Go ahead, make all the old-man-driving and leaving-the-blinker-on jokes you want. Mark Martin doesn't care. He's too busy racing.
Martin, age 52, announced Wednesday that he'll run in both the Nationwide and Trucks series for Turner Motorsports. Martin has raced in NASCAR going on four decades now, or about 10 years longer than most of his competition.
Martin will run the No. 32 for Nationwide races at Vegas, California, Michigan and Kentucky. He'll take the same number out on the track in Michigan and Pocono.
"The races we picked for both series are personal favorites of mine," Martin said in announcing the races. "I'd love to win another Truck race, and I've got to get back to victory lane in the Dollar General car so I can keep Kyle [Busch] from breaking my Nationwide record."
In 21 years on the Nationwide circuit, Martin has run 231 races and won a series-record 48 times. (Busch has 43 wins, and should pass Martin this year one way or another.) In four seasons in trucks, Martin's run 23 races and won seven times.
Bottom line, this is a very cool gesture by Martin, a way of drawing attention to Turner and shepherding along some younger drivers. You see a guy like Martin alongside you on the track, you're going to pay attention to how he does it.
Just make sure you're not on his lawn when he gets back home.
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