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Can we trust Martin after latest flip-flop?
by Jorge A. Mondaca, FOXSports.com
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Analysis:
The revelation led to a natural follow-up question: Didn't Mark Martin retire from NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing already?
In fact, he has. Twice. Yet on the day before the running of the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, he has made it official that he will compete full time in 2009.
"This is just an opportunity that I couldn't let pass by at this point in my life," said the 49-year-old Martin. "I was very concerned about regretting that decision for the rest of my life. I got my arms wrapped around the scheduling situation and here we go. I'm incredibly excited and honored."
That may not sound too dramatic, but it is quite a turnaround from October 2004.
"I'm too young to retire from racing, but I've been out here chasing this thing for a long time. I'm very proud of what we've been able to do over the years," Martin said in '04. "There are a lot of guys out there who never got to win their first race in NASCAR and I've been fortunate to accomplish a lot of things. I never worry about the things that I haven't done, instead I focus on all the things that I've been able to do and that makes me very proud. For me it's just time to do something different."
That retirement was initially postponed when Jack Roush asked Martin to stick around another year while he groomed a successor for his famed No. 6 Ford ride.
"All this changing his mind, he's starting to look like an idiot!" Mark's then 14-year-old son Matt told The Associated Press on May 19, 2006. "He said last year was going to be his last, then he came back this year. Now this year is going to be his last, but then he says maybe not. I think the problem is how much he knows he's going to miss it."
Mark opted to leave Roush Racing at the end of the '06 season and run a partial schedule for Ginn Racing (which was later bought out by Dale Earnhardt Inc.) in 2007.
Heading into this year, we finally sensed that we had a grasp on what Martin wanted to do with his future. A clear understanding after years of changes:
"Don't think I haven't thought about (how long I want to continue running). I'm a planner," Martin said this February. "I planned on it for five years and it wound up being six instead of five but you know the circumstances around it. You know being in the No. 6 car in '06 I hadn't planned on doing that. It's not forever. What I'm doing now is not forever, that's for sure. It's limited as well and it's limited for multiple reasons. One is I don't really think it's practical for me to try to do for another seven years or probably even another five years. It's limited, but I do have '09 basically in place.
"I actually have a long-term agreement with Dale Earnhardt Incorporated just as I had with Ginn although it didn't transfer when we made the change. We did a new contract with Dale Earnhardt Incorporated that was long-term, which includes my racing in Cup again in '09 and sort of unspecified for the next three years after that."
Friday's Hendrick Motorsports announcement is more disappointing than shocking.
Nobody can deny that Martin can still drive. His performances since his "retirement" proves he can still wheel around NASCAR's tracks with the best of them. One needs to only look at the close call in the 2007 Daytona 500 to see his skills firsthand. On top of that, his performances in the new car have improved significantly, evidenced by his two top fives and five top 10s in 12 starts this season.
NASCAR's top drivers agree.
"I think eight or 10 years from now he will still be able to win championships," Tony Stewart said about Martin. "He's just that competitive. You look at how good of shape he's in and how good of a job he does at taking care of himself. He's a guy that could go as long as he really has the desire to go."
But that's not the point.
Four years ago, Martin was the ultimate statesman of the sport, gracefully bowing out near the top of his profession, something great sportsmen rarely get to do.
But with only weeks remaining in his "Salute to You" tour, months after admirers combined to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on memorabilia commemorating their departing hero, Martin turned around and said: "Let's do one more."
That was understandable. Unlike NASCAR legend Rusty Wallace — who also retired that season — Martin was asked by his longtime friend and boss to help him while he spent another year grooming a successor. Also, as athletes in various sports have taught us through the years, it is difficult to walk away from the sport that has been your entire life.
But to repeat the strategy year after year, changing his mind not only on retirement, but on which team he will drive for, feels more than a little disingenuous. And it's less than respectful of the fans for whom he claims to race each week.
No knock on Rick Hendrick. The team owner made a choice he feels will put the No. 5 back on track following a year of disappointment with current driver Casey Mears, who simply could not fulfill his duty of "super megastar" as is expected from NASCAR's version of the New York Yankees.
But no matter how Mark Martin performs in 2009, and even if he changes his mind once again and opts to run only a partial schedule to satisfy his racing needs, he still faces a big question.
How many more flip-flops will you make?
Martin's answer may surprise the thousands of NASCAR fans who spent their hard-earned money buying "Salute to You" gear — gear that now sits in their closets, gathering dust.
"I make no apologies for not knowing what my whole life holds for me," Martin said Friday. "I have told (the media) that if it was all or nothing that I would choose nothing, and I have said that. Well I may have changed my mind — again."
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