FORD FUSION MARK MARTIN’S SUCCESS AT DOVER DATES TO THE EIGHTIES

ALMOST HALF OF YOUR CAREER CUP STARTS HERE HAVE RESULTED IN TOP-FIVE FINISHES. YOU MUST ALWAYS FEEL LIKE GOOD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN HERE. "Yeah. I’ve always liked this. I first came here back in 1982 and qualified [seventh] with my Cup car – I think I ran a 25.40, 144 mile an hour, they were flipped out about it, the pole being 144 miles an hour. Top-10 finish, I think, the first time here. It’s always been good to me. First Busch win here, the whole thing."

HAS YOUR APPROACH TO THIS TRACK CHANGED OVER THE YEARS? "No." IS THE TRACK SIMILAR TO WHAT IT WAS IN THE ’80S? "No, it’s nothing like it was because it was asphalt then and now it’s concrete. I don’t care for the concrete, but this is the best concrete track that we race on. It still would be a lot better if it was asphalt. It is what it is."

SO YOU DON’T EVER GET TIRED OF COMING BACK TO THIS TRACK. "I like racing here. I’m very optimistic when we come here. It’s always been a place that we get around good."

THIS WEEKEND HAS BEEN GOOD FOR YOU. YOU WON THE TRUCK RACE AND QUALIFIED WELL FOR THE CUP RACE. DOES ANYTHING FROM THE TRUCK TRANSFER TO THE CAR AT THIS TRACK? "No. It’s quite a bit different. The logic is still the same. You still use the same kind of logic. You use the hardware."

A NUMBER OF DRIVERS YESTERDAY SAID QUALIFYING WAS IMPORTANT HERE BECAUSE PIT SELECTION IS VERY IMPORTANT HERE. "It’s a tough pit road. It’s one of the really tough ones. It’s tough to get in your box when you’ve got other cars parked in their boxes. And that’s one of the tougher things about this race track."

TODD KLUEVER HAS STRUGGLED BUT HAD A GOOD RUN AT CHARLOTTE. DO YOU FEEL GOOD ABOUT HIM TAKING OVER THE 6 CAR NEXT YEAR? "We feel like we have not given Todd a chance to show what his true potential is yet, but we’ve got to get there pretty soon. He’s a very solid guy. He’s a really good driver and he’s a really good person, and all that. There’s still time, but we’ve got to get on the stick and give him the opportunity to rise to the occasion."

YOU INTRODUCED THE RAP ANTHEM A WEEK AGO AT CHARLOTTE. WHAT HAS THE PUBLIC REACTION BEEN? "Well, it’s got more attention than most things that I’ve done. It got a lot of attention."

THE SERIES RACES AT MICHIGAN IN TWO WEEKS. THAT’S THE BACKYARD OF THE MANUFACTURERS. IS IT A BIG DEAL TO WIN THERE FOR BRAGGING RIGHTS? "Only if you don’t. If you do, it’s not a big deal, but if you don’t then it is, so to speak. We’ve won there a bunch of times and it really wasn’t a big deal. But, going into it, they make a big deal out of it. It is what it is. If you don’t win it, you can’t win. It’s the same thing as the Daytona 500. If you don’t win, you don’t win."

YOUR SON, MATT, WON A LATE MODEL FEATURE A FEW MONTHS AGO. HOW’S HIS CAREER PROGRESSING? "He’s coming along okay. He’s just 14. He’s got a good bit of talent, he doesn’t race a lot. He makes progress with every race."

YOU’VE SAID THE TRUCK RACING IS SO MUCH FUN. BESIDES WINNING, WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT IT? "The racing is more like it used to be here. It’s the best racing in NASCAR right now. It’s the least spoiled by commercialism. It feels very pure."

HOW DO YOU MANAGE YOUR SCHEDULE ON A WEEKEND LIKE THIS? YESTERDAY, THE RACE WAS DELAYED; YOU’RE BACK FIRST THING THIS MORNING… "I’m tired." HOW DO YOU UNWIND? "I’m glad I’m not racing the Busch car. I put my foot down this year and said no tripleheaders. I did that in November at Homestead. It ain’t the racing, man, it’s the drivers’ meetings, it’s qualifying, it’s practice sessions. You take all that out and I’d do tripleheaders every weekend. I don’t have any problem with the racing, but it’s all the hospitalities, drivers’ meetings, qualifying sessions. You’ve got to be one place and then the other and then the other and then the other. My son’s racing at Lakeland tonight, quarter mile, that’s a superspeedway for him. I really hate that I’m not up to going, but I can’t physically do that and give 100 percent here tomorrow, so I’m going to be here standing by the phone."

YOUR ASSOCIATION WITH JACK ROUSH HAS BEEN SO LONG. SOMETIMES, DRIVERS AND OWNERS, THAT’S A SHORT SHELF LIFE. "For me, I got so invested in this program that it would’ve been ridiculous to bail at some point, you know, 10 years ago or so. We built this together, on each other’s backs, holding hands, when things weren’t good and things needed a lot of work, when we needed to learn a lot, each of us needed a lot of learning. At this point, I would be afraid to think about what might’ve happened if I had chose to do something else."

DID YOU EVER HAVE ANY MAJOR DISAGREEMENTS? "Oh yeah." DOES HE ALWAYS WIN? "I don’t know; you’d have to ask him. He is the boss. But I’m pretty feisty."


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