The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will place an exclamation point on its 2013 schedule Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway with its season-ending race at the 1.5-mile oval. A champion will be crowned and the final chapter for yet another year-long campaign will be entered into the annals of Sprint Cup history.
For Mark Martin, this year’s edition of the series finale means the last scheduled Sprint Cup race of his storied career. In 31 years of competing at NASCAR’s highest level, Martin has earned 40 wins, 56 poles, 271 top-fives, 453 top-10s and led a total of 12,879 laps in 881 career Sprint Cup starts.
Although Martin never experienced the glory of a Sprint Cup title, he certainly put forth his share of championship-worthy seasons. Seventeen times Martin finished among the top-10 in points, and in five of those seasons, Martin was runner-up to the champion, finishing second in 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2009.
In 2002, Martin finished 38 points behind a 31-year-old Tony Stewart, who won the first of his three Sprint Cup championships in just his fourth Sprint Cup season. It’s ironic that, 11 years later, Martin is subbing for Stewart in the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS as Stewart continues to recover from a broken right leg sustained in a sprint car crash Aug. 5.
Martin and Stewart developed a friendship well before that championship battle, with Martin taking Stewart under his wing in 1996 as Stewart made the transition from the open-wheel cars of USAC to the heavy stock cars of NASCAR in the stepping-stone Nationwide Series.
Much has changed since those days in the late 90s. Martin shifted gears from that of a full-time participant to one that chose to race where and when he wanted. Stewart evolved from a brash series newcomer to a respected veteran who deftly handles his dual role as a driver and owner at Stewart-Haas Racing.
The paths of these two drivers intersected in a unique way this year, and with one more race to run, both look to make the most of the opportunity.
While unable to don a helmet, Stewart continues to wear his owner hat. The No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet is his racecar, and as a team owner, he wants to see the driver of the No. 14 car win.
Martin’s 14th Sprint Cup start at Homestead comes in Stewart’s No. 14 machine. In 13 previous races at the South Florida track, Martin has four top-fives, five top-10s and has completed all but 27 of the 3,467 laps available to earn an average finish of 13.5.
In a career that began on April 5, 1981 at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway where Martin started fifth and finished 27th in a Bud Reeder owned Pontiac, Martin now prepares to make his 882nd career Sprint Cup start more than 32 years later. The kid from Batesville, Ark., who dreamed of just going racing is now an incredibly accomplished 54-year-old destined for the NASCAR Hall of Fame. After all those years and all those numbers, just a single race remains. Martin will take the experience in and race like it’s his last…because it is.
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