Mark Martin: “We are looking forward to going back to Texas”
After a tough outing in Atlanta last weekend, Mark Martin and the No. 01 U. S. Army Team return to action this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway where Mark Martin finished third in the spring.
AT TEXAS
Starts: 13 (11)
Wins: 1 (-)
Top 5’s: 5 (1)
Top 10’s: 7 (1)
Poles: 0
Highest finish: 1st (4/5/98)
First time: 4/6/97 (38th)
Last year: 11/5/06 (22nd)
Last time: 4/15/07(3rd)
Mark Martin At Texas
Mark Martin will make his 14th start at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend, where he won the second race in 1998. He has five top fives and seven top 10s in 13 starts at the 1.5-mile track. Mark Martin finished third at Texas in the spring and 22nd in this event last season.
Rare 43rd
Mark Martin finished 43rd last weekend in Atlanta after getting caught up in an early accident. It was only the fourth time in 696 starts that Mark Martin has finished 43rd in a Cup race. In two of the three previous finishes of 43rd, Mark Martin finished 42nd or worse in the next race. In the other, he finished second.
Looking To Tomorrow
Mark Martin and the team spent Monday and Tuesday at Atlanta Motor Speedway testing the Car of Tomorrow. Mark Martin will not start in another COT race this season, but the Nextel Cup circuit will move full time to the COT starting next season.
Looking To Next Season
Mark Martin plans on running a similar Nextel Cup schedule in 2008 as he did in ‘07, making starts in approximately 26 races.
Part Time Schedule, Full-time Results
This will be Mark Martin’s 23rd start in 2007. Despite having taken 11 races off this season, Mark Martin is still 26th in the Nextel Cup driver standings. Moving into the ‘Chase’, Mark Martin had a better average finish (12.4) than 10 of the 12 drivers in the “Chase for the Nextel Cup. “ Currently his 13.9 average finish is better than six of the 12.
Quoting Mark
“We are looking forward to going back to Texas. We had a good run there in the spring and we sure could use another one about now. We had a tough race last week in Atlanta, getting caught up in an accident and finishing last, but that’s the first wreck I’ve been in all year and you can’t complain about that at this point in the season.
“Texas is a really fast track and racing there can be a lot of fun, especially when you find a way to make your car go really fast through those corners. This No. 01 U. S. Army team has been through a lot this year. We’ve gone from inches away from winning the Daytona 500 to finishing last in Atlanta next week. These guys deserve a good run and hopefully we can go to Texas and post another strong finish. “
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