Mark Martin has two NCTS wins this season. Credit: Autostock

Martin: Truck Series is best show in NASCAR

Veteran dismisses youthful over-exuberance; looks back at Vegas

LAS VEGAS -- The Craftsman Truck Series is the best racing in NASCAR, according to veteran Mark Martin, and while winning the first two races of the season has been particularly sweet, Martin said respect is a big part of his love for the Trucks, particularly when he compares them to Nextel Cup.

	Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images
	Inside the Numbers Mark Martin in the NCTS Year Starts W T5 T10 1996 2 1 2 2 2005 1 0 0 1 2006 2 2 2 2 Totals 5 3 4 5 Opening victoryMartin wins the NCTS season opener at Daytona Twice as niceMartin wins again the next week at Fontana Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

"The only difference is that Cup has actually got an awful lot of young, aggressive drivers who still are making some mistakes," Martin said at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where he'll run Sunday's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400.

"The Truck guys seem to be driving within their means and it's full of Cup-level drivers. I didn't realize how irritating it was to run in the Cup Series with some of these guys until I ran a Truck race.

"These guys are really pros -- Todd [Bodine], Ted [Musgrave] and Mike [Bliss] and so many of the other guys that run up front. They're just terrific drivers who use their heads and put on the best show in NASCAR, in my opinion."

The intensity of Nextel Cup Series racing is no secret and Martin said that, more than anything else, leads to incidents of questionable driving.

The youngsters have taken some criticism in Nextel Cup and Martin refused to chalk it up simply to lack of respect.

"You have young guys in the Truck Series, too," Martin said. "The ones I've been around have been driving within their means.

However, there's one Cup driver Martin says has it all together.

"I think a good example [in Nextel Cup] is Kasey Kahne. I think he has set the best example of anyone I can think of for coming in and racing with great respect and great talent and gotten the job done.

"You don't have to drive wild to show people you're a good driver, but there's a lot at stake in Cup and these guys are feeling the pressure. They've never hit that hard and racing is changing.

"It will never, ever be the same. It'll never be the way it was. That's a fact of life."

Kahne said his mode of attack is no accident.

"It's about how your car handles and how you work with your team and then just gain the respect of the other guys," Kahne said. "The only way you gain respect is respect them and the way they race and they'll respect the way you race.

"I think that's the best way to race and know they're going to race you the same way you race them."

Sunday's race will be Martin's ninth here in a Cup car and caused some reminiscing when he came in the tunnel.

"I had kind of a sad, sinking feeling there [because] I love the place," Martin said. "It would be really hard for me to think that I was not ever gonna race here again.

"Thank goodness the Trucks race here, which is part of my therapeutic way of phasing out of this business, sort of. I really love the place.

"We won the inaugural Cup race here [in 1998] and that was a very big deal to me. That's one of the biggest and most meaningful wins for me because it was three races in with a new team and that was a pretty big deal for me."