For several years, the old "Thank God It's Friday" adage did not apply to Mark Martin.
Come Friday, he agonized from the sun's emergence through his final qualifying circuit. It just wasn't fun anymore.
Doug Benc/Getty Images
Less seat time for Mark Martin means more one-on-one time with 15-year-old son Matt.
"I wouldn't call it dreadful, but it's definitely the highest pressure," Martin said of Fridays in recent years. "I agonized for the past two years [at Roush Racing] about qualifying, because it hadn't seemed to go as well as we'd have wanted.
"In the 6 car we seemed to race better than we were able to qualify. So I did agonize over that some."
Fast forward to March 23, 2007.
It's Friday, Bristol Motor Speedway. As his contemporaries strolled from their posh motorhomes, up across the pedestrian bridge and through the tunnel that leads to the infield at Thunder Valley, Martin awoke and strolled … to the kitchen.
In Florida.
For the first time in 621 consecutive racing weekends, he wasn't at the track. He had to have missed it, right?
"I felt great, especially Friday morning when I woke up and wasn't faced with a whole lot on my plate," Martin said, that wide smile obvious even through the phone receiver.
"I was supposed to be at the racetrack and I was able to do some other things. I haven't been cruising, now. I've had a fire under me."
He reiterates for clarity. He might not be at the racetrack, but he ain't on the back porch sipping lemonade just yet, either.
"I've still been busy -- probably busier than I've ever been in my career," he continued. "We're still working hard. But I had a pretty clean plate on Friday of Bristol. I woke up really, really relaxed.
"There's not the pressure of meeting the schedule and having to get qualified and I could have lunch with [my son] Matt. It was a whole different experience. It meant a lot to me. Same thing the following week. Friday was a great day."
Those lunches with his son are especially noteworthy. It's legit QT. And it's a rare commodity when a father gets the opportunity for legit QT with his teenage son.
"If we get in two lunches a week together, that's a really good week," Martin said. "That's where he opens up and we talk. He's 15 years old. He has his own agenda and his own pace."
That quickly takes us back to the frantic schedule.
"Again, this has not been any less hectic pace, '07 has not," Martin said. "I dig, man. That's what I do. This isn't about cruising. I'll cruise when there's nothing left to do. We haven't planned any vacations. But those Fridays, and that Saturday going racing with [my son], was special."
The Martins plan to go racing together once again on the weekend of April 29. So as the Nextel Cup boys strap in to tackle NASCAR's biggest racetrack, Talladega Superspeedway, Friday morning, Mark and Matt Martin will be preparing the trailer to head to the short track the next day.
And the following day, race day, Martin will be watching, just as he was the last two weekends. He watched all practices, qualifying, pre-race shows, races and post-race programming live. And only once did the urge hit him.
It was during the command to start engines at Bristol. There was a camera shot of a driver flipping the ignition switch on his race car. That is a very special moment for a driver, he said. At that moment, all the extraneous, peripheral obligations wash away. Those 150,000 people aren't there.
It's just you, your crew chief and your spotter.
"That is one of the sacred parts of a weekend," Martin said. "When you reach and push those switches up, hospitality is behind you, the drivers' meeting is behind you, the traffic coming in is behind you, qualifying. Now it's down to what you came for.
"And it was weird [to see]. I was like, 'Whoa! This is where it all switches to just me and my buddies.' But when they rolled off, man, it was like watching a Busch race for me. I didn't miss it.
"I'm a race fan first. And it's OK for me to watch. I just don't want to watch permanently. But I did not ever, once, wish I was out there when I was watching Bristol and Martinsville."
Come Friday, he agonized from the sun's emergence through his final qualifying circuit. It just wasn't fun anymore.
Doug Benc/Getty Images
Less seat time for Mark Martin means more one-on-one time with 15-year-old son Matt.
"I wouldn't call it dreadful, but it's definitely the highest pressure," Martin said of Fridays in recent years. "I agonized for the past two years [at Roush Racing] about qualifying, because it hadn't seemed to go as well as we'd have wanted.
"In the 6 car we seemed to race better than we were able to qualify. So I did agonize over that some."
Fast forward to March 23, 2007.
It's Friday, Bristol Motor Speedway. As his contemporaries strolled from their posh motorhomes, up across the pedestrian bridge and through the tunnel that leads to the infield at Thunder Valley, Martin awoke and strolled … to the kitchen.
In Florida.
For the first time in 621 consecutive racing weekends, he wasn't at the track. He had to have missed it, right?
"I felt great, especially Friday morning when I woke up and wasn't faced with a whole lot on my plate," Martin said, that wide smile obvious even through the phone receiver.
"I was supposed to be at the racetrack and I was able to do some other things. I haven't been cruising, now. I've had a fire under me."
He reiterates for clarity. He might not be at the racetrack, but he ain't on the back porch sipping lemonade just yet, either.
"I've still been busy -- probably busier than I've ever been in my career," he continued. "We're still working hard. But I had a pretty clean plate on Friday of Bristol. I woke up really, really relaxed.
"There's not the pressure of meeting the schedule and having to get qualified and I could have lunch with [my son] Matt. It was a whole different experience. It meant a lot to me. Same thing the following week. Friday was a great day."
Those lunches with his son are especially noteworthy. It's legit QT. And it's a rare commodity when a father gets the opportunity for legit QT with his teenage son.
"If we get in two lunches a week together, that's a really good week," Martin said. "That's where he opens up and we talk. He's 15 years old. He has his own agenda and his own pace."
That quickly takes us back to the frantic schedule.
"Again, this has not been any less hectic pace, '07 has not," Martin said. "I dig, man. That's what I do. This isn't about cruising. I'll cruise when there's nothing left to do. We haven't planned any vacations. But those Fridays, and that Saturday going racing with [my son], was special."
The Martins plan to go racing together once again on the weekend of April 29. So as the Nextel Cup boys strap in to tackle NASCAR's biggest racetrack, Talladega Superspeedway, Friday morning, Mark and Matt Martin will be preparing the trailer to head to the short track the next day.
And the following day, race day, Martin will be watching, just as he was the last two weekends. He watched all practices, qualifying, pre-race shows, races and post-race programming live. And only once did the urge hit him.
It was during the command to start engines at Bristol. There was a camera shot of a driver flipping the ignition switch on his race car. That is a very special moment for a driver, he said. At that moment, all the extraneous, peripheral obligations wash away. Those 150,000 people aren't there.
It's just you, your crew chief and your spotter.
"That is one of the sacred parts of a weekend," Martin said. "When you reach and push those switches up, hospitality is behind you, the drivers' meeting is behind you, the traffic coming in is behind you, qualifying. Now it's down to what you came for.
"And it was weird [to see]. I was like, 'Whoa! This is where it all switches to just me and my buddies.' But when they rolled off, man, it was like watching a Busch race for me. I didn't miss it.
"I'm a race fan first. And it's OK for me to watch. I just don't want to watch permanently. But I did not ever, once, wish I was out there when I was watching Bristol and Martinsville."