Mark Martin went over his 2012 Pure Michigan 400 crash in an interview with Kenny Wallace Media. He shared that the wreck wouldn’t have been ‘survivable’ if his door panel had been the point of impact.
Martin was racing part-time that season, making his 15th start of the year on pole. He’d led for the most part as well, before a few lapped cars caused the leaders to bunch up. Consequently, Kasey Kahne made contact with Martin’s rear, sending them both spinning off-track.
While Kahne spun out on the grass, Martin wasn’t so lucky. His No.64 Toyota got turned over and was heading towards a pit wall opening, right next to Kahne’s pit box. Upon impact, the walls cut through the frame rail just inches behind Martin’s door panel.
Meanwhile, Kahne’s pit crew jumped away to avoid further incident. Martin’s rear housing momentarily caught fire before safety workers put it out. The Hall of Famer outlined the whole ordeal and said,
“Once I saw that I was going to hit the wall, it looked like it was going to hit in the door. If it hit the door bars, it may not have been survivable. It was going to be such a jolt, you know, so hard, you know, that I just don’t know.”
“But lucky for me, it went right behind the door bars, right behind the rear hoop, and just absorbed. You know, it went all the way through there. But if it would have hit the door bars, it would have stopped the car so fast that I think the whip would have been really bad. I don’t know about the crush on the door bars, I was more concerned about the whip that was going to happen, so everybody was really freaked out when they saw that. And you know, for me, it was. I was just pissed because we couldn’t lose that race,” he added.
Greg Biffle ended up winning the race, while Kahne finished in the podium places. It would’ve been Mark Martin’s 41st Cup Series win and made him the oldest race winner, surpassing Harry Gant’s record. Notably, Gant’s last win in 1992 came at the same track.
Mark Martin recalls scouting Matt Kenseth for Jack Roush
During a recent interview with Kenny Wallace Media, Mark Martin delved into his first impression of Matt Kenseth. The Wisconsin native had put up impressive wins in the Late Model Racing circuit.
Martin recalled how he’d urged Jack Roush to sign Kenseth after spending some time with him during a Busch Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.
“I left there, went straight to Jack, and I said, Jack, you’ve got to sign this guy. Matt Kenseth, I know you don’t have a spot for him. And Jack didn’t always, I’ll put it this way, he didn’t always do what I told him to do. He didn’t always listen to what I was trying to tell him, but this time, he did. And I was, man. I was not wrong. Matt Kenseth made me, made me proud.”
Matt Kenseth went on to claim the 2003 Cup Series championship with multiple rounds to spare. Notably, he’d won the title with consistent top-10 finishes and just a single win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
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