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Transcript of Mark Martin Tele conference (11/11/97)

12 November 1997

 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
 Mark Martin Teleconference Transcript
 November 11, 1997
 
MARK MARTIN (#6 Valvoline Thunderbird) - IS THERE ONE RACE THAT YOU LOOK BACK 
ON AND SAY THAT IT MIGHT HAVE COST YOU THE CHAMPIONSHIP? "The one that comes 
to mind is the Talladega accident. There was no way for me to get through that
thing. I would have certainly have liked to have gotten through. Dale Jarrett
got through it better than I did. They still got some damage, but not the type
of damage that we got. That's one. We as a team, myself included, have made a
few mistakes this year, but we're human. Every race team on the circuit made
mistakes, and most of 'em probably made more than we did. The way I look at
it, we'd be 87 points ahead if we could have stepped up the performance more.
I don't know how to do that. We're very proud of the race team and what
they've done this year. They've put us in contention not by what they did on
the good days, but by what they did on the bad days when we had problems,
recovering and rebounding from the bad days. That is what put us in
contention."

HOW ARE YOU APPROACHING THE WEEKEND? DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE HUNTER AND THAT
GORDON IS THE HUNTED? - "I understand what Dale is saying there, but you know
me. I'm Mr. Simplistic. It's as simple as this. We went into the Daytona 500
in February racing to win and racing for points, and that's what we'll do at
Atlanta. They are all the same. But from the standpoint of who is on the hot
seat. I'd rather be on the hot seat and be 87 points ahead instead of 87
points behind. With an 87-point lead, it's your championship to lose. If they
don't have a problem, they won't lose that championship, because they won't 
run bad enough to lose it. The biggest heartbreak of the three teams would
come if the 24 didn't win the championship. It's not going to be quite as big 
a heartbreak for me or the 88 if we don't win it, because we didn't go into it
with a pretty good lead."

WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF THE CAR YOU WILL RACE AT ATLANTA? - "This car raced at
Atlanta, Darlington twice, Texas, California, Michigan twice, Indy, Phoenix,
to name a few. It is my favorite car."
 
DISCUSS YOUR SUCCESS YOU'VE HAD WITH FORD, AND YOUR THOUGHTS ON LOOKING AHEAD
TO 1998 AND THE NEW TAURUS? - "The success I've had in this decade, it
automatically reverts back even farther than '90. When I was at the very
bottom of down on my luck, I went to Ford Motor Co. in January of '84 and
said, 'Hey, I'd like to race a Ford on the ASA circuit.' And they did a little
something to help me get back going and help me get back on my feet and
winning races. In '87, when I got an opportunity to race a Busch car, I had
the only competitive Ford Busch car in the Busch Series and we won three 
races that year. After I won the first race, I started getting Winston Cup
offers to drive Winston Cup cars. One was the Jack Roush program, which was a
Ford, and all of which were Fords. In a subtle way, they've had an awful lot
to do with where I'm sitting today. With Roush Racing, you've seen the
results. We've had a very successful seven years in the '90s. And 32 of my
Busch Grand National wins have come in a Ford."

HOW HARD WOULD IT BE TO GO INTO A RACE AND NOT BE ABLE TO GO FOR FIRST, AND
KNOW THAT YOU'VE GOT TO FINISH 18TH AND RACE CONSERVATIVELY? IS THAT A
DIFFICULT WAY TO APPROACH A RACE? - "I don't think so. You have to look at how
good they run. They couldn't possibly run much sorrier than eighth, based on
their performance. If they don't have any trouble, they could run pretty bad
and run seventh or eighth. That's what we've seen throughout the season on a
bad day for them. They don't have to worry about their performance. It's the
things they can't control that are scary. And there are a lot of those. And 
there have been a bunch of them out there nagging at him, that they have
actually rebounded from very fortunately. Like the wreck at Talladega. They
were lucky that Dale and I were caught in it. They were lucky at Rockingham
that they had a problem under caution that was repairable. That could have
cost 'em a bunch of points with the axle cap problem that they had, but they
got it under caution, they fixed it and they got away with it. And they
actually could have had a worse turnout at Phoenix than they had. So they have
had bad luck, but still been fairly lucky. They have to look at Atlanta and
say, 'What could happen, and I hope it doesn't?' We go in there not sweating
that we might lose something, but just racing to try to win something."

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO DO THE BEST YOU CAN ON A DAY WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE THE
CAR TO WIN? "That's pretty  basic. It doesn't matter if you are racing for the
championship or not, you have to do that, because the race for 10th is just as
intense as the race for first, and the race for 15th is just as intense as the
race for 10th. It means a lot to everyone, every individual and every sponsor
and everybody. It could mean going home from a race or getting a provisional.
This thing is huge, and it is hard. It is unbelievably hard. You have to make
the best out of every bad situation, and this race team, the Roush team, had
done a better job than that than anybody on the circuit this year. And we've
had pretty darn good performance, too."

HOW DID YOUR TEST AT ATLANTA GO? "We were at one of the earlier tests. I think
it was the first test after the tire test. We went down there and ran laps and
worked on getting acquainted with the new race track. It's a new track. It's
not the same." 

DO YOU LIKE THE NEW TRACK? - "I don't know. It's like the old track, I can
tell you that. It's a great race track, and still is a great race track.
There's only one problem with the race track, only one. It has the best
pavement in the world on it. And that's odd that it would be a problem, but
that's where the extreme speed comes from. It could be a one-groove track, but
it's still the same for everybody. It shouldn't be overplayed. It is the same
for everybody. It is what it is. We go down there and race, and only one team
is going to win, the one that comes out on top."

