Mark Martin Fuel Factor

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In: NASCAR Cup Series News

“Money makes the world go ‘round.” It’s a notorious phrase used in speech and song that although cliché, warrants merit.

Swap out the word “fuel” with “money” and the expression applies to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, only there is no platitude to the revised phrase. Fuel powers the sport in more ways than one, making it only appropriate that the commodity is sometimes the difference between winning and losing. Nowhere has that circumstance been more inherent than at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, site of Sunday’s Sylvania 300.

The No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet team of Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) is very familiar with the importance of fuel, having experienced  both ends of the spectrum on the win/loss scale when it comes to racing at New Hampshire. With Mark Martin driving in place of the injured Tony Stewart this weekend, the team looks for some redemption after finding itself on the losing end of a fuel gamble during the series’ most recent visit to the 1.058-mile oval in July.

Less than 10 weeks ago at New Hampshire, the Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops team found its No. 14 Chevrolet SS out front in the closing laps of the race and in position to score their second win in six races.

After leading for 84 laps, Stewart relinquished the lead 16 laps short of the finish as he went into fuel conservation mode. In second place on the penultimate lap, Stewart was primed for another strong run at New Hampshire, or maybe a win if race-leader Brian Vickers bobbled. But just moments after the white flag waved, signaling the race’s final lap, Stewart’s machine sputtered off turn two. Forced to coast all the way down the backstretch and through turns three and four, Stewart crossed the finish line a gut-wrenching 26th. 

That certainly was an episode of dealing with the bad, but there have also been instances of good, most notably the 2011 edition of the Sylvania 300. Two years ago the No. 14 team found itself in a nearly identical situation, only they were in position to take advantage of another competitor’s foiled fuel strategy. The No. 14 led the final two laps after previous leader Clint Bowyer ran out of gas just before taking the white flag of the 300-lap race. It was Stewart’s second consecutive win and it propelled him to the 2011 Sprint Cup championship.

At this year’s Sylvania 300, the No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops team will be led by Martin. The ageless veteran will make his 31st career Sprint Cup start at the Magic Mile, but first since 2011.

While two years removed from his last New Hampshire race, Martin remains rock solid in the Granite State. He is a 40-time Sprint Cup winner, the most recent of which came at New Hampshire on Sept. 20, 2009. He has two poles and nine top-fives and 14 top-10s in his 30 starts dating back to 1993 when the track first hosted the Sprint Cup Series. Through the years, Martin has proven a model of consistency with an average start of 15.3 and an average finish of 12.5. And through two decades of racing in NASCAR’s elite division at New Hampshire, Martin has completed all but 23 of the 8,863 laps available for a lap completion rate of 99.7 percent.

Thos stats, combined with the racecar Martin will pilot at New Hampshire, make the No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops team’s anticipation for the Sylvania 300 palpable. The same car that nearly won at New Hampshire 10 weeks ago is the same car Martin will wheel around the tight, flat confines of the Magic Mile.

With guile and experience unmatched in NASCAR, Martin knows how to win, even when winning means conserving. And if fuel again factors into the outcome at New Hampshire, Martin’s veteran poise could portend another victory for the No. 14 team.

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Speedway Digest Staff
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