Mark Martin Was “Rolling” At Michigan in August

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In: NASCAR Cup Series News

Mark Martin dominated testing, won the pole and led every lap except during pit stop sequences at Michigan International Speedway in August.

Unfortunately, that 200-lap race ended on lap 65 for the Michael Waltrip Racing driver.

Slower cars collected Martin’s car in an accident that sent the No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine sliding into pit lane where he speared the end of pit wall. All the damage came behind the driver’s side door so Martin escaped uninjured but it ruined a bid to win his sixth race at the two-mile, D-shaped oval in Brooklyn, Mich.

MARTIN ON LAST MICHIGAN RACE:“Man, we were rolling. What a hot rod. I remember how good we were in testing, practice, the pole and in the race. You dream of racing a car like I had in August. We think we had them covered that weekend. Some cars got together in the race and we got jammed up and slid toward pit lane. I hit the wall at a pretty freak angle. It could have been really bad if I would have got in that hole a little deeper where it caught me in the door instead of in the crush area back there. I was hoping that I was going to miss the pit wall completely and not tear the car up, but then I saw that the angle I was going that I was going to hit the end of pit wall. I never thought about getting on the other side of pit wall. I think that would have been hard at the angle that I was coming, but that certainly would not have been good.”

AFTERMATH:“I was wondering why everyone was talking about that wreck. Everyone seemed kind of excited. When I got home and finally saw it on television I understood. It looked pretty spectacular the way it hit the end of the wall, but these cars are amazingly safe and I was fine.”

MICHIGAN 2013:“I love Michigan. It’s like a big short track. The track lends itself to the guys who focus on the handling of their race cars. That’s always been my specialty. The cars are different this year so I don’t know if we’ll repeat last year’s performance. We’ll just have to see how we stack up against the competition.”

MWR PR

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