Mark Martin The Cornucopia of October

By:
On:
In: NASCAR Cup Series News

By the time the calendar is flipped to the month of October, the sports world is humming. The NFL season is in full swing. Pre-season NBA games are ready for tip off. The first puck is dropped in hockey. Major League Baseball teams are battling it out for their respective pennants, angling for a spot in the World Series. And the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup is on.

The sports cornucopia floweth over.

While it’s a good time to be on the precipice, or the beginning, of a sojourn for a championship, one doesn’t need be in the hunt for a title to enjoy the fruits of October.

Mark Martin, driving in relief of the injured Tony Stewart, may not be hunting for a championship, but he is hungry for wins. The driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) goes into this weekend’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City as one of just 10 different drivers to have enjoyed the sweet taste of victory at the 1.5-mile track since its debut on the Sprint Cup tour in 2001.

The track’s fifth Sprint Cup races proved to be the charm for Martin, who in 2005 stormed through the field from his 19th-place starting spot to take the lead on lap 122. He went on to lead a race-high 139 laps and held off a hard-charging Greg Biffle to secure the 35th of his 40 career Sprint Cup victories. While the win is the highlight of his Kansas career, Martin also owns a pole, two top-five and six top-10 finishes. He has an average start of 15.9, an average finish of 14.9 and has led laps in five of the 15 races run at Kansas for a total of 212 laps led. Additionally, he has completed a solid 3,921 laps of the 3,953 run at Kansas for a lap completion rate of 99.2 percent.

Martin is one of just nine drivers who have competed in each Sprint Cup race at Kansas, putting him in elite company. It’s appropriate considering Martin is representing an elite company in Bass Pro Shops.

Founded by John L. Morris in eight-feet of space in his dad’s liquor store in the early 1970s, Bass Pro Shops today is one of America’s premier outdoor retailers. With locations across America and Canada, Bass Pro Shops serves more than 75 million sportsmen a year with what can only be considered a cornucopia of merchandise for those interested in activities such as camping, fishing, hunting and other outdoor recreational activities, many of which are just as popular as the stick and ball sports that permeate the month of October. And it’s all managed at company headquarters in Springfield, Missouri – a mere two hours from the site of this weekend’s NASCAR festivities, making it a bit of a home game for Martin and the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats team. And with home field advantage secured, Martin is hunting for an October win.

TSC PR

Speedway Digest Staff
Follow Me
Latest posts by Speedway Digest Staff (see all)
Post Views: 45