Mark Martin enjoys success across the board
NASCAR Nextel Cup driver
Mark Martin knows how to score top-five finishes. The Batesville, Ark., native has collected 238 of them in his illustrious Nextel Cup career dating back to 1981. Those finishes have come on virtually every track on the Nextel Cup circuit, except for one - Chicagoland Speedway - the sight of this week's event.
Those impressive finishes have come on 21 of the current 22 tracks and at former Cup race sites Riverside, Calif., North Wilkesboro and Rockingham. Mark Martin has won at all of the current Nextel Cup tracks except for Daytona, New Hampshire, Pocono and Chicagoland.
"That is kind of a surprising statistic," Mark Martin says. "Because it's really my kind of track, and we've had some good runs there. Of course we have raced there a lot less than most of the other places, but hopefully we can go there this weekend and put that stat to rest with a solid top-five outing in the No. 01 U.S. Army Chevrolet."
Mark Martin has finished inside the top 10 in three of the six NASCAR Cup races contested at the 1.5-mile oval. He finished one spot out of the top five in the inaugural run at Chicagoland in 2001. He all but had a top five locked up there in 2004 when he suffered engine failure while running third with only two laps remaining.
"Chicagoland is a great place to race," Mark Martin adds. "The track gets better each time we go there. It's a track where if you can get the car working right, you can really pass some cars and make some noise. Hopefully, we'll be doing plenty of that this weekend."
Also, Mark Martin has led in four of the six events at Chicagoland. He raced only once there in the Busch Series, finishing fifth in 2005. He also finished fifth in the track's only IROC event in 2003.
Mark Martin's success, coupled with his down-to-earth personality, has made him a fan favorite. There's proof to back it up.
He is the third most popular driver in NASCAR, according to the 2007 Q Score Ratings. Mark Martin ranks behind only Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon in the rating system conducted by New York research firm Marketing Solutions. According to the firm, hundreds of millions in advertising decisions are based each year on the ratings. The survey is mailed each year to 2,000 people who identify themselves as fans of at least one sport.
Mark Martin's score is made that much more impressive by his "part-time" driving status in 2007.
"I don't pay much attention to that kind of stuff," Mark Martin says. "But it is nice to know that you have fans out there that support you like mine do, and that's what it all boils down to.
"Coming into the year, I didn't know what the interest would be like. I was with a new team and only driving a part-time schedule, but we've found the interest to be really awesome, and I think we are proving that you can make this type of scenario work for our team and our sponsors."
Mark Martin's fast start in 2007 - including a dramatic second-place finish at the Daytona 500 and walking away from full-time action with the Nextel Cup points lead - helped in Mark Martin's popularity boom. His score of 22 ties him with Indy Car driver Danica Patrick as the third most popular driver in all of motorsports and is just behind Gordon (23) and Earnhardt Jr. (28). Michael Jordan topped the list with a score of 55.
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