Mark Martin, driver of the No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion, is coming off a fourth-place finish in last year’s NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series points race. Martin held a Q&A session in the Daytona International Speedway infield media center on his first day of testing for next month’s Daytona 500.
MARK MARTIN – No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion – IS THIS YOUR LAST DAYTONA 500? “I hope this is the last one.” WHAT ABOUT YOUR CHANCES? “Isn’t it a little bit early to be worried about all that? (laughter) I don’t know. It’s awfully early to be worrying about all of that. I’ve got so many things on my mind. There is a lot of stuff going on. I’m just gonna try to keep my head down and work real hard and make my team happy, make AAA happy and make some fans happy this year and work at it.”
CARL CITED YOU IN HIS BANQUET SPEECH. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT EXPECTATIONS FOR HIM? “You know me. I’m wouldn’t do the expectation deal too much. I would expect great enthusiasm and incredible intensity. That’s what I would expect and I guarantee you you’ll get that. I don’t want to go into great detail. Carl and I did actually get crossways with one another a couple of times last year along the way in his development and that’s OK. We both learned a little something through all that. At the time we had different philosophies on a few things and I respect that. He certainly respects me, so that’s just part of moving along. Carl has worked harder, he’s paid more attention than any driver that I’ve ever had contact with. Carl Edwards is paying attention, that’s for sure. He’s asked more questions than anyone ever has of me and there were a couple of times when he didn’t get praise from me. Most of the time he does, but he’s a lot of fun to be around and be a part of certainly.”
WHEN DID YOU FINALLY ALLOW YOURSELF TO THINK ABOUT 2006? “I’m not sure I’m thinking about it yet. I was totally blindsided with my chances of winning the Daytona 500. I really haven’t thought that much about it. Definitely at the banquet I still wasn’t ready for that. My month of December was the busiest I’ve had in my life and a lot of that is because of all the things that weren’t able to happen, that I wasn’t able to do the last three months of the season based on the focus and effort that went into the chase, trying to catch up on that and get in the swing of some new sponsors. AAA, Coca-Cola, for example, were totally new to my program so that took a little additional time and what have you and here we are. I’m doing a lot of stuff right now. I’ve got a lot on my mind. I don’t have a lot of control about Daytona. This is not like California. Our California cars haven’t been to the wind tunnel yet. After they get done with the wind tunnel I’ll look at the numbers and start wrestling with the guys about why we weren’t able to do what we hoped we would or be excited that we did more than we thought we might under the new scenarios that we have to deal with for ’06. Then we’ll go to Vegas and test and I’ll be as fierce as I’ve ever been in my life about trying to win the next race. But for Daytona I’m at the mercy of the engineers and the team and all those things. I don’t really feel like I have a lot of input on the performance of the car, so I’m letting them do their work and staying out of it.”
THOUGHTS ON RUNNING SOME TRUCK AND BUSCH RACES AS WELL. “The truck is something that I really want to do. I was out here Friday with the 6 truck and with my team and with David Ragan. I tested the truck and I drafted and we worked really hard on getting the truck set up to really drive well for David to race in the race here, and then I’ll be in it at California. It’s something that I have a lot of passion for right now. That’s why I’m doing that. I’ve put a lot of extra work on my plate and then it was not my intention to do Busch races, but because Roush Racing put together a package with Ameriquest to do an enormous amount of racing in the Busch Series, I was put in a position where they know I won’t say no, but I did argue down from 14 to seven races in the Busch Series. So I’m definitely not doing a full Busch Series schedule. I’m not Carl Edwards. I’m not that strong. I’ve got a couple of years on him, or some of these other guys that are really taking a full plate. I’m talking about 14 races and that’s manageable. I’d say I can do that. I’m real excited about the truck and working with my team and working with David Ragan and getting that thing going as a kick start for 2007, where I can go do that full time and just have some big fun.”
