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After Mark won the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International
Raceway Saturday night, it would be easy
to say that he was due.He had competed in 18 races at PIR since his last win at the track. He had competed in 97 Cup races since his last victory, which came at Kansas Speedway in October 2005. But the gravest injustice — and perhaps most glaring — is the absence of a championship in the 20 full-time seasons that Martin has competed on the Cup tour despite finishing second in the point standings four times. Still, as rivals, teammates, former teammates and owners throughout the garage came to congratulate Mark in Victory Lane, it was clear that the lack of a Cup title didn't diminish the diminutive driver's stature in their eyes. Mark, who scored his first Cup win for the bowtie brigade on Saturday, said his father "would be so happy I'm driving a Chevrolet." "Talked about him today, actually, with Juan Montoya, a little bit," Mark added. "It's been 11 years, and we sure would be having fun. He would be proud as a peacock and running that mouth around his buddies, I'm sure." Ironically, Roush had a near-death experience in a plane crash four years later, which only strengthened the bond between the two racers. "I'm still a huge fan of Jack Roush's and he's still a huge fan of mine," Mark said. There was the first run at a retirement tour in 2005 — a tandem attempt with former ASA competitor Rusty Wallace. Mark's sense of loyalty allowed him to be drawn back in by the request of Roush for time to find replacement driver and a new sponsor for the No. 6 Ford. In 2007, a lucrative offer with a limited schedule — and the opportunity to reunite with his friend Jay Frye at Ginn Racing — was too tempting to turn down. "I'm really glad I got out of the car," Mark said. "I have a reputation going of being a flip flop. And I have flip-flopped on some things. But I didn't flip-flop on that. And I'm glad that I did what I did. "It was my commitment to myself and to my family, and it's what I needed to do. And I wouldn't have been a happy person had I gone forward. I needed that. And that's changed me, and I believe that everyone that knows me has seen a difference in me. I needed to do what I did." The struggle of fighting, getting knocked down and coming back victorious has been a thread in Mark's life since his first go-'round in NASCAR in 1981. Mark lost his sponsorship, returned to ASA, won championships and came back stronger. To hear Mark tell the tale, he's blessed. Roush gave him that second chance in 1988 — "technically" Mark considers this opportunity his third. But don't paint this break as Mark's best prospect to win a championship, even though he's seven points shy of the Chase zone. Although at 50, he's the third-oldest driver to win a Cup race, Mark doesn't want to sour the moment. "I'll give it hell, but that's not why I took this ride," Mark said. "I took this ride to drive a fast race car, and maybe get a chance to win a race. And obviously we are going to race for points. It will be very disappointing if we don't make the Chase. And it looked like that was a very real possibility when we were setting 35th in owners' points or 31st or 27th. There's a lot of competition out there. You just can't out-run those cats every day. I'm telling you, every one of them can drive and every one of them's got a good race car, and it's expecting a lot. "We need to build our team, and we got to get better, from where we are right now, if we want to be a championship contender, we have to get better. But we are eight races in. And we showed improvement tonight. The other races were really good, and we were about sixth place in every race, every single one but that one won't win a championship anymore. I'm having a ball. I'm not going to let that ruin ... just let me have fun. Let me enjoy this. This is the opportunity of a lifetime, you know, and that's where I am on that." |
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