By Jenna Fryer
Associated PressDAYTONA BEACH, Fla. ó Mark Martin works out almost daily and scrutinizes everything he eats ó dedication that has the 50-year-old driver in top physical condition.
He knows that intense focus on personal health won’t forever stave off the affects of aging. Eventually, his eyesight may fade or his coordination will drop just a tick.
For now, Martin is at the top of his game and ready to make yet another run at that elusive title.Only this time, he’ll be in the very best equipment and surrounded by every resource imaginable. After two years of easing his way into retirement with limited Sprint Cup schedules, he was lured back to a full-time job by an open seat at elite Hendrick Motorsports.
It was an opportunity too good to refuse, perhaps the last-grasp chance to win the title that’s escaped him over his remarkable 26-year career.
No one involved ó team owner Rick Hendrick, crew chief Alan Gustafson or teammates Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. ó doubt Martin will be a legitimate championship contender this season.”There’s not a single time when Mark has gotten into one of our cars where I haven’t said to myself, ‘Wow, this dude is crazy good. How has he not won 10 championships?’ ” Gustafson said. “This guy might be the best to ever do this, or at least one of the top five stock car drivers in history.”
Never mind that Martin has five more years on Bobby Allison, the oldest driver to win a championship when he did it at 45 in 1983. Richard Petty was 42 when he won the last of his seven titles, and Dale Earnhardt was 44.
Since Dale Jarrett won the title at 42 in 1999, no driver over the age of 36 has claimed a Cup title.
But age is just a number to Martin. It’s the desire that actually means something.
“Certain things diminish with age: your eyesight, the color of your hair, the amount of hair,” Martin said. “One of the things that really happens when you get my age, to race car drivers, is it’s very common for that burning fire and desire, it seems to diminish to a degree. That hasn’t happened to me.
“I want this as bad as I did the day I got fired in 1983 or the day I went broke in 1982 or the first win I got in 1989. I want it as bad, at least as bad, as I ever have in my life, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes.”
With the second-fastest lap in qualifying for the season-opening Daytona 500, Martin has earned a front row starting spot. He’s never won a Cup race at Daytona, and his only shot at a win in the 500 ended with a photo-finish second-place to Kevin Harvick in 2007.