Every year for more than three decades, Mark Hubbard has raced something.
When he was 16, he helped work on his dad’s race car. On the days his dad took the car out for practice, Hubbard asked if he could turn a few laps, too. In a short period of time, Hubbard said, he was “actually practicing the car faster” than his father.
Eventually, his dad’s partner suggested letting Hubbard race the enduro car. In 1990, he won his track’s rookie of the year award. The next year, he won his first championship. His second title came in 1994.
Hubbard eventually got into go-kart racing with his son Cullen until the younger Hubbard turned 16. A few years later, Hubbard’s dad suggested they buy a pro late model.
But the success didn’t come as easy the second time around.
“I typically don’t load up expecting to go to the track and not win,” Hubbard said. “Well, we went to the track, and we ran dead last nine consecutive races in a row. And I went, ‘OK, this isn’t good for sobriety. Let’s sell this car and buy a street stock.'”
In 2020, Hubbard raced in the street stocks division at Evergreen Speedway, a NASCAR Home Track in Monroe, Washington. He was on the verge of his first division title when he was black flagged on the last lap of the championship race. He lost by one point.
The missed title motivated Hubbard, and he came back in 2021 and won the track championship, the state championship and the West Coast championship. He finished 12th in the national NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series points standings.
After Hubbard won a second Evergreen street stocks title in 2022, he contemplated retirement with the idea of going out on top.
His crew didn’t like the idea.
“There are three people on my pit crew that are all in their upper 70s, low 80s, and I’m like, ‘Guys, I’m tired,'” Hubbard said. “And the guy who used to be my dad’s partner in racing said, ‘Come on, Mark, can we run just one more year?’ And I went, ‘OK, but we’re going to miss the first race so that we don’t run for points.”
Unfortunately for Hubbard — and fortunately for his team — a rain storm hit the area on opening day of Evergreen’s 2023 season.
“We run rain or shine,” he said of the track’s weather policy. “And I usually do really well in the rain … So I was like, ‘We’ll go to the first race.’
“I set fast time, won the heat race and won the main event. So we’re leading the points, and my wife was like, ‘You’re leading the points now. We are running every race of the year.'”
Hubbard won his first three races of the season. He finished the year with five victories, eight second-place finishes and three thirds on the way to his third straight track championship.
To actually retire as a three-time reigning champion was the best way for Hubbard to end his career; better than his previous idea of going out on top after consecutive titles.
“It was always fulfilling,” Hubbard said. “I’ve got an office full of trophies and banners and stuff like that at my auto repair shop that I’ve run for 26 years. A lot of people didn’t even know that I raced, and they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t know you raced,’ and, ‘Oh my gosh, look, you win and win and win.'”
Hubbard recently sold his car and vowed last season was officially his last. For health reasons, his dad wasn’t able to make every race in 2023; Hubbard said “it’s just not the same without him being there.”
“It’s been a lot of hard work and dedication, and it’s something that I never could have done if my parents didn’t have a love of racing and backed me a hundred percent,” he added. “They’re the reason that I was as successful as I was.”
Getting closer to the season and not preparing a car is different for Hubbard, but he won’t be too far from the track. He’ll help others on race days because he enjoys walking around the pits and offering advice to other drivers.
Hubbard said the realization that he’s done racing will probably set in when Evergreen opens the season on March 30. But he’s ready to spend time taking vacations with his parents and family.
He leaves the sport knowing he did everything he could on the track.
“With go-karts, it’s probably like 20 championships I’ve won,” he said. “I’ve had really good sponsors and really, really good people helping me. I’ve just always loved racing, and I’m just finally to the point where I’m tired, and I want to do other things. So that’s what we’re going to do.
“To have been able to race with my son and with my dad and with my brother and have all the different successes we’ve had, I feel like I’ve had a great career, and I’m happy with my decision.”