HAVE YOU FOUND THAT PLACE AS FAR AS WHAT IT’S GOING TO TAKE TO GET THROUGH THIS YEAR? “To be real honest with you, I’ve still got some time and thank goodness because like I said when we were in New York I wasn’t really ready to address it yet. Obviously, I’ve been to a Cup test already this year, a truck test already this year and now we’re at Daytona and just on the first day. When we get Daytona out of the way, because I can’t help those guys that much, and we start focusing on Vegas and then looking at California. I have the ferocity to build, but to be real honest with you I’m not there yet. I have been real busy. This December was the busiest I’ve ever been and I have been real busy to this point. I’m doing some things with Matt. I got to go racing with him twice since Homestead and he’s really impressed me, and it’s time for me to move his equipment up and make some changes. He raced last Saturday night at New Smyrna in the sportsman division for the first time and he wound up getting the win there, so we’re moving right on through that division and into the late model division. Equipment-wise, I wasn’t prepared for that so I’m trying to help my guys do those kind of things and trying to get everything in order so that when the mad dash hits of Speedweeks there’s nothing else in my life but the Cup cars. Obviously, there is a lot of things in it right now and we’ll kind of make that transition as we get closer to Speedweeks with the Vegas test and everything.”
IS IT POSSIBLE TO JUST HAVE FUN THIS YEAR AND CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR TEAM PERSONNEL? “I tell you what, I had fun last year, which was really cool. It was the best year of my life professionally and personally, so I just want everybody to make sure that they know that they’re talking to a guy that had a blast last year. It would mean an awful lot to me to have the same kind of performance on the race track this year, so therefore I’m willing to be miserable if need be in order to have that. My tendency is to go off on that misery side to try to make sure that we get that performance. I’m gonna fight that a little bit, but I’m not ready to address all that strategy just yet. I’ve got a lot of balls in the air. Jack has a strategy that says, ‘don’t worry about it. I know you. Just go have fun with it this year. The pressure is off and you might do better than you ever have.’ Boy, that sounds real good to me, but we all know that I’m gonna fall over that misery edge as soon as I get close enough to it that I can jump over it. I’ll work so hard at it that we’ll go back to the other side. It’s really funny. I’m really gonna make an effort this year to handle things the way I did last year with the philosophy I had, with the fans, with the media and with my team.
It will be a disappointment to me if we don’t have – I would really love the 2005 performance to be the last year of my Cup – so if I could do that well again in ’06, it would be fantastic. If I could do better than that, obviously it would be a dream come true. It would be incredible. If we could race for that championship and win it would be the coolest thing. At the same time, realistically speaking, I know the odds that I’m up against and I can’t believe that I was able to personally give the performance that I gave on the race track last year. It would be hard for me to ask more of myself at this stage of my career, but you’re not gonna get the Jack Roush philosophy recommendation from me, and that is, ‘don’t sweat it, don’t strain so hard, just go do it and see if it turns out.’ Doggone it, that’s a good strategy. I wish that would work for me, but I love what happened the last lap of Homestead. It’s one of the few occasions where I’ve ever gotten beat that I had fun. Yeah, it would have been cool to win, but everybody was on their feet and that’s why I race. If I could have times in 2006 and some races like that, it would really fill in that last box for me because 2006 is the last Cup box for me and I’d like to fill that in with great times like we had in 2005.”
WHAT ABOUT YOUR TEAM? “We really didn’t lose any people. We only lost one person off the 6 team, but we promoted a couple of other guys within the company and it was time for them to move up and take on crew chief responsibilities on Busch teams because of Roush’s expansion with Ameriquest and all the Busch teams they’re gonna have this year. So we have a couple of new people in there, but you have that almost every year. I do still have Pat Tryson. I still have our engineer, Mike Janow. I still have my car chief, which is very important to me. Todd Zeigler is incredible and I would have had a hard time facing 2006 without Todd, but he’s back with us. And some of the other guys that are on our team I’ve worked with on my Busch car in ’05, so we’ve worked together before. I’m feeling good about the team. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t have as good a year as last year. There’s no reason. I mean we’ve got it all. If anything, we’ve improved on things and I’ll certainly drive my heart out and these guys will have my undivided attention when it comes time to get ready for these races and to focus and to go racing. But at the same time I’m gonna try to have some fun with the media and with the fans and the people that have helped me build this great career. I’ve got some really fun things on the schedule coming up in ’06 that are outside the race car itself that will involve the fans especially as well as some of the media stuff.”
