NASCAR Cup

Daytona 500: Martin "Speedweeks" preview

MARTIN EYES ONE MORE SHOT AT DAYTONA 500 Mark Martin and the AAA Race Team look to take their shot at the famed Daytona 500, as Martin prepares for 22nd run at the world's most famed racing event Chassis Number: (No. 284) - The team will run ...

Published: Feb 10, 2006, 7:02 PM

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MARTIN EYES ONE MORE SHOT AT DAYTONA 500

Mark Martin and the AAA Race Team look to take their shot at the famed Daytona 500, as Martin prepares for 22nd run at the world's most famed racing event

Chassis Number: (No. 284) - The team will run RK-284 in the Daytona 500. RK-284 is a new car that tested to pleasing results at Daytona in January. They will run RK-337 in the Budweiser Shootout. RK-337 will see its first track time at Daytona.

Worthy Note: Martin has finished top six in three of his last four Daytona 500's.

AAA TO SPONSOR THE NO. 6 IN 2006
Martin will sport a different look and sponsor this season, with the No. 6 Ford Fusion decked in the red and blue colors of AAA. As North America's largest motoring and leisure travel organization, AAA boasts more than 48 million members.

MARTIN AT DAYTONA
A resident of Daytona Beach, Florida, this will be Martin's 22nd start in the Daytona 500. In addition, Martin - who made his first start at Daytona International Speedway in 1982 - will also be running a record 18th-consecutive Budweiser Shootout - an event he won in 1999. The Daytona 500 will be Martin's 41st career Nextel Cup start at Daytona International Speedway.

TRIPLE DUTY
Martin will find himself quite busy this Speedweeks, taking part in the five different races. Between the Craftsman Truck Series, Gatorade 150's, IROC Race, Budweiser Shootout and Daytona 500, Martin will look to run a scheduled 470 laps and 1,175 miles during the 2006 Speedweeks.

MARTIN READIES FOR ENCORE SALUTE IN '06
Martin had planned last season as his final in NASCAR's Nextel Cup Series, but when called into action by Jack Roush opted to return for one more go around. Martin's fourth-place finish in the points in '05 proved he is still one of the fastest stars in NASCAR and he plans on using 2006 as an encore performance of his highly popular 'Salute To You" Tour, where he will continue to take the time to thank each and everyone that he feels played a role in his success, including the team members, the fans, NASCAR and the media.

QUOTING MARK AND PAT --ON DAYTONA SPEEDWEEKS

"We are pretty excited about this year's Speedweeks. We are going to be really busy this year with the Daytona 500, Bud Shootout and the Truck and IROC races. It's a lot of racing and that's what we are going there to do and it should give us a great chance to hopefully pick up a couple of more trophies.

"We are also really excited about kicking off our new relationship with AAA as the primary on the No. 6 car and it should be exciting to debut the all new Ford Fusion as well. The AAA Ford Fusion looks really good and I can't wait to get it out on the track and hopefully we can take it to victory lane real soon. We've been coming to Daytona a long time and we'd like nothing better than to take the No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion to victory lane in the biggest race of the season."

PAT TRYSON

"We had a pretty good test session at Daytona in January and we are excited about going back down to Daytona and seeing what we can do. We've been pretty good at Daytona the last few years and we had a really good run in the 500 last year, so hopefully we can build on that and help give Mark a win in his last Daytona 500. We are excited to have AAA on board this season as the sponsor and hopefully we'll be taking that AAA Ford Fusion to winner's circle a lot this year."

-rr-

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