Mark Martin spent over 20 years racing full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series. He was a crucial part of Roush Racing through the 90s and the 00s and later moved to drive for teams like Hendrick Motorsports and Michael Waltrip Racing. Despite having driven alongside fellow icons like Jimmie Johnson, it is Jeff Burton whom he considers the best teammate that he has ever had.
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The 65-year-old said in a recent interview, “When Burton and I got together, it was magic. The guy was just the best teammate you could ever have. He would run up and volunteer anything to try to help. That’s how he tried to build respect.”
The duo were teammates at Roush Racing for eight years between 1996 and 2004. They consistently put their team’s name up top on the leaderboard in this period.
My experience with teammates at Roush and @TeamHendrick pic.twitter.com/MYskrtdRhQ
— Mark Martin (@markmartin) October 21, 2024
Martin continued, “He had my best interest in my program all the time. Jeff watched out for me and my program, which really helped. It was the first time that I had a teammate that was not trying to just take away… he was trying to add to it. We had a great relationship there.” A big example of Burton’s loyalty to Martin came in 2001 when Roush Racing shifted base to a single facility in Concord.
The team had been operating its teams from different facilities for years prior and the team owners had wanted to keep it that way. But Burton pushed for both his and Martin’s crew to move to a single compound and got it done.
“I always had Mark’s best interests at heart,” he narrated to the team media last month. “I was making sure that we both had the best cars we knew how to build.”
The camaraderie that Martin found in Hendrick Motorsports
The two-time Southern 500 winner did not lack strong professional friendships during his time at Hendrick Motorsports. He spent three full-time seasons operating out of the team’s HQ in Charlotte and was left in awe of the bonding between the crews.
He continued, “With Jimmie Johnson when he was on fire, and of course, Jeff Gordon and Dale Jr. Chad [Knaus] would show us what he had in his car. Everything. The air pressure and whatnot.” The transparency did not mean that either driver had to follow what was in the other’s car.
They were all left to their individual choices and it served them all differently. Martin’s final race in the Cup Series came in 2013 under the banner of Stewart-Haas Racing. Currently 65 years old, he represents one of the best eras of stock car racing.