WHAT WILL YOU MISS THE MOST AFTER YOUR FINAL LAP? “It’s not my final lap. I couldn’t quit racing. Racing is my life. It’s been my life since I was 15 years old and I’m certainly not ready to give up racing, so, for me, it’s not that difficult to walk away from Nextel Cup because I realize where I am in my career. If I was 26, I wouldn’t walk away. It’s time for me for a lot of reasons. I went over those reasons last year and all, but I’m gonna continue to race. It’s my whole life. Climbing in that race car today and going out there, I’m just wishing that we could be drafting because that’s the real deal. That’s what I live for. I’ll continue to race. It’s my expectation to be in the 6 truck full-time, and then do some other appearances and what have. If something were to work out that I wasn’t in that truck, you’d catch me at the Saturday night short tracks across the country. I am not done racing by any means.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT DRIVING AT DAYTONA? “It’s Daytona. The first time I came down here was 1981. It’s just a lot different as far as the preparation goes and we only do it four times a year. It’s just different. I can help these guys make a car that will fly at the next place, but for here there are a lot of other forces out there that I don’t have control of, and so it is what it is. It’s Daytona. It’s the biggest race of the year and I need to win it. This is my last chance. I’m just gonna try to get in the front on the last lap and hog the track or something.”
Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion, finished third in last year’s point standings. Edwards spoke about his second full season during the lunch break of Monday’s test session at Daytona International Speedway.
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion – HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU COMING INTO THIS YEAR? “I was thinking about that last night – just how to mentally prepare for the season – and I’m trying to not think of it as a new season, I’m just trying to think of it as a break from Homestead to Daytona and we’re just continuing with what we were doing last year. I feel really good. Our car is not the fastest one out here yet, but we have a car that we think is gonna race pretty well. It should be a lot of fun. I’m pretty excited to say the least.”
HOW DIFFERENT WAS THIS OFF-SEASON? “I get recognized a lot more, which is a lot of fun. I have fun with it. I mean at the airport. I pulled up to a stop light the other day and these people are just staring at me. I’m like, ‘Why are these people staring at me?’ They were like, ‘Hey, Carl.’ That’s kind of wild to me. Some other neat things that have happened is I’ve got a lot more calls about maybe going and running dirt races or going to do appearances and things like that. It’s a little different. I’m having to actually prioritize things because there was definitely a time not too long ago when I just wished I had something to do related to racing. Now there’s so much to do, so it definitely was a different off season – a lot more attention.”
HOW IS THE NEW FUSION AND CAN IT STOP THE CHEVY DOMINANCE AT DAYTONA? “Yeah, I noticed that the Disney thing over there at the Daytona 500 is a Chevy. They win a lot here. Chevy has run really well. I think that the new Fusion should be great. The Roush Yates engine guys, I went over to the shop the other day and they feel great about the new engines. I’m excited. The Fusion is a little faster. It seems to be pretty competitive so far in testing. I can’t even imagine winning the Daytona 500. My number one goal is to just come out of this thing and go make it to the chase and do all of that, but to actually imagine winning the Daytona 500 and having a dominant car – having that come to reality would be crazy.”
HOW REALISTIC IS IT TO WIN THE WHOLE THING? “I was actually at the newsstand last night and I was reading The Sporting News. I appreciate everything you wrote. It was pretty nice. I walked away and went home and jumped rope for about 30 minutes. I was like, ‘I’ve got to get motivated, man.’ It is pretty neat. We did have a lot of momentum, but in that same magazine I was looking at our average finishes at all the different race tracks. I thought that was pretty neat. I told Bob (Osborne) this morning. I said, ‘Really, our worst tracks are the ones that I don’t feel the most comfortable at – Martinsville, Sears Point, and the restrictor plate tracks weren’t that great but I feel like I got that figured out by the end of the year. As long as we can work. Boris Said is helping me a little bit with the road course races. As long as I can get a little bit better there and we can have a good race or a couple good races at Martinsville, I think that the chances of us performing like last season are really good. We have to have the good luck, too. Look at a guy like Jeff Gordon, just some bad luck can keep you out of the deal.”
