NASCAR Champion Mark Martin on Retirement, Racing, and What He Drives Now

In 31 years in NASCAR's Cup Series, he won 40 races and finished second in the standings five times. Martin also has five IROC championships. He retired in 2013.

By John Pearley Huffman
Mar 14, 2019
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Car and Driver: Are you enjoying your retirement?

Mark Martin: It's unbelievable. I spend most of my time fixing stuff. I really like to fix things on my motorcoach, but I actually ran out of things to fix on that, so I fix whatever else needs fixing. I make whatever I have look better. Make it nicer. Make it cleaner. I'm a little OCD about my stuff. I sold my airplane because over the last two years my wife and I have gone everywhere in the motorcoach just about. It's got all our stuff in it and it's like being at home.

What's the biggest difference about being retired?

I stay really busy. I've had to adapt to doing everything myself. I used to have help to do everything. Now anything I can't do myself, I have to recruit somebody to help me. I like jobs I can do by myself. I can dig in and get 'em done.

Are you keeping up with your legendary fitness regimen?

Absolutely. Five or six days a week in the gym. I train just as hard as I ever did. I've probably let my nutrition program slip a little since I'm not competing, but not that much. Makes life a lot easier when you're not so picky about your food. Now if I'm hungry and it's time to eat and it's fried chicken, well, I'll eat fried chicken. I haven't slipped so much. It's just that now I'm not a pain in the ass.

Is there anything you miss about being on the race circuit?

I don't miss anything about it to the point that it ever dawns on me. But if you dig a little deeper in that, it's an adjustment to not be worth a damn at anything. I like being good at something. When I was a kid growing up, I wasn't really worth a damn at anything until I started racing cars. And now I'm not worth a damn at anything again. I miss that and I miss seeing my car number at the top of the scoreboard. That was very euphoric for me. And I miss my compatriots and friends at the racetrack some. I didn't allow racing to be too much fun. Because I took it so seriously, it took a lot of the fun out of it. I looked at the guys I raced against as the best in the world. And in order to beat them, I had to do more than them. I had to work harder, I had to want it more, I had to pay more attention. That's a lot of pressure, and it was the focus of my life for 40 years. I don't see me competing at anything ever again.

Florian Nicolle

So it's a different you?

I'm wired up to be that intense, and not competing is a good thing right now. I'm really enjoying this next chapter in my life. It's a second life. That's what it feels like. I'm fully retired. There's not any way I would take a job. Of any kind. Broadcasting, you name it.

Do you still get recognized in public?

Yeah, but not nearly like I did. It's really calmed down a lot and that's great. I'm happier to be treated as just another person off the street rather than somebody who was a semicelebrity or whatever. I like being anonymous.

You're living in Arkansas?

I just moved to Montana. We're gonna do the summers in Montana and the winters in Indio, California, for now, until we decide to do something different. Montana summers are magnificent.

What do you drive every day?

A motorcoach, a Ford Explorer, a Ford F-150, a VW Bug, an Audi S5, and an Audi S6. Take your pick. The Audis are superbad. The S5 is totally customed out. I have a Ford GT on order, and it's supposed to be delivered in the spring.

Are you going to keep the GT in Montana and run it on the "Montanabahn" or in California?

I haven't decided. In Montana, they chip-seal the roads, so I'm not positive I want it up there.

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What stands out as your greatest accomplishment? All those IROC championships?

My accomplishment in the IROC series is the crown jewel of my career outside of being inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, which supersedes everything. But the most outstanding thing I ever did in a race car was done in those IROC cars. For some reason. I don't know why, that was the big deal. That was just magic for me.

Would your life today be different if you had won a NASCAR Cup title?

Absolutely not. That's what I try to tell people who still fret about it. I tried as hard as I could and I would have won one if I could, but I didn't. So why get twisted up about it? Move on. You know?

Is there anything you would have done differently?

I wish I was smarter. And I wish I was better, but I wasn't. But I don't know. Racing was so good to me. To have had the success I had was an incredible dream. I'm so grateful for it. You could convince me that I just dreamed it all. That it didn't really happen. I'm a forward-looking person. I've never looked back, ever. I'm not even sure I did all that stuff. All I can see is what's out in front of me.

From the March 2019 issue