Athletes - Mark Martin

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	Athletes - Mark Martin

Mark Anthony Martin (born January 9, 1959 in Batesville, Arkansas) is a stock car racing driver for the Roush Racing team in NASCAR's Nextel Cup series.

Career

Martin has always been known as a "racer's racer". This basically means that he is willing to race any kind of vehicle in any kind of conditions anywhere in the world.

{| class="wikitable" !||Total||Nascar Nextel Cup Series||Nascar Bush Grand National Series||Nascar Craftsman Truck Series |-style="background: #e3e3e3;" |Mark Martin||85|||35||47||3|| |-

After racing in the short dirt tracks in the state of Arkansas for several years, Martin debuted in the American Speed Association (ASA) in 1977. He won the circuit's Rookie of the Year title in 1977 and then 3 consecutive championships from 1978 to 1980.

Martin began his Winston Cup career in 1981. After bouncing around with different sponsors and teams from 1981 to 1983, he returned to ASA in 1984. In his only full year in Cup during this period, he ran his own team and even had 5 top 10s, but ran out of money. In 1986, he won yet another ASA championship.

In 1987, he gave NASCAR racing another shot by running in the Busch Series. After a win in Dover, Delaware, he was spotted by car owner Jack Roush. In 1988, Martin began a long relationship with Roush that continues to this day.

Martin finished off the 2005 Nascar Nextel Cup season with an exciting second place finish in the season finale to fellow Roush Racing teammate Greg Biffle at the Homestead International Speedway. In doing so, he also secured a fourth place spot in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, just 105 points back from series champion Tony Stewart.

Overall, Martin has 35 career NASCAR Cup wins and has finished second in the Nextel Cup Series point standings four times (1990, 1994, 1998 and 2002). He has also achieved a record 47 victories in the Busch Series. In 1990 a 46 point penalty caused him to lose to Dale Earnhardt by 26 points in the final standings. His sponsors have included Stroh Beer, Folgers coffee, Kraft, Valvoline motor oil, and Viagra/Pfizer. In 2005, Martin announced he would retire after the 2005 season; thus the 2005 season was entitled Mark Martin's "Salute to You" tour, as a "thank you" to his fans. However, he ultimately opted to run an additional season due to pressure from his car owner Jack Roush.

In June of 2005, it was announced that Jamie McMurray would replace Mark Martin in the #6 car in 2007. This left Jack Roush without a driver for car 6 in 2006. Martin later agreed to drive for the 2006 season. Ultimately, it was announced that McMurray would be released from his contract and would take over for Kurt Busch instead in car #26, and Todd Kleuver would replace Mark Martin in the #6 AAA Ford Fusion in 2007.

Martin has also won 5 IROC titles (1994, 1996, 1997 1998 and 2005) in addition to 13 races, both records for that series.

Personal Life

Martin is married to Arlene and has 5 children: Amy, Rachel, Heather, Stacy, and , who is also a race car driver.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Mark Martin (NASCAR) ]

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Athletes - Mark Martin

Career

Personal Life

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