I GUESS TONY GOT HURT AT THE CHILI BOWL. DO YOU EVER WORRY ABOUT THAT WHEN YOU DO OTHER THINGS? “Honestly, there are two parts to the answer. I’ve become a huge Tony Stewart fan. I truly think that he’s one of the greatest drivers ever to live, and I think part of what makes him so great is that he goes and runs the Chili Bowl and runs at local tracks and stuff. So I look up to him for that. Him getting injured there at the Chili Bowl, it’s a reminder that, hey, whenever I go do these things I need to make sure that I have the best seat I can have and be as careful as I can be. I’m telling you, I love riding dirt bikes. I love going and racing dirt cars whenever I have the chance. I’m not gonna stop doing that just for fear of getting hurt or something. I think that’s part of what gives a guy an edge – driving different stuff. I think it’s cool to see the state of racing at the local level and get a fresh look at it every once in a while.”
WHAT KIND OF ADVICE DID MARK GIVE YOU THAT HAS REALLY HELPED? “Someday if I ever write a book there’s gonna be a chapter about Mark Martin and his advice. He’s an unbelievable guy. He has amazing character. He treats people exactly how they treat him. He doesn’t waver. He’s always as good to you as you are to him and he does the same thing on the race track. I think that’s been a big thing that he’s taught me, but there’s just the experience level. I think my 50th Cup start will be the Daytona 500. Mark has something like 500 or 700 starts, I don’t know, so there are a lot of experiences and a lot of things those guys have gone through, and anytime they’re willing to share it with me I like to listen. Watching tapes and talking to Mark and talking to Matt and Greg and these guys that have been around for a while and done this is an amazing resource for me. I guess I’m like a sponge, but I just try to be efficient in learning. If I can go and talk to them and not go out and struggle, I’d much rather talk to them.”
HOW ARE YOU GOING TO STAY FOCUSED WITH ALL THE OFF-TRACK STUFF? IS THERE ANYBODY YOU’RE TURNING TO FOR HELP? “I have a list of things. I write lists of what I need to do for the day and on my list today is to take 30 minutes and focus on the things that are important. I’m trying to make sure. I went and had dinner with Lesa and Bruce Kennedy last night and they’re really awesome people. I was telling Bruce about some things I’m doing on the side that I think are gonna be really exciting in the year to come, and he looked at me and said, ‘Hey, that’s neat and everything, but you have to remember what got you to this point and you have to focus on the driving.’ That was kind of a little reminder and I appreciate all of that I can get because there are so many things that come -- that I never expected so many responsibilities and so many things that seem like great opportunities because they pay really well or they’re fun, but the number one thing for me is to be the fastest race car driver I can be. So I guess the answer is I don’t have one particular person who has helped me with that, but if any of you ever see me getting off track just smack me around and tell me to focus because that’s the most important thing I’m trying.”
HAS JACK SEEN THE PREDICTION OF YOU WINNING THE TITLE? “I’m a realist, too. It’s really awesome to be a favorite to win, but the reality of it is even if you have a dominant team and a dominant year like Tony Stewart did last year, I pay a lot of attention to the way that he ran and our team still closed in. Our team, with me as a driver and a new guy, because of the way the last 10 races were run – there wasn’t a road course – but we still closed in on Tony. So I guess what I’m trying to say is we could go out and have a dominant year and just have a little bit of bad luck in the last 10 races and not win it, so I guess as far as a pure results based goal and stuff, being chosen to pick the championship is great, but I think if we can just perform well we’ll be OK. I’m not going out and taking a suit and tie for the championship yet. We’ll be alright.”
IS THERE A POSSIBILITY YOU COULD OVERANALYZE THINGS AND NOT HAVE FUN? “Oh yeah, just like anyone I’m sure I can be my own worst enemy, that’s for sure. I can run myself into the ground worrying or trying to play or whatever. I told people this a couple of times. People always ask me, ‘Why are you so happy-go-lucky and all that?’ Because once you get to the race track, in my eyes, once we get there and the race is getting ready to start or whatever, you can’t really prepare much more. You can only react to what goes on and any plan you have, in my case, is usually a loose one just because anything can change. I won’t go read all the magazines and, no, I won’t be disappointed. If anything, the good stuff that people write is great, but the bad stuff just makes me want to work harder. It’s almost good for me, too, so I don’t really respond much to the outside pressure or opinions. I just kind of go do my best.”
