Tag Archives: Mark Martin

Each week, we'll go through all the media reports, interviews, PR, and our own stuff to find the best quotes from Sunday's race that best captures the story of how the weekend unfolded, straight from the drivers themselves. This week, Beth Lunkenheimer gives us a sneak peek at what drivers were thinking after the Auto Club 500.

Mike Skinner celebrated his 20th career Craftsman Truck Series win Friday night in the San Bernardino County 200 by 0.554 seconds over second-place finisher Ron Hornaday. Skinner took the lead for the final time with just a few laps remaining when Mark Martin spun after contact with Hornaday. Last week's winner, Jack Sprague, finished third, followed by polesitter Carl Edwards and Ted Musgrave.

Matt Kenseth's team got their driver out first on the final pit stop while Johnson lost several spots on the same stop. Kevin Harvick's flat tire under caution helped seal the deal for the No. 17.

Rocky Balboa. The Terminator. The Dismembered Knight from Monte Python. The paperboy from "Better Off Dead" that wants his $2.00. Mark Martin. All five keep getting up and coming back for more punishment. It had seemed that following the fall announcement in 2004 that Mark Martin would be done competing in the Nextel Cup series at the end of 2005, that we had perhaps seen the last of the steely-eyed competitor with his trademark buzz cut, wrinkles, and ready-to-explode temporal vein. Looking more like Clint Eastwood in "Heartbreak Ridge" than the current crop of "Teen-Beat" fresh-faced drivers, Martin along with friend and longtime competitor Rusty Wallace seemed to be heading off into the sunset together, even receiving rocking chairs at one point during their "farewell" tours in 2005.

First, I've heard some say this Daytona 500 was a snoozer for the first 150 laps. While I don't necessarily disagree, I think with this aero package and tire compound, we should have seen it coming. Please, NASCAR, don't make any crazy new alterations to the plate packages, though; you got the finish you wanted in the end, and in terms of safety, cars grinding into a single file parade beats all of them running in one giant pack of 43 cars for three hours.

Should NASCAR stay consistent with NOT throwing the yellow on the final lap if the wreck happens behind the leaders, as they did in the Daytona 500?

Controversial races to the checkered flag in both the Daytona 500 and the Chevy Silverado HD 250 Craftsman Truck Series events have left me dumbfounded as how such a successful organization as NASCAR can all too often demonstrate such poor judgment. It seems to me that the organization masquerades as a top-notch, professional sports entity.

The only smoke at the track wasn't from the leftover Victory Lane celebration; plenty of teams saw their chances for victory go up in flames as the final 50 laps of the race were filled with wrecks, busted sheet metal, and broken spirits. So who left Daytona in a blaze of glory, and who left putting out the flames of rage and disappointment? Read this week's Who's Hot and Who's Not to find out.

"I was cheering for Greg Biffle or Mark Martin to win, obviously. Mark is my mentor and got me where I'm at. Obviously, I wanted him to win and if he couldn't win, I wanted to Greg to win because he's a teammate, but it didn't work out that way. If there are cars on both sides, there's only so much you can do. I was on the outside and Mark was on the inside, so I really couldn't do anything." - Matt Kenseth

The 49th Running of the Great American Race is all the buzz around the water coolers this week, as the finish was one of the closest in the history of the event. As most everyone knows at this point, Kevin Harvick prevailed over Mark Martin by .002 seconds, taking the checkered flag under controversy as the caution flag failed to wave for a wreck enveloping half the field behind them. As a result, Martin missed out on his chance to win the big race that has always eluded him, while Harvick cashed in on his first 500 win exactly six years after the death of Dale Earnhardt Sr., the man he replaced.