IS THIS YOUR PROUDEST YEAR IN MOTORSPORTS? - "Absolutely. If this thing goes
down in Atlanta, and we don't win this championship, there is still a good
chance that this could be the greatest year of my career. The only way that
'97 will ever be topped, for me, is winning a Winston Cup championship. We'll
have to see what the future brings. It's been an incredible year for me,
breaking Jack Ingram's record and winning the Busch races. And the IROC thing
means more to me than I could ever tell you. To be able to come back in '97 
and race with the team, and the family, that I love. Not winning in '96, and
to come back and have a year like we've had in '97 with the Winston Cup car, I
can't tell you what it means to me, because I wasn't sure in the '96 what the
future held for me."

WHAT HAS YOUR DAD TOLD YOU ABOUT THIS RACE?  - "My dad tries not to give me
too much advice, because he probably wouldn't give me the kind of advice I
would want to be hearing. I haven't even talked to him. He knows that I'm
going to give it my best shot. He knows that I am my own person. He and I are
a little bit different, and he might not do things just exactly like I would."

WILL RAIN HAVE AN IMPACT ON THE SPEED THERE? - "I don't know what impact the
rain will have, but I understand that we are looking at cold weather, and
that's just going to make it faster yet. We don't really have a problem with
the speeds unless something happens. It is not a treacherous race track. It is
the finest paving job that I have seen lately on a race track. If we don't
have flat tires or broken suspensions or oil slicks on the race track or
anything like that, then the speeds aren't a problem."

YOU DIDN'T WIN LAST YEAR. DOES THAT GIVE YOU SOME INSIGHT INTO WHAT PEOPLE
LIKE BILL ELLIOTT AND DALE EARNHARDT AND KEN SCHRADER ARE GOING THROUGH AND
HOW HARD IT IS TO KEEP THAT FAITH IN YOURSELF? - "It was really hard, because
in '96 we had awesome cars and awesome engines and good efforts, and I didn't
know how to do better, so therefore, I wasn't sure if I would ever win another
race. I liked my cars and I liked our stuff, and it was as good as I knew how
to build 'em, and it was as good as my team knew how to at the time. I didn't
feel lost. I just felt like we ran darn good, but somebody else was always
running better at the end, and I didn't know how to do better than that. It
got my attention, and it made me appreciate each win. Now, every time I win a
race, I know deep down inside that I might not ever win another one, that it
might be the last one. Some day, it will be the last one. Hopefully, that will
be 10 years from now. It was a reality check, I think. It's really
competitive. When you have guys like Jeff Burton coming up and Jeff Gordon
already established and you look at this thing, I don't see that many wins
left over for folks out there, especially when Dale Jarrett can go out and get
seven of these things in a season as well. You put Dale Jarrett and Jeff
Gordon together, and we've had a great year, so you add ours together, and
there wasn't much left. Jeff Burton got three, and everybody else is
scrambling to get a win."

WHAT IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP LIKE WITH JACK, AND WHO MAKES THE CALL AT THE END
FOR TWO TIRES OR FOUR, YOU OR JACK? - "I think it's a combination as far as my
relationship with Jack, between respect, family and a long-term sense of
loyalty. I have an awful lot of respect for Jack, and it would break my heart
to know that I disappointed him, much like it did when I was a child and found
out that I had disappointed my father. We have a good relationship and I
believe that no matter where racing takes us and no matter where my position
is in racing, that our relationship will always be what it is today, and
that's why I'm signed up to race with Roush Racing until I can't race anymore.
Jimmy Fennig and Steve Hmiel, we're also like family. There is an awful lot of
three-way respect there. I'd have to say that on a given day, I might make the
final call, and on another given day, someone else would make the final call
on whether it was two tires or four tires, based on who felt strong enough to
demand it. It's kind of a team thing. There are times when I will or won't go
along with certain things, and there are times when that there is enough 
urgency in their voice that I'll change my mind and go with what they say. 
There are times when the team can see things or know things that there is no 
way the driver can see or know. And there are also times when the driver can 
see things or know things that there is no way the crew can know. Together, 
we try to make the best out of all that."

WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW TO HANDLE THE EXPANDED SCHEDULE? - "I don't think Jack
or I either one ultimately want to see the schedule shortened, but we would
like to see it streamlined to some degree. Jack and I and all of us are
racers. What he said about doing the right thing by your family and the right
thing about trying to have a life outside of being at a race track. Right now,
the sport is really, really healthy. This is the greatest time that there has
ever been to be involved in motorsports today, which is a dream-come-true for
every one of us. It's kinda like, I used to know some guys who worked at John
Deere and made real good money working overtime and complained about working
overtime all the time. And I never understood why they complained about that.
That's a good thing. The problem would be if you couldn't get but 20 hours a
week in. That's where the trouble would be. So we have to be thankful for the
opportunities that we have. It would be very good to expand into more of the
great markets and shift some things around a little bit. We can't cut these
races out, the big ones, the Texas and California and Las Vegas. There are so
many great opportunities for our sponsors and for us to go do that that's what
we have to do, but my suggestion has been to continue to look at the schedule
and say, 'That's something that we could cut out, or that's something that we
can streamline.' I believe that you have to take something out now to put
something else in. As we go and learn and the sport evolves, we'll continue to
look at things that we might be able to push out the back side so that the
front side, the very important things to our sport and to our sponsors, can be
done."

DO YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS WITH THE POINTS SYSTEM? - "Ultimately, this is show
business and it's working. The championship goes down to the last race every
year, and like it or not, that's good for the sport. I don't have any
suggestions about changing it."


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