Golden Corral 500 - Mark Martin Notes

MARK MARTIN FAST FACTS * ATLANTA

GEORGIA ON MY MIND: Martin No. 6 Team Look for Speed in Atlanta

This week the team rolls into Vegas where the odds have clearly been in Martin's favor over the years. In six races at Las Vegas Motorspeedway, Martin has posted five top 10 finishes and three finishes of third or better, including a victory in the inaugural event in '98.

Chassis Number: (RK-241) - The ViagraŅ Racing Team will run RK 241 at Atlanta. RK 215 will serve as the backup. RK 241 is a brand new car. RK-215 ran last season at Martinsville and Phoenix.

AT ATLANTA:
Starts: 36 (18)
Wins: 2 (0)
Top 5's: 9 (3)
Top 10's: 17 (7)
Poles: 1 (1)
Highest finish: 1st (twice)
First time: 3/21/82 (19h)
Last time: 10/26/03 (42nd)

Worthy Note: Martin has started inside the top five in 16 of 36 races at Atlanta.

Fresh off the momentum of their fifth-place run at Vegas, Mark Martin and the Viagra Racing Team take to Atlanta for the fourth race of the season. Martin is no stranger to Atlanta Motor Speeway, which is regarded as one of the fastest tracks on the circuit. This will mark Martin's 37th start at the 1.54-mile speedway, where he first raced in a Cup car in March of 1982.

MARTIN AT ATLANTA
This will be Martin's 37th start at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where the veteran driver has tallied 17 top-10 finishes and nine top-fives. Martin ran his first race at the track on March 21, 1982 where he finished 19th. He returned that same year and drove to a top-10 finish in the spring. The No. 6 team posted a pair of top-10 finishes there in 2002, but fell victim to mechanical failures in both races there last season. The team will look to expand on Martin's accolades there this weekend.

GETTING STARTED
Martin started the Atlanta race inside the top five in 16 of his 36 races there. Despite having only one pole at the track, Martin has started the race on the front row on six occasions. In addition, Martin has started inside the top 10 in 23 of 36 races at the track.

IN THE POINTS
Martin's strong fifth-place run at Vegas moved him up eight spots to 20th position in the Nextel Cup point standings, 51 points outside of the top 10. Martin has moved up 23 positions in the past two races.

QUOTING MARK*

ON ATLANTA:
"Atlanta is the fastest track that we go to, that's not a restrictor plate race and for that reason it's a really fun place to race. It's my kind of race track. You have to figure out how to go fast through the corners. If you do that you'll be in good shape on the straight aways. It's a fast track and sometime you might find yourself holding your breath, but it makes for some good racing.

"It's the shape, the size, the banking and the transitions from straightaway to corner that make it so fast. It makes better speed. If you made sharper corners, it wouldn't be as fast. If you had flat straightaways and then corners that were banked up, you'd have to slow down more approaching the corner. It's just the shape and the banking, coupled with the transitions and size."

"The team did a great job last week at Vegas. We fought all day and got ourselves a top five in the end. We had some great stops in the pits, where the guys really stepped up to the plate when they had to and Pat (Tryson) and the guys just did a great job with the car as well. I'm excited about this season and I can't wait to go racing again with these guys.

CREW CHIEF PAT TRYSON:
"Atlanta is one of the fastest tracks on the circuit and we are really looking forward to going there. We are taking a new car to Atlanta, so we'll have to be on our game early. We hope to improve our qualifying effort and get a little bit better starting position this week. We had a solid performance and a strong finish last week in Vegas and hopefully we can keep that going this week in Atlanta."

Mark Martin Fast Facts