No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota driver Mark Martin returns to Daytona International Speedway Wednesday in preparation for Thursday’s Daytona Duels that set the starting field for Sunday’s running of the 55th annual Daytona 500.
Martin will start 14th in the second Duel on Thursday. It’s been a tough Speedweeks so far for the No. 55 Michael Waltrip Racing team. The team wrecked in Friday practice and during Saturday’s Sprint Unlimited. Martin said despite the introduction of the new Gen-6 cars this season, there are no worries about having enough cars for this week.
PLANS FOR WEEK: “We’re going to race — we came here to race and we’re going to race. We may not race in practice on Wednesday, but we’re going to race on Thursday and continue to try to learn. I guess I’ve got 20 laps of drafting so far out of this whole thing and two cars down. We’re still going to try to learn Thursday for the 500. I’m not so much worried about where we start.”
CAR COUNT: “I think we don’t mind tearing one more up before the (Daytona) 500. But that’s something we certainly want to avoid. We are fortunate, MWR has worked really hard to have cars ready and that’s going to pay off this week.”
DAYTONA 500: “I’m not superstitious and I don’t believe in lucky charms or anything like that. In fact, I avoid all that stuff. But I have noticed this is the 55th Daytona 500 and the No. 55 is a pretty cool number, don’t you think?
MWR PR
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