Mark Martin A Tale of Two Teams

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In: NASCAR Cup Series News

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” That is the opening of Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities,” a novel set in London and Paris prior to the French Revolution in the late 18thcentury. It’s a story about the possibility of resurrection and transformation as told through the plights of its two main characters, Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton. With more than 200 million copies sold, it is considered to be one of the most famous works in literary history.  

While “A Tale of Two Teams” isn’t quite a Dickens classic, it does contain traces of similarities, specifically the notions of transformation and the anticipation of resurrection.

This narrative is set in the current day, long past all of the great historical revolutions, and the location is just outside Atlanta in the hamlet of Hampton, Ga. Headlining this story is NASCAR veteran Mark Martin, who will pilot the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) in place of the injured Tony Stewart for a second straight weekend. While the NASCAR world awaits Stewart’s resurrection, which is scheduled for the beginning of the 2014 season, the No. 14 team is in the midst of transforming from a team that prepped cars for a three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion in Stewart to being a team that readies its fleet of Chevys for a 40-time Sprint Cup winner in Martin. 

Next up for the Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 team is this weekend’s Advocare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway – a track where Martin has a rich history thanks to his 52 Sprint Cup starts. The 54-year-old Martin is one of only a handful of drivers who have competed in every race run at the track since it was reconfigured to a 1.54-mile oval in 1997. In fact, the only active Sprint Cup driver to have made more starts at Atlanta than Martin is two-time Sprint Cup champion Terry Labonte.  

Since first racing at Atlanta in the 1982 Coca-Cola 500, Martin has scored two wins (November 1991 and 1994), two poles, 14 top-five and 24 top-10s while completing nearly 15,000 laps. He’s competed in both the NASCAR Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series at Atlanta, scoring a trio of Nationwide wins in 10 series starts.

As race fans across the country wait for Smoke to rise with Stewart’s return to action in 2014 during Daytona (Fla.) Speedweeks, Martin brings experience to the seat of Stewart’s No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet. At a place like at Atlanta where top speeds clip the 200 mph mark, experience counts. Martin counts 40 victories on his expansive Sprint Cup resume, and win No. 41 behind the wheel of the No. 14 Chevrolet is something Martin and Co. have their sights set on at Atlanta.

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