Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 - Mark Martin Notes

MARK MARTIN FAST FACTS * Darlington
MARTIN LOOKS TO "TAME" DARLINGTON

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-213) - The team will run RK 213 at Darlington. RK-213 is the same car the team ran to a 12th place finish earlier this year at Rockingham. RK- 231 will serve as backup.

Worthy Note: Martin earned a top-10 finish (7th) in his first career start at Darlington in 1982.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.

Darlington is noted by many as a track so difficult on drivers that it has two dubious nicknames, "The Lady in Black" and "The track too tough to tame." However, Martin and the No. 6 team have held their own over the years at the 1.366-mile quad oval. In fact in 18 spring races at Darlington, Martin has finsihed in the top 10 on 14 occasions and inside the top five nine times, including a fourth-place finish last year. The No. 6 team will be gunning for another strong finish this weekend, as they climb their way back into the Nextel Cup top 10.

MARTIN AT DARLINGTON
This will be Martin's 37th start at Darlington Raceway where the veteran driver has tallied 21 top-10 finishes and 14 top fives. Martin ran his first race at the track on April 4, 1982 where he finished seventh. Martin finsihed fourth a year ago in the spring race at Darlington and was on course for a victory before a mishap in the pits forced him to the back of the lead lap. While racing in the Busch series, Martin won a record seven poles and tallied a record seven victories at Darlington.

IN THE POINTS
The team's 14th-place run in Atlanta moved Martin up three spots and into 17th (tied for 16th) place in the Nextel Cup point standings. Martin is just 32 points outside of the top 10 as the team heads to Darlington, one of Martin's strongest tracks on the circuit.

QUOTING MARK*

ON DARLINGTON
"I really like racing at Darlington, because it's a 'handling' race track where guys like myself excel because we can help out so much in the handling department. You have to be able to go really fast through the corners, and you have to be able to handle well in order to put the car where it needs to be. It's a great track for racing and I always look forward to going there.

"The addition of the safer barrier will be interesting, because it's already the narrowest track that we race on by far, so it's going to be interesting to see how that affects the racing. But, I've been going there for a long time and it's already changed a lot over the years. In fact the track is almost opposite of what it used to be. Now the emphasis is really in turns one and two, but you still have to go fast through those corners.

"Pat (Tryson) and the team have done a great job this season and we are just going to keep chipping away at it until we are in that top 10 after the first 26 races and then it will be a new race from there."

CREW CHIEF PAT TRYSON:
"We are looking forward to going to Darlington this weekend. It's the kind of track where Mark excells. It's our job as a team to make sure that the car handles well and is fast enough for Mark to drive it to the front. We look forward to that challenge. The team did a great job last weekend at Atlanta and we hope to build on that this weekend."

Mark Martin Fast Facts