Mark Martin back with Roush

[KevinWI]

That Jack Roush has some nerve trying to better his organization just when people are predicting gloom and doom for him. I guess Ray Evernham wasn't available, for some odd reason.

It's curious how people claimed that Roush forced Martin to continue to race when he made it very clear that he was done, yet continued to drive for different organizations after he left Roush. Did Jack force him to do that as well?

Seriously people...Jack Roush has an airplane accident, loses sight in one eye and people make ********* fun of it yet when a member of the HMS bunch take a tumble, we're all supposed to take a 20 year moment of silence.

**** that.

Funny, I was at the big Oshkosh airshow this week where Roush had his accident. I saw him last year just driving to the Ford tent and this year I went to a talk about the P-51 Mustang and he was on the panel. He owns two apparently. I don't know if they should let a one-eyed 72-year-old man who's already had two airplane crashes fly a $2.7 million warbird with a 1700 hp V12 engine, but, not for me to decide.

He's smart as hell though. He has the machine shop at Roush Performance in Michigan build parts for his P-51s. Somebody asked how much extra horsepower his improvements to the engine make over the 1700 hp the P-51 originally got and he said they actually make less than what the P-51 did in 1945 since 150 octane fuel is now illegal. He said his improvements to the pistons, supercharger, etc were mainly for reliability. He's really a smart dude. You can tell he's an engineer by trade and not a downtown used car dealer who got lucky *coughRickHendrickcough*.

I went with my dad (who's also pilot) and after the panel we talked about the Roush accident at Oshkosh. He said the crap Roush gets over the accident really isn't fair (which surprised me, since we're Chevy guys and love to make fun of Ford, Jack Roush included). At Oshkosh you have tons of a wide variety of planes landing, from old WW2 warbird, to modern military jets, to private jets, to guys in Cessnas, to homebuild experimental aircraft. Roush was flying a Hawker 400 business jet and was held up in the pattern by a tiny two-seat propeller-driven Piper Cub. It's kind of like the Logano-Shepherd accident a few weeks ago. Yes, Roush crashed the airplane but he was flying a jet around a little plane that didn't know what he was doing. There's more to it that just "Uh Jack Roush is an awful pilot".

 

[Marcingak]

Funny, I was at the big Oshkosh airshow this week where Roush had his accident. I saw him last year just driving to the Ford tent and this year I went to a talk about the P-51 Mustang and he was on the panel. He owns two apparently. I don't know if they should let a one-eyed 72-year-old man who's already had two airplane crashes fly a $2.7 million warbird with a 1700 hp V12 engine, but, not for me to decide.

He's smart as hell though. He has the machine shop at Roush Performance in Michigan build parts for his P-51s. Somebody asked how much extra horsepower his improvements to the engine make over the 1700 hp the P-51 originally got and he said they actually make less than what the P-51 did in 1945 since 150 octane fuel is now illegal. He said his improvements to the pistons, supercharger, etc were mainly for reliability. He's really a smart dude. You can tell he's an engineer by trade and not a downtown used car dealer who got lucky *coughRickHendrickcough*.

I went with my dad (who's also pilot) and after the panel we talked about the Roush accident at Oshkosh. He said the crap Roush gets over the accident really isn't fair (which surprised me, since we're Chevy guys and love to make fun of Ford, Jack Roush included). At Oshkosh you have tons of a wide variety of planes landing, from old WW2 warbird, to modern military jets, to private jets, to guys in Cessnas, to homebuild experimental aircraft. Roush was flying a Hawker 400 business jet and was held up in the pattern by a tiny two-seat propeller-driven Piper Cub. It's kind of like the Logano-Shepherd accident a few weeks ago. Yes, Roush crashed the airplane but he was flying a jet around a little plane that didn't know what he was doing. There's more to it that just "Uh Jack Roush is an awful pilot".

Roush may be a smart engineer but I think that is what is hurting his Cup teams right now. 10-20 years ago that was an advantage when almost none of the teams had engineers but these days he gets too personally involved with the cars instead of hiring tons of engineers and letting them do their jobs like other teams do. Hendrick is really good at finding good, hard working, smart people and putting them in the right positions.

 

[KevinWI]

Roush may be a smart engineer but I think that is what is hurting his Cup teams right now. 10-20 years ago that was an advantage when almost none of the teams had engineers but these days he gets too personally involved with the cars instead of hiring tons of engineers and letting them do their jobs like other teams do. Hendrick is really good at finding good, hard working, smart people and putting them in the right positions.

To be honest, I think the Fenway Sports Group is putting a handicap on RFR. They never had a problem keeping talented drivers until Roush sold half the team.

 

[HoneyBadger]

It's curious how people claimed that Roush forced Martin to continue to race when he made it very clear that he was done, yet continued to drive for different organizations after he left Roush. Did Jack force him to do that as well?

Preach it, 17D!

Mark Martin NEVER used the word retirement in 2005. I'm so ****** sick of hearing this.

Let's put it out there straight up: He. Never. Retired.

Mark wanted to run part-time while helping Matt with his racing. Nobody forced Mark to stay at Roush in 2006. He chose to do so. And, even after he went to Bobby Ginn's team, he still ran races for Roush in Nationwide. Along with Hendrick.

Mark. Never. Retired.

 

[Johali]

NASCAR'S Mark Martin to retire after 2005 season
Updated: October 14, 2004, 8:57 PM ET

CONCORD, North Carolina - Long-time NASCAR star Mark Martin, in contention for an elusive Nextel Cup championship, will stop racing full-time on the circuit after next season.

"I think the biggest thing in my career right now is that I don't want to go out on the decline," said Martin, 45, who has won nearly $45 million driving stock cars.

Martin made his announcement Thursday at Lowe's Motor Speedway, where he is preparing for this weekend's UAW-GM 500. He is fifth in the "Chase for the Nextel Cup," 150 points off the pace.

Since hooking up with owner Jack Roush in 1988, Martin has been synonymous with NASCAR. He has 41 career poles and 34 wins, although the sport's biggest prizes have escaped him.

Martin never has won the Daytona 500 and also has finished second in the championship standings a staggering four times - in 1990, 1994, 1998 and 2002.

"I told Jack that the best times that we had, we didn't know we were having them at the time," Martin said. "Those 17 years that we have been together have been the most incredible years of my life."

"Mark and I struggled often and mightily in the early days, but Mark always came to my side whenever the team's long-term interests were threatened or when my own often shaky positions on matters between us were unwavering," Roush said.

Over the last few years, Martin has watched Roush Racing move its emphasis away from him. Ironically, teammate Matt Kenseth won the series title last year and teammate Kurt Busch leads the standings this year.

"There hasn't been a bigger influence on my career in the Cup series than Mark Martin," Kenseth said. "He's the one that talked to Jack Roush about me and kind of took me under his wing and made sure I had a home here at Roush Racing. I owe my success to Mark."

Martin intends to run a full schedule in 2005 and transition to a much shorter slate in 2006 - perhaps on the Craftsman Truck series.

"In 2006, I'll still be in the driver's seat," he said. "I just don't know exactly what seat that that will be just yet."

Martin is the second Nextel Cup veteran this week to announce his retirement from full-time racing. On Tuesday, Terry Labonte said he will call it quits after the 2006 campaign.

Earlier this year, Rusty Wallace also said he will be scaling down his future slate.

This story is from ESPN.com's automated news wire. Wire index