Top Row Seat - Michigan
Dateline: 08/18/98Shortly after Mark Martin finished the Bud At The Glen his father, Julian Martin, and his family were killed in a tragic plane crash in Nevada.
Julian Martin was Mark's inspiration.
Julian Martin taught Mark to drive when Mark was just five years old. Picture Mark standing on his dad's lap steering and screaming for his dad to slow down while his dad raced along the old back roads of Arkansas. Julian Martin lived life at full speed and taught his son to do the same.
In Mark Martin's biography "Mark Martin: Driven To Race" By Bob Zeller (David Bull Publishing 1997) Mark is quoted as saying about his dad "You couldn't love a son more than he loved me."
All of us at the MiningCo would like to offer our sincere sympathy to Mark, Arlene, Matt and the entire Martin family.
By the way, if you've never read "Mark Martin: Driven To Race" it is a great book. All race fans, but especially Mark Martin fans, will love the behind the scenes look how Mark Martin got started in racing and what goes into the making of a NASCAR Winston Cup driver. I thoroughly enjoyed every page.
Bristol!
The Winston Cup boys are off to my favorite place on the planet, Bristol Motor Speedway. If you can't get excited about 43 Winston Cup cars on a high banked half-mile race track under the lights in front of 140,000 screaming fans then you're already late for your own funeral. Bristol is everything that NASCAR is and can ever hope to be. It's fast, tight, in-your-face racing where you don't even breate from green to checkers. It's three hours of intense entertainment.
WooHoo!!! I'm excited! Let's turn em' loose!
