If you stop and think about
it, you have to admit that you haven’t seen Mark Mark
laughing much the last couple of years.
Have you ever hurt too bad
to laugh? Mark has, and that’s why the expressions
of joy you’ve seen from him the last few seasons were limited to
a few semi-smiles. You probably know the story.
A disk in his back was steadily deteriorating, and the
worse it got, the more it pinched the nearby nerve endings. If you
saw him climb in or out of his race cars, you couldn’t help but notice how
stiff he looked and how slowly he moved.
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He’s still not up to
doubling over with laughter yet, but that’s because he’s
on his back, recuperating from surgery on Nov. 22 that
he hopes will give his racing career a new start.
Here’s the big thought to ponder about Mark, though: As good as he was when was
ailing, how good is he going to be when he’s feeling
chipper again in 2000? Makes you wonder whether Dale
Jarrett’s reign as Winston Cup champion is going to last
more than 12 months.
Mark missed winning the 1999 International Race of Champions title by one point, some
say because Dave Marcis took a dive for Dale Earnhardt in the
final race at Indianapolis. That one point kept Mark from winning the IROC
crown for a fifth straight year. Yeah, he’s hurting, but in identically prepared
equipment, he beats the world’s top drivers year after year.
Mark didn’t come close to winning the Winston Cup championship this
season but that’s partly because Jarrett and Bobby Labonte were so
fabulous. Still, Mark, in spite of the pain, finished third. He is Winston Cup
racing’s Mr. Consistency: In the last 11 years, he has finished no worse than
sixth in the points, and was second in 1990, ’94 and ’98.
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The Winston Cup title
should’ve been his at least once already. In 1990, many
believe NASCAR stole the championship from Martin, and
it’s hard to disagree with that theory.
Mark won the March race at
Richmond, Va., that year with a car that passed every
NASCAR inspection stage along the way. After the race,
which Mark won, NASCAR decided that the spacer between
the carburetor and intake manifold was illegal. The item
was in plain sight during inspection, and NASCAR had
cleared its use a few hours earlier. Suddenly,
it wasn’t legal? Part of NASCAR’s punishment was to
penalize Martin 41 points. At year’s end, he wound up
26 points behind Earnhardt and Ford fans everywhere
screamed “Foul!”
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Mark’s been beaten up
pretty bad in wrecks in the ensuing years. He won’t
do any preseason testing while his back heals, and he
might be a bit rusty when the Daytona 500 rolls around,
but he’ll feel like a new man nonetheless.
"My back is sore where it
was cut open and all of that work was done,” Mark told
reporters on a teleconference call Thursday. “But my
spine and all of the nerves in my spine have no pain.
That’s where the pain always came from before. I am not
moving very far right now, but I don’t have that.
Trying not to have too high of expectations, I have this
feeling that I am going to feel an awful lot better.”
Mark said the back pain
didn’t hurt his driving the past two years, but it’s
hard to believe he was at his best. Until mid-February,
his racing is completely on hold, though in the coming
weeks he’ll be allowed to resume a workout regimen and
start strengthening this week. He’s eagerly awaiting
that opportunity.
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"Man, this bed is growing
teeth,” he said. “It’s eating me up.” Maybe a healthy
Mark will be the one doing the feasting in 2000.
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