MARK MARTIN FAST FACTS – RACE: 25
CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY - 2.0 MILE 250 LAPS
Sony HD 500, September 4, 2005
MARTIN LOOKS TO LOCK DOWN PLACE IN CHASE AT FONTANA
With just two races remaining before NASCAR's cut-off point, Mark Martin will look for a strong run at California Speedway to help lock down a place in the second ever Chase for the Nextel Cup.
Chassis Number: (RK-314) - The team will run RK-314 this weekend at Fontana. This will be the car's third career run. It finished seventh in its debut at Indy and 17th two weeks ago at Michigan.
AT CALIFORNIA
Starts: 10 (1)
Wins: 1 (-)
Top 5's: 3 (1)
Top 10's: 5 (1)
Poles: -
Highest finish: 1st (5/3/98)
First time: 6/22/97 (10)
Last time: 9/5/04 (3rd)
2/27/05 (7th)
Worthy Note: If Martin can lose no more than 35 points to 11th place this weekend at Fontana, he will clinch a place in the Chase.
IN THE POINTS
With only two races remaining Martin is currently in fifth place; 226 points ahead of 11th place Matt Kenseth. He’s 165 points ahead of eighth-place Carl Edwards. Martin joins Roush teammates Greg Biffle (3rd), Kurt Busch (7th), Carl Edwards (8th) and Matt Kenseth (11th) in the top-11 of the Nextel Cup standings. After 24 races, he trails first place by 396 points and he is 125 points behind third place Rusty Wallace.
MARTIN AT FONTANA
Martin has posted four top-10 and three top-five finishes in 10 starts at California. In addition, Martin has started inside the top 10 in four of the 10 races. Martin finished third last fall at Fontana and seventh this year in the spring.
Martin actually finished 10th in the inaugural race at Fontana, despite running out of gas on the race's final lap, while in the lead. Martin came back the next year to win the second ever Cup race at Fontana in 1998. Martin has led a total of 263 laps at Fontana, including 65 in a third place finish last fall and four in a seventh-place finish this Spring.
ON THE REVERSE
Martin and the team will run the 'reverse' white paint scheme this weekend in California, as well as the next week at Richmond.
MARKMARTINSALUTE.COM
Mark Martin has dubbed 2005 his "Salute to You" tour, a year in which he hopes to take the time to thank each and everyone that he feels played a role in his success, including team members, fans, NASCAR and the media.
QUOTING MARK AND PAT …ON FONTANA
MARK MARTIN
"Fontana is my kind of track and that seems to be the type of place where this team excels. We were seventh there in the spring and we'll be looking to build on that this week. We had a really strong run last year in this race and we are excited about going back out there and hopefully we can give our fans out west something to cheer about.
"We've had a tough couple of weeks in the sense that we haven't had the finishes that our cars were capable of bringing home. On the other hand, we've done exactly what we need to do and we are sitting at fifth in the points with just two races remaining before the Chase starts, and that's a whole lot better off than we were a year ago today. This is a really good race team and I'm excited about heading down the stretch run with them."
PAT TRYSON
"We are excited about getting back out on the track at Fontana. It's one of Mark's better tracks and we've ran really well there the last two times we've been out there. Hopefully we can get a strong finish and lock up our place in the top 10 and then shift our attention to those final 10 races."
MARK MARTIN FAST FACTS – FONTANA
Martin has posted five top-10 and three top-five finishes in 10 races at California Speedway.
Martin has led a total of 263 laps at California Speedway, including 65 laps last fall.
Martin finished 10th in the inaugural California race, despite running out of gas late and posting a DNF. Martin rebounded the following year to win the race.
Martin won the Busch race at Fontana back in the spring in his first and only Busch start there.
With just two races remaining before the Chase cutoff, Martin remains in fifth; 226 points out of 11th.
LAST YEAR AT CALIFORNIA...
SEPTEMBER 5, 2004
California Speedway
POP SECRET 500
Started 11th, Finished 3rd
With the pressure on, Martin and the team responded with yet another stellar performance. Sitting just 35 points outside of 10th place with only two races remaining in the race to make the top-10 cutoff, Martin and his team would once again have to muster up a top-notch performance in order to keep their Nextel Cup Championship hopes alive. And once again the team was ready for the challenge. Martin and the No. 6 team responded with a commanding performance. Exhibiting a dominant car that led 65 laps, the most of the race, they contended for the win all evening and ran to their third top-three performance in the past four races and their fourth top-three in the last six. In the end the strong performance moved Martin into the Nextel Cup top-10 for the first time of the season. It took a late caution to put an end to Martin’s bid to win a race that saw him climb into the lead on three separate occasions, en route to leading 65 laps and earning 10 additional bonus points for leading a lap and the most laps during the race.
ALL-TIME ELITE, MARTIN
Martin’s 34 Nextel Cup wins put him fourth on the win list among active drivers and 17th on the all-time list.
Martin has currently started 569 straight Nextel Cup races, the third-longest current streak and the sixth-longest streak in Cup history.
Martin’s 41 Nextel Cup poles are the fifth most in Cup history.
Martin ranks fifth all-time in the Nextel Cup point standings.
Martin has started 625 Cup races, finishing inside the top 10 on 352 occasions, inside the top five 220 times and visiting winner’s circle 34 times.
Martin’s 47 career wins in the Busch Series are a NASCAR record.
Martin’s 12 victories in IROC competition are the most ever. Martin has won four championships in the IROC series, including a record three straight.
