“If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be in there. He’s responsible for giving me a second chance at NASCAR. Many drivers don’t even get a first chance.” This was Mark Martin sharing a heartfelt note for his former team owner, Jack Roush. Although Martin had made his debut in NASCAR, it was Roush who gave him a second chance to fulfil his dream of being a full-time driver in the Cup Series. While we know how this story ended with 35 race wins and near-missed championship campaigns, what about Martin’s introduction to NASCAR? Who was behind his rise to national series racing?
Now, Martin, like the rest of the NASCAR drivers, started racing on dirt tracks at the age of 15 in his home state of Arkansas. However, his switch to the pavements competing in the American Speed Association (ASA), and this is where got introduced to NASCAR and it’s racing culture.
“So we took our ASA guys, nobody that had ever, before 1981, none of my guys had ever even been in the pits of a NASCAR race, including myself, before 1981,” Martin stated. Having raced in AMA from 1971, he got his first break in the premier series in 1981, where he piloted the No. 2 Martin Reeder Racing Pontiac.
But mastering the wheel was not the only thing Martin learnt. His lessons extended beyond the wheel. “Rex Robbins and all the guys with ASA took the time to teach me,” Martin recounted. “They took me to the radio stations, they took me to the TV stations, and taught me how to promote the sport and promote myself.” In a business where marketability can be just as important as a lap time, this heads-up schooling has become a career-defining advantage early in the game.
While the ASA has managed to grab headlines occasionally by itself, it is often portrayed as NASCAR’s little brother. ASA, however, has shaped future legends through the years. For Martin, it wasn’t just an avenue of entry but, rather, a boot camp. From 1981 to 1986, Mark Martin made multiple part-time runs in the Cup Series but wasn’t able to lock a full-time entry. Unable to fund his race team, he had to auction off his equipment. He returned to ASA racing from 1984 to 1986, Martin notched his fourth ASA championship in 1986 before bagging his full-time return in the NASCAR Nationwide Series the next year.
Now that Martin enjoys the life of retirement from NASCAR racing, he looks at the sport from a new perspective, which is critical and questions the leadership group. Recently, the former Roush Racing driver shared his two cents on the infamous playoff format, stating that NASCAR should reward consistency rather than just one-off wins.
Mark Martin questions NASCAR’s system to crown a champion
There has been a lot of dialogue and conversation on the infamous playoff format after Joey Logano won his third Cup Series championship last year. All he needed was a win at Nashville Superspeedway and a lucky break at Charlotte Roval, and that essentially set the stage for his championship triumph. He wasn’t the most consistent driver throughout the season, far from it. The likes of Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell were arguably the deserved drivers to race for the championship, but they couldn’t even make it to Phoenix.
NASCAR, like every major auto racing series, had a simple format in place back in the day when Martin raced. The formula was simple: score the most number of points throughout the 36 races, and the most consistent driver took home the trophy at the end of the year. “For me, a champion is much more legitimate if he consistently runs well all year long. I think that there’s another way to put emphasis on winning. If you win a race, you should be celebrated by everyone in the sport as a bad—, period… Winning a race shouldn’t be a ticket to the championship… Would it be as entertaining? I don’t know. I just think that the integrity of the sport is more important than entertainment.” Martin said this on the Door Bumper Clear podcast.
Joey Logano won the Cup Series Championship with an average finish of 17, the lowest in Cup history. And then on the other side, you have Larson, who won six races, yet he couldn’t get a shot at winning the championship. So, there are some issues with the current format that NASCAR needs to revisit.
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