“I remember when he came over to my dad’s house with a couple of tapes from his races in Nashville and played them on a Beta VCR.” Dale Earnhardt Jr said these words recently, and the suspense is no less about which driver he is referring to. After all, his father, Dale Earnhardt, was the legendary 7-time Cup title-winning Intimidator. Yet he was not the only iconic NASCAR racer of the 1990s.
Mark Martin was another driver whose moves people feared. His stats would tell you – he finished runner-up in the Cup Series 61 times. Although Martin could never clinch a championship, some of his race-winning moves still leave people in awe – like Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Dale Earnhardt Jr confesses to fanboy emotions
In 1990, Martin finished 26 points behind Dale Earnhardt, his closest run at the championship. That evidence should give you a glimmer of how much of a formidable rival Earnhardt had. Mark Martin won 40 times in the Cup Series and also 49 times in the Xfinity Series. In the latter instance, Earnhardt’s son got a taste of Martin’s powerful racing talents in his iconic No.60 Winn-Dixie Ford Taurus. When Dale Jr was honing his race craft in Xfinity races, he had one goal in mind – to topple Martin’s dominance. That is because the latter beat his rivals with 3/10ths of distance in many races. Martin’s Arkansas Grip or Arkansas Handle was a maneuver that people were wary of. However, Dale Jr focused on one race that proclaimed his NASCAR hero.
Dale Earnhardt Jr was dewy-eyed while describing an encounter with Mark Martin. Clearly, his fanboy emotions spilled out in this Charlotte race: “I’ll never forget this moment…We go off on the racetrack, I’m going through gears, he’s hauling a– and I’m like s—, I’m trying to keep up with him. We go through three and four wide open, build up speed, come off Turn 4, bouncing around the front straightaway. I’m like, ‘Man, I’m scared’…because I know to stay with him, I’m going to have to go in the corner like he does…I start fading left to get down to the bottom of the corner, he just drives straight really wide arc. Just still in the gas, and just dirt flying off the right side tires ’cause he’s out there in that nasty mess…And he’s gone. I was like, ‘God Almighty, how?’”
That is why when Dale Jr finally beat Mark Martin, he was ecstatic. He overtook him in the 1999 Busch Series event in Michigan. He continued, “In ’98 and ’99, one of my proudest moments. I was passing him, reaching him on the outside, and beating him. Heads up, holy s—. Man, I was proud, ’cause I knew Dad was watching.”
Let alone rivalry, there was just a lot of camaraderie. Dale Earnhardt Jr dropped a bold claim, declaring Mark Martin as his highest mentor. Even if that meant more than his dad’s credit: “And Mark has always been so so supportive to me, friendly to me, we were teammates. I might be Dale Earnhardt’s son, but I’ll be honest. A lot of the things that I learned on the racetrack and what I was able to do as a driver in my career are due to Mark Martin and what he taught me.”
Clearly, Dale Earnhardt Jr is well aware of how much Mark Martin contributed to his career. The latter remains a legend in NASCAR, prided by many in the sport. However, Martin is not very proud of current affairs.
Disappointed in the sport’s progress
When Mark Martin was an active driver, the sport had a different atmosphere. In the present day, there are single-source manufacturers for parts that the Next-Gen car. NASCAR has raised parity in that way in the race field, with little scope for adjustment. However, things were different 3 decades ago – drivers and teams could work on and fashion their own chassis, engines, and other parts. Martin did the same, and his Winn-Dixie car was a thumping success. During the 1994 Hooters 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Martin’s car got extremely loose with 11 laps left. Yet through sheer talent and skill, he corrected the slide, regained control, and powered ahead of Kenny Wallace to take the lead. Now, however, the scope for such creativity is very limited and Martin is very disappointed in that.
Mark Martin bashed NASCAR’s over-emphasis on aerodynamic accuracy. He recently shared a clip of his 1994 racing in Atlanta and slipped a short yet meaningful caption on X: “Aero in 1994.” Besides the Next-Gen car, the playoffs also do not sit well with the seasoned veteran. He said in an episode of ‘The Kenny Conversation’, “The integrity of our sport is important to me. I feel like what I accomplished in my career is being diminished by gimmicks.” Martin continued, “The word playoff is very catchy,. It’s wonderful, except we ain’t playing. Nobody plays, and there’s not two people out there. It’s not the same as ball sports. I don’t like it being called playoffs, because it’s not a playoff. Even the last round, if it was really a playoff, there’d be four cars on the track, not 36.”
If a legend like Mark Martin is not satisfied with the sport, NASCAR needs to get a reality check. Nevertheless, Martin’s racing memories are still exciting with Dale Earnhardt Jr paying solid tribute.
The post “I Might Be Dale Earnhardt’s Son, but…”- Dale Jr Namedrops His True NASCAR Hero in Surprising Tribute appeared first on EssentiallySports.