ARE THERE THINGS YOU FELT YOU DID POORLY LAST YEAR THAT YOU WANT TO DO BETTER? “There are a lot of things I’d like to do better. I’d like to do more for people that need help. I’d like to be more involved in the community. I’d like to be the best role model I can be for kids. I think from a driving standpoint I probably took a little bit more than I deserved sometimes last year, and some of the races I’d go through the race and make people mad and do stuff just because I’d get to a position where it was 50-50. ‘Should I put this guy in a bad position to pass him, or should I just wait.’ A lot of times I just said, ‘You know what, I’m racing for a sponsor and to prove myself,’ and I’d just go for it. I’d tick somebody off and then I’d realize later that the outcome would have been just the same if I’d have just given him a little more respect. That’s something Mark helped me a lot with. That’s something I’m gonna focus on this year. The last 10 percent of the race or 20 percent of the race it doesn’t make a difference, but at least in the beginning of the race is just be a little more patient. I think I could do that a little bit better.”
WAS THERE A BACK-UP CAREER PLAN FOR YOU IF RACING DIDN’T WORK OUT? “I had a back-up plan for a long time and I was going to college. I got my pilot’s license when I was in high school and I thought, ‘Man, I might join the military and try to fly airplanes or something.’ That was the thing that I thought was maybe a more realistic goal. Even though it would still be a really difficult thing to achieve, I thought, ‘You know what, that would be a realistic goal.’ Finally, I think there was a day – I don’t remember the day in particular – but I remember making a decision that racing was what I wanted to do and I decided I’m just gonna do it 100 percent and forgot about everything else. I decided it didn’t matter if I was 45 years old when I finally got to Nextel Cup or whatever, but that’s what I was gonna do and that’s when things really started to go better. When I just purely focused on that, so I did have a back-up plan but it just worked better to not have one.”
DID YOU EXPECT THAT HARD WORK TO PAY OFF? “I remember having arguments with my mom because I spent all my mom’s money. We would have some – not arguments but serious heart to hearts – like almost to tears. We didn’t have a lot of money and I was racing and I was like, ‘I swear mom, some day I’ll make millions of dollars and I will pay you back. I swear.’ I felt bad for lying to her because I thought the chances of this happening are like zero, but it was all fun. I did not expect to be in this position. I’m very fortunate. I am not a religious person to speak of or anything, but I feel like there were some incidents and coincidences and some really good luck along the way that really were just amazing and I feel very fortunate to be here. But I did not expect it – not at all. I expected to be working my tail off right now and still chasing it. I never thought I’d be here.”
WHAT DID YOU FIGURE OUT ABOUT RESTRICTOR PLATE RACING? “I really don’t want to say. I just figured out some things – just a better way to do it. I feel like in the Pepsi 400 if I hadn’t stuck my nose between Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton with eight laps to go and taken that little risk there, I thought we had a chance to be in the top three or four. And at Talladega I felt like it was awesome to see Dale Jarrett win, but I really wanted that thing to go to the start-finish line because I had a plan there, but I just feel like I got a little better at it. I realized the pace of it and kind of what was important during the race. As far as specifics, I don’t really want to say.”
WILL IT BE EASIER ON YOUR TIME WITH ONLY OFFICE DEPOT AS A PRIMARY SPONSOR? “To me it’s amazing Office Depot put themselves in a position to be our sponsor for multiple years. This blew my mind. We didn’t have one guy leave and go to another team. We had one truck driver who needed to spend more time with his family. He went and got a normal job, so we’ll still have him around a little bit, but nobody left and I think that says a lot. I think part of that’s due to the fact we have a secure team. We have Office Depot on board, so that’s a big part of it. As far as my time demands, Office Depot is just the easiest group in the world to work with and it will be simpler for me. But then I’ve taken on all these other things that are gonna be pretty neat too, but I think everyone is doing a better job of understanding the time. Running the full Busch Series schedule makes it a little bit tougher too. Office Depot, we actually had a meeting where they said, ‘What can we do for you? What do you need to be able to go do your job on the race track better?’ And it’s so cool to have a sponsor do that.”
