Longevity and performance are hallmarks in the career of Mark Martin (No. 5 Quaker State/GoDaddy.com Chevrolet) due to celebrate his 800th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start in Sunday’s Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway. Watch Mark Martin talk about racing at Martinsville.
Martin’s signature start comes nearly to the day of his first NASCAR Sprint Cup appearance (April 5, 1981) at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway where the then 22-year-old Batesville, Ark., native finished 27th.
Over the course of 29 seasons, Martin has:
• Won 40 NASCAR Sprint Cup races and posted 96 victories across three national series, tops among active drivers.
• Finished among the top three in NASCAR Sprint Cup points standings nine times, most recently in 2009 when he finished second.
• Martin is only the eighth NASCAR Sprint Cup competitor to reach the 800-start plateau and likely will pass Darrell Waltrip (seventh with 809) and Kyle Petty (fifth with 829) later this year. His combined 1,055 national-series starts are second only to the 1,185 appearances of NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty.
Martin isn’t the only NASCAR Sprint Cup driver celebrating career milestones at Martinsville.
• Greg Biffle (No. 3M Ford) and Jamie McMurray (No. 1 Widia Chevrolet) will mark career starts No. 300. Biffle, a former NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion, will make his 625th national series appearance.
• Tony Stewart (No. 14 Office Depot Chevrolet) remains one top-10 shy of career No. 250.
Additionally, Kyle Busch could reach yet another lap-leader milestone in the Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500. Busch, who celebrated his 10,000 NASCAR Nationwide Series lap led on March 19 at Bristol Motor Speedway, is 332 laps from leading his 20,000th across the three natio
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