Inside Mark Martin, there lives a go-go daddy indeed

Save one small detail, all five men sitting up on stage were dressed exactly the same. They all wore white, long-sleeved, button-down collar shirts adorned with their respective sponsor logos, which is something of a uniform for public appearances at Hendrick Motorsports. They all wore dark pants. And they all wore black leather shoes buffed to a high sheen -- except for one. Mark Martin showed up in sneakers.

OK, so maybe they were black sneakers that Martin wore to the Hendrick stop on the NASCAR media tour a few weeks ago, and maybe they were made by a company that his organization has a marketing partnership with, and maybe they were pretty dang stylish nonetheless. But still, you know the old saying, that you can tell a lot about a man from his shoes. And Martin's screamed one thing -- this is a 51-year-old man who has no intentions of acting his age.

When thinking of drivers who represent a certain Web-hosting business with a provocative marketing strategy, it's Danica Patrick who immediately comes to mind. The IndyCar star, who will make her first start on the Nationwide tour Saturday at Daytona International Speedway, has essentially become the face of a corporation that backs green and orange race cars and makes television commercials featuring women -- and, in one unfortunate case, men -- stuffed into tiny outfits. She's edgy by association, and to be sure, racing open-wheel cars at 220 mph, and just being a female bent on competing in the testosterone-driven world of motorsports, certainly qualifies as living on the edge.

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And then there's Martin, whose previous primary car sponsor was a breakfast cereal company, and on the surface appears terribly miscast. No matter how you spin it, some are just never going to accept a rather straight-laced quinquagenarian as pitchman for a company that takes pride in making spots "too hot" for TV. The relationships that work the best are always those between a sponsor and a driver who appeals directly to the company's target audience -- think Dale Earnhardt Jr. and beer drinkers, or Kasey Kahne and soccer moms, or Patrick and overgrown frat boys who like to see women ripping off their shirts. Martin and GoDaddy.com seem about as natural a combination as Tony Stewart and the New York City Marathon, organizers of which are unlikely to be knocking on Smoke's door anytime soon.

That's the perception, at least. But when you strip away the overt sexuality of the television ads, and you cut through all the stereotypes, and you get right down to the image Martin's car sponsor is trying to portray, a strange thing happens. You find the edgiest damn guy in the entire GoDaddy stable, someone edgier than ever Patrick herself. You find somebody who does things nobody his age is supposed to do. You find somebody who likes things nobody with his background is supposed to like. You find somebody who, when everyone else is wearing loafers or oxfords, shows up in sneakers.

You find a go-go daddy indeed.

"There are certain little, subtle things about my private life that are edgy -- the music I listen to, maybe the way I train," said Martin, who has GoDaddy.com as primary car sponsor for 21 Sprint Cup races this season, including a Daytona 500 where he will start from the pole. "Maybe being 51 years old and acting like a 20-year-old in some respects might be a little bit edgy. You might find some edges if you hung with me that you don't see in a business setting."

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In truth, the man has more edges than a marquise-cut diamond. There's his pre-dawn workout regimen, a routine that would double-over many other drivers half his age, which he's committed himself to for decades and wrote a book about -- Strength Training for Performance Driving, now available via the Internet -- in 1994. There's his fondness for rap music, particularly artists such as Eminem, Run DMC and Dr. Dre, an affinity which even inspired a tune in his honor, Start Your Engines, recorded by Budda Early in 2006. There's the fact that he flies his own airplane and lives in a neighborhood with a landing strip in the middle, where residents have hangars instead of garages. There was his resoluteness years ago when he was asked to drive a car sponsored by the little blue pill.

There was his ability to return from a part-time role and once again contend for NASCAR's highest championship, this at a point in his career when few thought such a thing was possible, and in the process stem the tide -- for a little while, at least -- toward younger, younger, younger in a series where the median age of drivers has dropped to the floor. There was his willingness to commit to not just one, or two, but at least three more 38-week campaigns at a time when most of his contemporaries have eased back or retired altogether. There's his aptitude in the race car, which instead of deteriorating seems only to be getting sharper, and has made the first weeks of the 2010 season feel like a seamless continuation of last year.

"We did a Goodyear tire test at Atlanta January 12 and 13, I believe it was. When we hit the race track, I knew we had picked up where we left off. It was just fun. We were fast. We just had a blast. So I knew then that it was just going to be an extension of last year. Certainly it is," Martin said.

"You know, I've looked deeper and worked harder. That's my commitment to the year, just like our race team, in every area. You know, we're ready to go. Can't wait to go racing every week so that we get in a routine, a normal routine. By the way, yeah, it's nice. I'm still under the radar compared to Danica. Even though we got the pole, we're still under the radar. That's cool. That's my style."

Ah, yes, Danica again. The Go Daddy girl herself. She's inescapable these Speedweeks, and rightly so, with her promising run in this past Saturday's ARCA event and her first Nationwide start coming up. She could become a NASCAR phenomenon in a very short period of time, if she isn't one already. But there are two drivers piloting green-and-orange cars this weekend, and only one of them truly has a chance to be daringly innovative -- the very definition of edginess. And that's the one who has a legitimate shot at becoming the oldest winner in the long history of NASCAR's biggest race.

We can only imagine the commercials that would follow. Would it be Martin ripping his shirt open instead of some buxom blonde? Maybe not.

"You never know," he said. "I would only do it if I wanted to. I would do it, if I wanted to. I haven't seen the situation, so I don't know. At Hendrick Motorsports we are a little bit conservative, so I don't know. But I don't think that's really an issue."

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.