It's been 28 years since a young 22-year-old made his first attempt at NASCAR. In his first season, Mark Martin raced five races and recorded two poles, along with one top-five and two top-10 finishes.
In '82 Martin raced a self-owned car in all 30 Winston Cup (now Sprint Cup Series), recording two top-fives and eight top-10s.
Martin only attempted 16 races in the '83 campaign, and after only recording one top-five and three top-10s, he quickly returned to a series where he got his racing boots wet—the American Speed Association (ASA).
In the ASA, Martin has already won three consecutive championships, and went on to win his fourth ASA title in '86 before joining the Busch Series (now known as the Nationwide Series) in '87.
In his first Busch campaign Martin collected three wins and quickly caught the attention of an up and coming owner—Jack Roush.
In 1988, Martin was brought to the Cup Series. He didn't collect a checkered flag in his first campaign with Roush, but he did get three top-fives and 10 top-10 finishes. During the '88 season, he also recorded his first pole and things began to turn better for the young-gun.
Not having to worry about the owner's side of racing, Martin could finally focus on driving, and winning.
Martin's first breakout came during the '89 season. It was the AC Delco 500 at the famed Rockingham Speedway in North Carolina. The track gave Martin his first Cup win.
While it was his only win of the season, Martin had 15 top-fives and 18 top-10 finishes, with six poles. Martin quickly became nicknamed the most consistent racer ever.
Moving forward to the 1990s, Martin became part of the fifth closest points battle with the late Dale Earnhardt Sr. He finished the season second, by only 26 points. However, the championship would have been his if it weren't for a 46-point penalty for an illegal carburetor part. The runner-up finish was one of four he collected during his great career.
In the years to follow, Martin would go on to win several Cup, Busch, Truck and International Race of Champions (IROC).
In '94, Martin collected his first IROC Championship, he wasted no time winning more, currently sitting at four ('94, '97, '98 and '05) in the defunct series. During the 12 season span, Martin collected 13 wins. (The series only raced four times a year.)
In '97, Martin had his most wins overall, recording four in Cup, six in the Busch Series and two IROC—for a total of 12 in one season.
The next season upped Martin's win total even more, as he finished '98 with an unprecedented seven wins in Cup competition. He also recorded 22 top-fives, 26 top-10 finishes and three poles. Some would say ’98 was Martin’s best of his career, yet he again, finished second in the points to future legend and four-time champ Jeff Gordon.
Another accomplishment Martin received in ’98 was being voted as one of the 50 greatest drivers ever.
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