No. 55 The Dominant Car Throughout Weekend Until Scary Accident Ended Race For Martin
CORNELIUS, N.C. — Mark Martin dominated testing, won the pole and led every lap except during pit stop sequences at Michigan International Speedway in August.
Unfortunately, that 200-lap race ended on lap 65 for the Michael Waltrip Racing driver.
Slower cars collected Martin’s car in an accident that sent the No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine sliding into pit lane where he speared the end of pit wall. All the damage came behind the driver’s side door so Martin escaped uninjured but it ruined a bid to win his sixth race at the two-mile, D-shaped oval in Brooklyn, Mich.
MARTIN ON LAST MICHIGAN RACE: “Man, we were rolling. What a hot rod. I remember how good we were in testing, practice, the pole and in the race. You dream of racing a car like I had in August. We think we had them covered that weekend. Some cars got together in the race and we got jammed up and slid toward pit lane. I hit the wall at a pretty freak angle. It could have been really bad if I would have got in that hole a little deeper where it caught me in the door instead of in the crush area back there. I was hoping that I was going to miss the pit wall completely and not tear the car up, but then I saw that the angle I was going that I was going to hit the end of pit wall. I never thought about getting on the other side of pit wall. I think that would have been hard at the angle that I was coming, but that certainly would not have been good.”
AFTERMATH: “I was wondering why everyone was talking about that wreck. Everyone seemed kind of excited. When I got home and finally saw it on television I understood. It looked pretty spectacular the way it hit the end of the wall, but these cars are amazingly safe and I was fine.”
MICHIGAN 2013: “I love Michigan. It’s like a big short track. The track lends itself to the guys who focus on the handling of their race cars. That’s always been my specialty. The cars are different this year so I don’t know if we’ll repeat last year’s performance. We’ll just have to see how we stack up against the competition.”
NOTES:
· CHASSIS: 776 has not raced in 2013.
· MICHIGAN STATS: In 54 starts, Martin owns five victories and 18 top-five finishes. He’s led 965 laps and won two poles. He won the pole for the August race. Bill Elliott leads the series in starts at Michigan with 61. Terry Labonte leads all active drivers with 55 starts; followed by Martin with 54.
· CAREER STATS: Martin owns 40 Sprint Cup, 49 Nationwide and seven Camping World Truck Series victories. He’s led 12,856 laps in Sprint Cup competition. Martin has started 866 Sprint Cup races, 236 Nationwide races and 25 truck events. The 96 combined wins is sixth on the all-time list. He also owns 13 IROC wins in 47 starts.
· MWR POLES: Martin owns five poles in 35 races with MWR. He is seventh on the all-time pole list with 56 poles including one in 2013 at Phoenix.
· SOCIAL STOP: Make MWR’s “Social Stop” your second screen to follow all the racing and social media action when the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races this weekend. MWR’s “Social Stop” goes live race morning allowing fans to view information from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube all on one page. Twitter feeds from MWR drivers, media members and NASCAR fans will populate the page. Visitors can also interact with fellow race fans and answer poll questions on the page. Visit www.facebook.com/michaelwaltripracing or click www.MichaelWaltripRacing.com/social
· VOTE FOR No. 55 TRUCK DRIVER GLENN SHANO: Freightliner held the third round of the Freightliner Run Smart Hauler Challenge in Charlotte. Now it’s time to vote the eliminated drivers back into the competition for the fourth round. The No. 55’s Glenn Shano needs votes to re-enter the final round of competition at Kentucky. You can vote for Shano once daily at Voting ends June. 21.
· NO. 55 CREW
Crew Chief – Rodney Childers
Car Chief – Steve Channing
Front Changer – Ryan Langley
Rear Changer – Shannon Myers
Front Carrier – Chris Hall
Rear Carrier – Mark Kennerly
Jackman – Tony Cardamone
Gas man – Brian Dheel
2nd Gas Man- Josh Galloway
Spotter – Jeremy Brickhouse
Engineer – Billy Scott
2nd Engineer – Scott McDougall
Tires – Kevin White
Eng.Tuner- Denny Chandler (TRD)
Shocks – Mike (Nook) McCarville
Interior/7th man- Jacen Johns
Truck Driver – Glenn Shano
2nd Truck Driver – John Murphy
Pit Coach – Greg Miller
Dir. Race Engineering—Chad Walter
Ex. VP Engineering- Nick Hughes
Ex. VP Comp.—Scott Miller
