants to see that," he says. "The health benefits are tremendous. Non physically fit people are more likely to die of heart disease.
"Just for an example, the recovery from an injury, whether it's slipping off a step or hitting the wall at Daytona in July like I did, is greatly shortened by being physically fit. As far as the recovery from surgery, my doctors have just stood there with their mouths open because they can't believe it(the quick recovery period). But I've been working on this physical fitness program for 12 years. That means living and eating a healthy lifestyle - more than healthy-compulsive - to the point of being nutty."
Mark has been called tough for his ability to bounce back from such serious surgery so quickly. The Batesville, Ark., native feels he isn't all that tough compared to one special individual in his life.
"If you look up the word toughness in the dictionary, my dad
(the late Julian Martin) would have his picture beside it," Mark says.
"I could never live up to my dad in my eyes. There were certain
things in him that weren't admirable, but hopefully, I do better
in those areas. He installed a lot of qualities that I have
from either watching him or listening to his advice. I always
listened to him. He set some bad examples but he also set a lot
examples. The bad ones I tried to learn from and not emulate
them, but I wasn't always successful with that. I tried not
to anyway."Mark is a new man these days and hopes others around him will agree.
"He told me well into the recovery he was going to be much more pleasant to be around," Roush says. Anybody that is maddened or constantly aggravated by pains tends to be a little short-tempered sometimes and lacking patience. I think he decided he was going to be more patient with all of us and try to make things more fun. Although he kept his problem to himself, when he was in the greatest pain and the greatest agony, he was just quiet."
For the rest of his life Mark must be mindful of the fact that one wrong move could cause the problem to re-occur and could possibly end his career. There are still many years for him to race competitively, and his future pain free - thanks to the wonders of modern medicine.
"My back is altogether different now", he says. "It never aches. I don't get tired. I was still recovering in January, and now I'm back to strength training with weights. Hopefully, the back problems are behind me. Now I'm as strong as an ox."
