Hall of Famer Mark Martin Defends Current NASCAR Drivers’ Lack of Relationship With Cars
Widely recognised as the greatest driver to never win a NASCAR championship, Mark Martin stayed competitive at the Cup level for close to three decades. As someone who started in the 1980s, when drivers were expected to know the ins-and-outs of the cars, Martin ended his career in the 2010s at a time when racing simulators took centre-stage for drivers to learn racing. So should this lack of knowledge about the machines be held against the drivers? The Hall of Famer does not think so.
The former Hendrick driver appeared on ‘Rubbin is Racing’ podcast and explained that the new generation of drivers had a different kind of pressure that they deal with. During his time, most drivers used to start with weaker teams and only after overperforming with back-marker teams got an opportunity compete in a half-decent team. Currently, the drivers have a different way to prepare.
“Although they don’t have any experience working on cars they’ve got a lot of experience in Sims or iRacing or whatever, and they have a lot of data,” said Martin, who raced for Hendrick Motorsports starting 2009 and got access to state-of-the-art race simulators and data-capturing systems, facilities that have only improved since.
Martin predicted Joey Logano winning NASCAR title when he was 10 years old
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