Mark Martin Advance
Darlington Raceway, May 12-13
NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series: Dodge Charger 500
Mark Martin
Team: No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion
Crew Chief: Pat Tryson
Chassis: RK-315 Finished ninth this year at California and sixth at Las Vegas.
Martin used the car last season in a victory at Kansas and a second place run at the season finale at Homestead.
Martin on racing at Darlington Raceway:
"Darlington is a cool track that I've always liked. I ran second there to Dale Earnhardt twice in '89 and '90 and finally won in '93. Sometimes I think that people seem to forget that I won a Southern 500. I've had a lot of success at Darlington and an enormous amount of Busch wins. The place brings back some great memories of some great battles. Actually the win in '93 was four in a row and that was a big deal.
"It's a jagged oval. It's not a smooth radius turn. The wall goes in and out and in and out. Your line is as smooth as anywhere else, but the track's all over the place. You go from touching the apron to touching the wall and you've never even changed directions. It's really narrow and banked a lot. The cars go really fast and the track goes everywhere so it's always a challenge."
Crew Chief Pat Tryson on racing at Darlington Raceway:
"We really like the car that we are taking to Darlington this weekend and we know it's the type of track where Mark's talents can really stand out. We had a really good run there a year ago and we were really good there two years ago as well, so it's been a place where we've had success lately and it will just be up to us to put all the pieces in place and go out there and hopefully compete for the win."
Fast Facts
Mark Martin's 24 top 10 and 17 top-five finishes are the most of any active driver at Darlington.
Martin won the famed Southern 500 at Darlington in Sept. of 1993.
Martin has finished inside the top-seven in four of the last five at Darlington.
Martin has finished inside the top-five in three of the last five at Darlington and he has posted three consecutive top 10's there.
Martin's eight Busch wins at Darlington are a track record.
This will be Martin’s 26th Busch race at Darlington.
Martin’s eight Busch wins at Darlington are a track record, as are his eight poles.
Martin's 47 wins in the Busch Series are the series record.
Martin's 28 career Busch poles tie for the most ever in the series.