Watch those folks going at it back in the pack, and it's clearly
how racing was meant to be. It's close, it's hard-nosed.
It's hold-your-breath-and-don't-dare-link thrilling.Wait a second. What about the contest that decides who gets to make that all-important trip to victory lane? No chance. That's been Mark's nearly exclusive domain in 2000. He's captured wins in three of the four starts, and had the fourth wrapped up when a freak late-race circumstance at Las Vegas handed the win to Roush Racing teammate Jeff Burton.
That was a gimme. Only at Darlington, where he and Burton swapped the lead several times to keep things lively, has Mark had any sustained competition. The 5 foot and change Mark is standing head and shoulders above his Busch Series racing buddies.
Those left in Mark's vapor trail are left to wonder how they can possibly catch up. Good luck. Most have a better shot of playing Julia Roberts' love interest in her next blockbuster movie. Come to think of it, that wouldn't be all that bad a tradeoff. Just a thought.
Let's face it. There aren't a lot of hurt feelings among his fellow drivers over Mark's decision to retire from Busch Series racing at the end of the season. It's not that they don't like Mark, the person. He's done a lot for this sport, and he has a great rags-to-riches story.
But dang, it's hard to get kicked, beaten and left in the ditch each and every time the green flag falls.
Discouraging? Of course. Frustrating? Oh yeah. Maddening to the point of going out and kicking the family dog? No doubt.
Mark is certainly not that much better a driver than his Busch Series brethren. Given similar equipment, Randy Lajoie can race with - and beat - Mark. The same goes for Jeff Green, David Green, Todd Bodine and a number of others. Mark is not God. He's not infallible. On any given day he can be bested.
Then it's got to be Mark's cars that make him virtually unbeatable. Mark, through Roush Racing, has complete access to the best of everything and everything that makes a race car go fast. His Ford is truly the best that money can buy. Still, that's not the whole story either. There are plenty of well-funded rides in the Busch Series garage.
Since there are others who have the talent and the equipment to race with Mark, how can he be so far ahead of the pack each and every week? Mark has a standard reply to such queries. He says he drives a real good car for a real good team.
Well... duh.
"Everybody thinks that these things are easy tto win for me,
because we've won so many," Mark says. "But they're a lot harder to
win than it looks like. We've lost a lot more of these things than we've won."That's true. Mark has lost more races than he's won on the tour. To be specific, he's lost 148 and won 43. Average that out, though, and no Winston Cup or Busch Series driver has ever been better.
These days, you'd be an absolute moron to bet against him. One press-box hustler at Atlanta said he'd take Mark and Roush Racing teammmate Jeff Burton and give any takers the rest of the field in the Busch Series race.
No one bit. Hey, media types may be spoiled, but most aren't stupid. The question of how to beat Mark remains. Here's a thought. Why not ask him?
If he were just a humble Busch Series driver, what would Mark Martin do to beat Mark Martin? The star Winston Cup driver doesn't flinch, doesn't hesitate.Mark comes up with an answer as if he'd been thinking about it for days.
"I'd try to find out what we're doing with our cars. I'd pay real close attention to what the car looks like, what the chassis components are. I'd try to snoop around and see what I could find out about the setups.
"And I'd learn how to drive the fool out of my car. That's what I did when I tried to keep up with Dale Earnhardt, Geoff Bodine and those guys 10 years ago."
There you have it from the master himself. Simple as that.
