Martin announces 2 year deal with Hendrick in the No 5 Chevy
Quote selected text Published July 4th, 2008 in NASCAR News
Mark Martin has signed a two-year agreement to drive for Hendrick Motorsports beginning in 2009. Martin will race the full 2009 Sprint Cup schedule in the #5 Kellogg’s/CARQUEST Chevy, becoming teammates with #24-Jeff Gordon, #48-Jimmie Johnson and #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. It will mark his first full season of Cup competition since 2006, when he finished ninth in points.
A Batesville, Ark., native, Martin also is slated to run a partial Sprint Cup schedule for Hendrick Motorsports in 2010, sharing the #5 Chevys with a to-be-determined second driver. Martin will enter 26 events, including the non-points Budweiser Shootout and Sprint All-Star Race. “Mark is an incredible racer and one of the classiest guys around,” said Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick, whose organization will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2009. “He is a driver who makes everyone around him better, and our entire company is going to benefit from his presence.”
“I feel very fortunate to have this chance to win races and go after a championship with Hendrick Motorsports,” Martin said. “Coming back full time wasn’t something we planned, but driving the #5 car, with all its history, was an impossible opportunity to pass up. Rick and I have enjoyed a great relationship over the years, and we’ve always talked about doing this. Now it’s working out, and we’re both excited about the possibilities.” Martin, 49, will be paired with crew chief Alan Gustafson, who now is in his fourth season at the helm of the #5 Kellogg’s/CARQUEST Chevy team. Gustafson has posted four Sprint Cup wins as a crew chief and has a history with Martin, having worked with him in multiple Nationwide Series events.
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For years he was one of the 5 or so drivers who had the EQ and Talent to win the title and he couldn’t do it, what makes him thing now that he is one of the 15 or so drivers who have the EQ and Talent to win the title that he’ll actually be able to do it?
And then he is going to run part time in 2010 by running 26 races? That’s not part time that’s lazy! If you wanna run part time then run a few races, if you want to run anything more then half of the races, then man up and run the full schedule.
Heck by 2011 he’ll be in the Hall of Fame Racing Honda Accord giving it “One Last Run for the Championship”
Ive really lost a lot of respect for mark I mean if he wants to race thats fine but stop the part time crap why race 26 races in 2010 makes no sense just run the whole season.
The ol bastard…only way he’ll ever get out of a car is when they pry his cold dead fingers off
the wheel.
He is a racers racer
Yeah, f— Mark Martin! The guy doesn’t race a full season and still ranks higher in the standings than the vast majority of full time racers.
Morons.
Mark Martin …lazy , are you kiddin me? He’s one of the hardest working guys at the track,and has earned the right to do whatever he wants,with his performance this year he’s proved he can still get the job done,We’ll see what he can do next year,full time,…again.
Martin is a good driver but he aint aggressive enough to actually win a championship. Not a knock on him becuase he can drive(y’all don’t need me to tell y’all that) but fact is fact.
I can’t believe we have to put up with him for two more years, he really needs to go away.
Looks like he qualified in front of all the “real” Hendrick drivers today…lmao!
WOW big deal he qualified on the front row,its not where you start the race its where you finish.
Justin 99 wrote:
oh yeah man he was like barely a 1/10th faster than tha 88 car….woopdie friggin do if Jrs car drives like it did in qualifying, good luck catching…but ill just put my money on a toyota now since nascar allows them to have all this extra cash flow everywhere like all of us fans were worried about