Mark Martin: The event is about Winning

No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota driver Mark Martin asks NASCAR fans that no matter how important the Chase for the Sprint Cup is for the next 10 weeks, also pay attention to the race winners.

Martin and 31 non-Chase drivers plan to race as hard as they always do when the Chase begins Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway. Martin’s Michael Waltrip Racing teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Clint Bowyer earned MWR its first berths in the Chase and the 53-year-old Martin says he’ll do anything he can to help the pair. But when the green flag drops he’s also going to do everything he can to race his way to victory lane.

An MWR Toyota has had a shot to win each of the last four races. Martin dominated Michigan and Truex Atlanta, Brian Vickers came close at Bristol and Bowyer won last weekend in Richmond a few seconds in front of Martin in third-place.

RACING HARD: “We race for the same reasons that we raced before the Chase started and that’s to win. The Chase does a lot of wonderful things, but it isn’t the only thing going on. The event is about winning. Clint Bowyer won Richmond. That to me, is more important than points. The championship, the points and the Chase all do add to what we do. I am not degrading it. But I also think in today’s age that winning a race is underrated.”

CAN YOU WIN THIS WEEKEND? “We won there in 2009 and (crew chief) Rodney (Childers) won in 2010. The way we are all running I think that one of the three MWR cars might end up in victory circle after it is all over with. That’s really why we all do this. You don’t get to experience this all the time. It is really the driving factor of why we all do this. It’s to run up front, compete and challenge for wins.”

ON MWR: “Well, they have more confidence than when I first got here, but everything else is really the same. They had great people in place. We really found our niche. We really lean on one another. We have great teamwork there, the best teamwork that I’ve ever seen. The atmosphere at MWR is serious but light. It’s not heavy. We’re having a blast. We have really great teamwork, really great people there. I couldn’t be more proud to have both teammates in the Chase. When I came to MWR, I just wanted to try to be able to help them achieve that and maybe get lucky and stumble into a win myself. I’m having a blast. I deserve no credit for them getting over that hump. Martin Truex, Jr. deserves the most credit probably because he suffered through the building stages of the organization. Starting with Texas last year, last fall, you started seeing the momentum building in the 56 car. So the groundwork was starting to get laid and had been coming for years. The addition of Scott Miller has helped, too. But I think that we need to not short-change Martin Truex, Jr. for all the work and the suffering through the building stages. I was just lucky to come in when I did and get to be a part of it.”

WALTRIP ON MWR & MARK MARTIN: “This racing thing is all about people, totally about people. We just have a great core group of folks that embrace the team atmosphere, just love working at MWR. That’s probably the thing I’m most thankful for, is the fact that everybody gets along, everybody wants each other to do good. Probably the guy that has enhanced that more than I thought when we hired him is Mark Martin. (Co-owner) Rob (Kauffman) is a finance guy. Rob said, it’s like EF Hutton, when Mark Martin speaks, people listen. He’s done it all, he’s a legend, made us a better race team. That’s cool.”

MWR