Mark Martin: Poised to Win at Indianapolis

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When Mark Martin first guaranteed that he would taste victory in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard this weekend, most of the Sprint Cup garage was taken aback. Had NASCAR’s most identifiable pessimist changed his ways? Was he that confident in a Dale Earnhardt Inc. team left for dead by many in the garage? Did he just want to get back into the sport’s spotlight, after running virtually under the radar since his near-win at Phoenix this April?

“I plan on winning the Brickyard in the 8 car,” the 49-year-old Martin announced, after a 10th-place finish at Pocono last month. Having fallen out of the top 20 in points (he was 12th after the Pocono race in 2007, still in the Chase for the Cup by 22 points), the most identifiable part-time driver in NASCAR’s top series had only five top-10s when he made his prediction. Compare that to a 2007 season in which Martin’s worst finish up to that point was 17th.

Keep in mind that Martin has a history of being a pessimist in the garage area. He has plenty of reason to be. If not for a 46-point deduction early in the 1990 season, he’d have won the series championship. He also finished 2nd in 1994, 1998 (despite winning 7 races that year), and 2002. He lost the 2007 Daytona 500 in a drag race to Kevin Harvick as the field wrecked behind them. Anything that could possibly go wrong with a racecar has gone wrong for the driver from Batesville, Arkansas.

Has the No. 8 team found something that the rest of the Sprint Cup Series is unaware of?

Regardless of the audacity of his prediction, Martin certainly showed the strength of his car in qualifying. Placing second, behind future Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson, Martin turned a lap one-tenth of a second slower than the 2006 race winner.

Of the 43 starters competing in the race, Martin has the ninth-best average finish at Indianapolis, 14.4 in 14 career starts. His best finish in the race was 2nd in 1998, when Jeff Gordon won the race under caution. In the past three years Martin has finished 7th, 5th, and 6th, respectively, while driving for Jack Roush in 2005 and 2006 and DEI last year. This race actually marks Martin’s 1st anniversary with the team founded by the late Intimidator, as it merged with Ginn Racing this time last year.

Martin’s teammates at DEI, Martin Truex Jr., Paul Menard, and Regan Smith, qualified 25th, 37th, and 42nd, respectively, with Smith one of two drivers to rely on owners’ points to make it into the race. No DEI driver, past or present, has ever won at Indianapolis; however, if any of the team’s stable could become the first, Martin would be it.

(Image courtesy Icon Sports Media