 | | Mark Martin ends his career at Darlington with 24 top-10 finishes. Credit: Autostock |
By Ron Lemasters Jr., Special to NASCAR.COM
May 9, 2005
03:14 PM EDT (19:14 GMT)
DARLINGTON, S.C. -- After 39 starts, a Southern 500 victory, 15 top-five and 24 top-10 finishes, Mark Martin said goodbye to Darlington Raceway with a fourth-place finish. In typical Martin fashion, however, he shrugged it off. "It was OK," he said. "It was all right. No big deal." Maybe not to Martin, but it was a big deal for those who follow the sport now and will follow it in the future. Martin had tremendous success at the old 1.366-mile, egg-shaped oval since the first time he laid wheels on it in 1982. As a freckle-faced kid from Arkansas, he set the NASCAR world on its collective ear by qualifying 20th and finishing seventh in his first start there in the spring of 1982. He had a chance to add one more victory to his total on Saturday night in his South Carolina swan song, but a spin with two laps remaining cost him one spot and tons of momentum for the green-white-checkered finish. "If I hadn't spun out there, we would have run third," Martin said after changing clothes in his transporter. "We were lucky to get back to fourth."  |
| Inside the Numbers |
| Mark Martin at Darlington |
|
Race 1 |
. |
Race 2 |
| Year |
Start |
Finish |
Start |
Finish |
| 1982 |
20 |
7 |
19 |
22 |
| 1983 |
10 |
3 |
27 |
17 |
| 1988 |
21 |
6 |
7 |
19 |
| 1989 |
1 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
| 1990 |
2 |
2 |
10 |
6 |
| 1991 |
12 |
4 |
10 |
29 |
| 1992 |
14 |
3 |
25 |
2 |
| 1993 |
6 |
2 |
4 |
1 |
| 1994 |
3 |
2 |
6 |
25 |
| 1995 |
12 |
37 |
36 |
33 |
| 1996 |
16 |
6 |
6 |
3 |
| 1997 |
5 |
24 |
4 |
8 |
| 1998 |
1 |
7 |
10 |
40 |
| 1999 |
3 |
5 |
16 |
4 |
| 2000 |
5 |
9 |
5 |
14 |
| 2001 |
25 |
21 |
13 |
20 |
| 2002 |
31 |
29 |
2 |
11 |
| 2003 |
27 |
4 |
7 |
33 |
| 2004 |
20 |
7 |
5 |
2 |
| 2005 |
20 |
4 |
|
|
Martin, who was running fifth at the time, said he just got a little impatient. "I got a little greedy and tried to make a pass too quick," Martin said. "I stepped on that big motor and it was like stepping on a cat's tail. It went right around. It worked out OK. I was gonna pass them both [Greg Biffle and Kasey Kahne] and get third, but I couldn't waste any time. "I had a chance to go and I stepped on the gas a little too hard and you really had to feather the throttle with those old tires, so it slipped away from me." Slipping away from Darlington for the last time, Martin leaves behind some pretty stout numbers. In addition to the victory, the top-fives and top-10s, Martin was amazingly consistent. In 11 races from the spring of 1989 to the spring of 1994, Martin finished no worse than sixth in 10 of them. On Saturday, Martin started 20th and took his time working his way to the top five. He finally got there on lap 285, and he was no worse than fifth the remainder of the race. "It was a hard-fought fourth, but they had the car to do it," he said. "We just didn't have quite enough car to win with. It was an awfully good run. It seemed like forever before we got to the top five, but once we got there it was no problem to stay there." As the sun sets on Martin's final Nextel Cup season, it was only fitting that he left the old Lady in Black on terms just as good as when he first met her. | 
