Rick Hendrick says hiring Mark Martin is a dream come true
Hendrick Motorsports' Mark Martin has won five NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races this season. // Jeff Robinson, NASCAR Scene
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HOMESTEAD, Fla. - Rick Hendrick says he remembers the first time Mark Martin drove one of his team’s cars in what was then known as the Busch Series. Just five laps into the race, the successful team owner turned to crew chief Alan Gustafson and said, “Man, if we could get him in a Cup car, it would be unreal.”
That Busch race, the 2007 Diamond Hill Plywood 200 at Darlington Raceway, was the first of three in which the veteran driver piloted a Hendrick-owned car.
Two years later, Hendrick’s dream was realized, and the results have been equal to his expectations. Martin made the return to fulltime competition in 2009, driving for Hendrick, and he heads into Sunday’s season-ending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race with five wins and a second-place position in the point standings.
But it’s more about Martin’s impact not only on the No. 5 team, but the entire organization, Hendrick says, than the number of wins Martin has managed.
“He’s more like [teammate] Jimmie Johnson than anyone I’ve seen,” Hendrick says of Martin. “Their work ethic, dedication and determination to absolute perfection.
“Mark has tremendous respect from all of our drivers. As kind of a statesman, he walks into a meeting and commands respect. He’s very to the point; he will identify areas that we could be better in.
“But I think what he brought is a whole new level of intensity to the entire organization.”
It’s a trait, Hendrick says, that all his drivers share, but Martin’s depth of knowledge, something that comes with nearly three decades of experience behind the wheel, is unmatched.
“I’ve listened to everybody in the garage area for 20 years, and I’ve never seen a driver that can call a race from the car if he had to,” Hendrick says. “Early on … he could basically call the race and set up the car from the seat. That’s how good he is at running a race in his head in the car. It’s unbelievable. And I think his explanation of what the car is doing has helped our other guys, too. He has been a huge asset to us.”
Gustafson calls Martin, “a great complement to our organization.
“He helps all the drivers, helps all the teams, helps management, everybody,” Gustafson says. “He has just got a great perspective on racing and how to go about things, and we’re really fortunate to have him here at the company.”
Chad Knaus, crew chief for points leader Jimmie Johnson, says Martin’s knowledge and experience have been incredibly beneficial to the No. 48 team, the group Martin is hoping to catch, and pass, in the year’s final event.
With two teams that have seven championships between them (Johnson has three and teammate Jeff Gordon four), that’s been something of an unexpected bonus from a new driver/team combination.
“He really pulls good information out of the other drivers,” Knaus says. … “I think when we get together with Mark as a group, a lot of the drivers will come in discouraged. What ends up happening is they start to discuss it, and they’re like, ‘Wow, that’s what my car is doing, too.’ And they start to feed off of that, and Mark starts to influence those guys.
“He has got such a good spin on things. It’s never done. You’re never done working on [the car]. It could always be better. And I think he brings a lot of that mentality to where we’re like, ‘Look, we’re going to work on it until the last lap of the race and try to make it better.’ He’s got that desire that not a lot of people have.”
