Mark Martin to the #5...FULL TIME!!!

[Busch Babe 899]

Sure, it hasn't been officially announced yet, but rumor is he will make at least one more run at the Championship next year in the #5 for Hendrick....I get to cheer for Mark going for a championship again!!! 

http://community.nascar.com/crews/Head2Head/blogs/40533

[scott b]

I would expect official announcements on Mark's and/or Smoke's 2009 plans before the green flag drops at the Brickyard.

There's some time in there to get the t's crossed and i's dotted, and then do the press conferences when the media attention is higher than normal at Indy.

Then, the scramble is on for the best of the rest...

[Busch Babe 899]

Hendrick has announced they will make Mark's official announcement this weekend at Daytona. 

[Tyyrus]

Sure, it hasn't been officially announced yet, but rumor is he will make at least one more run at the Championship next year in the #5 for Hendrick....I get to cheer for Mark going for a championship again!!! 

http://community.nascar.com/crews/Head2Head/blogs/40533

Yep count me in too Girly ! I hope our wishs come true lol ! I should know when I get back in from the Postal Service ! 

[south jersey girl]

from Jayski...

Martin back to fulltime in 2009, to the #5 HMS car: Mark Martin has signed a two-year agreement to drive for Hendrick Motorsports beginning in 2009. Martin will race the full 2009 Sprint Cup schedule in the #5 Kellogg’s/CARQUEST Chevy, becoming teammates with #24-Jeff Gordon, #48-Jimmie Johnson and #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. It will mark his first full season of Cup competition since 2006, when he finished ninth in points. A Batesville, Ark., native, Martin also is slated to run a partial Sprint Cup schedule for Hendrick Motorsports in 2010, sharing the #5 Chevys with a to-be-determined second driver. Martin will enter 26 events, including the non-points Budweiser Shootout and Sprint All-Star Race. “Mark is an incredible racer and one of the classiest guys around,” said Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick, whose organization will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2009. “He is a driver who makes everyone around him better, and our entire company is going to benefit from his presence.”
“I feel very fortunate to have this chance to win races and go after a championship with Hendrick Motorsports,” Martin said. “Coming back full time wasn’t something we planned, but driving the #5 car, with all its history, was an impossible opportunity to pass up. Rick and I have enjoyed a great relationship over the years, and we’ve always talked about doing this. Now it’s working out, and we’re both excited about the possibilities.” Martin, 49, will be paired with crew chief Alan Gustafson, who now is in his fourth season at the helm of the #5 Kellogg’s/CARQUEST Chevy team. Gustafson has posted four Sprint Cup wins as a crew chief and has a history with Martin, having worked with him in multiple Nationwide Series events.(HMS PR/Markmartin.com)(7-4-2008)


cool...I'd love to see Mark win the championship next year

[Chris]

yeah.. now it HAS OFFICIALLY been announced... Martin in the #5,.. and Full time
very cool.. hope he can win the championship.  After all he has done.. if anyone deserves one.. he does.

[south jersey girl]

wait a minute...I have to root for an HMS driver ??




 

[Chris]

nnoooooooooooooo
You can be like all those JR fans who (also) said they would "never" root for an HMS driver...
       

[Busch Babe 899]

Mark Martin: "I'm pretty sure the last breath on my deathbed would be 'Should've drove Rick's car when I had the chance.'"posted by Tania Ganguli on Jul 4, 2008 2:40:10 PM

   In 1983 Mark Martin got fired. He met his wife Arlene later that year and took her to the Daytona 500 in 1984 with no ride and no garage pass.

   They looked in from the outside, pressed up against the fence, desperate to get back in.

   "Arlene says it scarred me," Martin said. "That forever, that will have an impact on who I am. When you reflect on that, that has to do with the decisions I made."

   It seemed from the press conference like Martin went back and forth on the decision and realized that having more time to sit on the couch at home with a 26-race schedule wasn't what he wanted. He said the deal was made mostly on text messages, which led to this exchange.

   Martin: "I'd say 50 precent of this deal was done by text between Rick and I because I just learned how to text myself."

   Hendrick: "Junior and Jimmie Johnson, they're both here, they were the ones who taught me how to text. I hope you learn Mark, because they won't return your phone calls."

   Hendrick spoke about the respect everyone in the garage has for Martin -- including his other three drivers. He joked that Martin used to call him whenever he wanted a raise at Roush Racing, saying Martin would call, say he wanted to drive one of Hendrick's cars, ask if he was interested, then disappear.

   Hendrick was also asked if this deal was essentially a result of not wanting to pursue Tony Stewart and deal with the buyout. He paused and rubbed his face, searching for an answer. Then, he didn't really give one.

   "He (Stewart) sure perked you guys up the other day when he said something about the 5 car," Hendrick said. "Tony and I are good friends, Joe Gibbs and I are good friends and I don’t know what’s going on over there. I can’t answer that … I’ll say what tony said about me. Anybody in this garage would love to have Tony Stewart in the seat of their racecar."

   Martin also addressed the comparisons that have been made between he and that old quarterback in Green Bay.

   "I don’t know very much about football," Martin said of Brett Favre. "I saw something likening me to him. All I know is Matt Kenseth thinks he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. Evidently he’s awfully good at what he does.

   "I don’t make apologies for not knowing what my whole life holds for me. When you’re pretty good at something and it’s been the driving force of your whole life for 35 years and you’re still pretty good at it, you probably don’t want to quit. ... I don’t have anything else beyond my love of family, I don’t really have anything else with that kind of passion I have for racing."

   But the biggest question that comes out of this whole deal is, how will Mark Martin's championship dreams fit in to the championship dreams of his three pretty good teammates. It's not like Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon are going to let him win a championship. It could turn into a situation like when Karl Malone and Gary Payton went to the Lakers to try and win a championship in their twilight and the egos collided, or when Junior Seau returned from retirement and went to the Patriots to win a championship and karma acted up.

   Rick Hendrick had a great reply to how he sees all that working out.

   "I like putting two dogs together, rubbing their noses and letting them fight," Hendrick said. "Each one of them has told me they can beat the other guys. And, privately, I agree with them. A lot of things happen on the racetrack you can’t control each one of them has had the kind of year you can’t control. But we’re gaining on it, we’re working hard."


http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_nascar/2008/07/mark-martin-im.html

[Fathead]

Ugh.   I love Mark, I hate HMS.   

[Tyyrus]

Wooow ! I'am Back and apparently So is Mark the Kid Martin !!  Yee-Haw !!!  Let the Games begin !

P.S.S. I can't believe it Marky also on the Front Row for the Daytona 400 !  Karma is a wonderful thing !

Hell whats that number for MIS Tickets ...oh well I have it some where...1st I have to get my Tickets for Feb. Daytona 2009 ...lol ! 

[SMOKEN14]

Ugh.   I love Mark, I hate HMS.   

At least he won't be in a P.O.S FORD 

[Leadfoote]

cool...I'd love to see Mark win the championship next year

Me too jersey girl......for him and his fans.