Martin's hiatus matches Carmichael's stock debut

ELLISVILLE, Fla. -- The last time Mike Fritts was at Columbia Motorsports Park to race a Super Late Model, there was only one barrier at the half-mile Columbia County speedway: The one protecting the crowd in the small frontstretch grandstand.

But even if there had been nothing but gentle moguls leading off toward the woods that seemed to be way less than 200 yards from Turns 1 and 2, and even less from the backstretch of the FASCAR track, Ricky Carmichael couldn't have been more comfortable there.

Carmichael, who only the weekend before had done his final AMA Supercross Series event, at Orlando -- while racing and back-and-forth to home in Tallahassee, Fla., to be with wife Ursula as she delivered the couple's first children, twins Kadin and Elise -- tested Friday for his stock-car debut Saturday night.

Fritts, a front-running veteran of Super Late Model racing throughout Florida and the Southeast who temporarily put his own driving career on hold to help Mark Martin Performance administer Ginn Racing's driver development program, joined the team only this week to provide guidance for Carmichael, among others.

Martin, who's taking his first weekend off in 20 years after 621 consecutive Cup races, was visiting his in-laws elsewhere in Florida and missed Friday's excitement, before he was scheduled to arrive Saturday.

Even though Carmichael, supercross' all-time victories leader spun on his sixth hot lap on the racetrack, Fritts was particularly impressed with his most high-profile charge, by the time the day was through.

"I was impressed with his driving," Fritts said. "I think we need to work on the car a little bit more -- and we knew that -- but for running up here at the last minute and never having been here with that car, I think everything went really good [Friday]."

How well? Doyle Boatwright, the 2006 CMP Super Late Model champion, turned a best lap of 16.94 seconds, reportedly on fresher tires than Carmichael did while testing all day on the same set of Goodyear Eagles. (Continued)