More than anything else, Mark Martin is an utterly no-nonsense
individual. He is prepared to pay whatever freight it takes to
excel in NASCAR racing, and consequently his career has lately
borne the abundant fruits of many years of labor. When you
look at Mark's consumption by stock car racing, it's not
surprising that his former views of "Sin City," one of Las
Vegas' many nicknames, would not be too flowery.
But when he considers the entertainment Mecca, which also
happens to be the location of Las Vegas Motor Speedway the
site this weekend of a NASCAR racing doubleheader, it's also
not surprising that his tune has changed recently.
Of course, Mark's record at the 1.5-mile oval located
outside the city limits of Las Vegas would certainly have
something to do with that. Martin won the inaugural
CarsDirect.com 400 for the NASCAR Winston Cup Series in 1998.
And he is the defending champion of the Sam's Town 300 for
the NASCAR Busch Series.
"Vegas is cool," Mark said in his succinct style. "I hated
Vegas with a passion before they put a race track there. I
did everything in my power to avoid going to Las Vegas.
"Since they put a race track there, I've found out that it's
a real pretty place, it's got some good food and some cool
sights to see and cool things to do even if you don't gamble,
plus the race track is one of the best I've ever driven on."
It's no secret that Mark's car owner, Jack Roush, is
enjoying a four-race unbeaten string at LVMS, with Jeff
Burton alternating with his shop-mate as the winner of the
1998 NBS race and the 1999 CarsDirect.com 400. In addition,
Roush's five cars all finished in the top-10 in the inaugural
NWC race there.
"We've had a nice string of success there," Mark said, "and
we look forward to trying to keep it going."
Both Mark and Burton have extra incentive this weekend.
They are both contenders for the $1 million Winston "No Bull
5" bonus. They earned that right by finishing in the top-5 at
the first No Bull 5 race of the season, the Daytona 500.
In addition, Mark has picked up right where he left off
last season when he finished third in the NASCAR Winston Cup
point standings. He is currently fifth after finishing
eighth in last weekend's Dura Lube/Kmart 400 at North
Carolina Speedway.Mark, who has raced for a living ever since he was a teenager, found it hard to put much stock in the Vegas scene earlier in his career, when he was concentrating on advancing his career. In NASCAR 2000, he can deal with hobnobbing with entertainers such as Wayne Newton in LVMS's glitzy pre- and post-race hoopla. "I wasn't interested in gambling and I wasn't interested in the hype that was going on with that place," Mark said of his early trips to venues around Las Vegas. "I wanted to race and Craig Road (location of a speedway) wasn't much of a place to race, so there wasn't much attraction for me there. "But, things have changed a lot out there since the seventies and eighties. It's a fun place to go because you can see things and do things and it's a really great place to race." Mark's two-year performance has proved his affinity for the track. He finished 10th last year as Burton held off his older brother Ward for the win. 
"We had a great race car last year," Mark said. "I don't
think we could have caught Jeff Burton, but we had a top-5
car until we had ignition problems with about 20 laps to go.
I expect to be a contender to win this year since that is a
terrific track for us.
"It is one of the tracks that really suits my driving style
with the size and the banking. It is a great place for us to
be eligible for a $1 million bonus if we win. I stand a much
better chance there than I ever could at a place like Talladega."
For all of Mark's optimism, Roush is considerably more
pragmatic about his team's chances. He says a four-race skein
is not worth much consideration given the big picture of a
34- or 32-race season, in the NWC and NBS respectively.
"I think over the broad picture that we will not win more at
Las Vegas than other folks and we're less likely to win this
year than we have been in the past," the team owner said. "If
you look at a 10-year run, we will probably not win more than
our contemporaries."There has been a pattern at Texas and at Las Vegas with Mark and Jeff. We've won inaugural races at both places and we did very well when they changed the Richmond race track initially with Mark. We did well when we went to Loudon for the first time. 
"Mark and Jeff both adapt very, very well to anything that
changes in the race track environment and the fact that nobody
had books or a lot of history to draw from let their ability
to really adapt be telling."
Roush said that the one thing that gave his teams an
"advantage" might level the playing field this time around.
"As everybody else is able to build a history of information
that's useful for them to set up the cars for the races, I
think that we'll lose that advantage," he said.
Still, Roush said that despite his image as "too serious," he
was looking forward to the trip to Vegas.
"I try not to have too much fun," he said, laughing heartily
to put the lie to the statement. "I'll think less about the
idea of keeping the streak going, which I think it's very
unlikely that we can win, than I am the chances that we could
support another fan to win a million dollars."
Roush, of course, was referring to Winston's "They Win You
Win" sweepstakes whereby a fan can also win $1 million if
"their" No Bull 5 driver scores.
"Mark and Jeff both have got the prospect of competing for
the Winston No Bull 5 and that means a fan can really strike
it rich there," Roush said, "so I think the excitement that
goes around that is something that will likely have more of
my attention than the prospect of keeping that streak alive."
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