NASCAR Cup
Mark Martin Bristol Review
BRISTOL, Tenn. (March 30, 1998) As usual, Bristol Motor Speedway lived up to its reputation as one of the toughest tracks on the NASCAR Winston Cup Series circuit this weekend, and Mark Martin needed a lot of skill and a little luck ...
Edited: May 8, 2001, 12:19 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
BRISTOL, Tenn. (March 30, 1998)
As usual, Bristol Motor Speedway lived up to its reputation as one of the toughest tracks on the NASCAR Winston Cup Series circuit this weekend, and Mark Martin needed a lot of skill and a little luck to make it through the race with the Valvoline/Cummins Taurus in one piece following Sunday's Food City 500.
Martin's speed of 123.221 mph was fast enough for a ninth-place starting position for the 500-lap race.
"We got an early draw to qualify and the sun played havoc a little bit," Martin said. "We almost had a contender for the pole after the morning practice, but we were off a little bit after lunch. I was completely out of breath after those two laps. I didn't want to take the second one, but I did anyway."
Martin was able to avoid the accidents, which caused 14 cautions for 88 laps. The car was tight throughout the race. The Valvoline/Cummins team made air pressure, wedge and track bar adjustments during their pit stops to loosen up the car. Martin was better on long green-flag runs, but at Bristol, those are hard to find.
He was running in the top-10 for the first half of the race, until he got the long green flag run he was looking for. After pitting for four tires and a wedge adjustment on lap 217, Martin was ninth on lap 222. The race stayed green until lap 343, which allowed Martin to move up to third for much of that run. The car handled well until the next pit stop, when the new tires made the car tighten up again.
The team had great pit stops all day (most between 18-19 seconds), but they often lost a few positions to the cars that only took two tires. After the final yellow flag flew on lap 486, the race ended with a 10-lap shootout. Martin was sixth on the restart, but lost one position to his teammate, Jeff Burton, who took on new tires at the end. Martin finished seventh, leaving him seventh in points, but only 110 points out of first place.
"We had a good run," Martin said. "I'm pleased with a seventh-place finish considering the car was a little off all day. A little off at any other track is okay, but at Bristol it can put you a lap down before you know it. The points leaders didn't have a great day, so this turned out to be pretty good for us."
The NASCAR Winston Cup Series and NASCAR Busch Series Grand National Division make their second trip to Texas Motor Speedway this weekend. Martin won the inaugural Coca-Cola 300 last year.
Source: NASCAR Online
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Fontana Results (complete)
Next article Beverly Motorsports News
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jeff Burton
The wildest fights in modern NASCAR Cup history
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Bristol II
The wildest fights in modern NASCAR Cup history
Letarte says Dale Jr is “recovering and processing the situation”
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Letarte says Dale Jr is “recovering and processing the situation”
Jeff Burton: "I don't see anything easy" on the Charlotte Roval
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
Jeff Burton: "I don't see anything easy" on the Charlotte Roval
Latest news
NASCAR explains why they penalized Zane Smith after latest clash with Carson Hocevar
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
2 h
NASCAR explains why they penalized Zane Smith after latest clash with Carson Hocevar
Porsche boss Laudenbach says he is "not happy" with how things were handled by IMSA in 2026
IMSA
IMSA IMSA 2 h
Porsche boss Laudenbach says he is "not happy" with how things were handled by IMSA in 2026
Five things to watch out for at the F1 United States GP
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
3 h
Five things to watch out for at the F1 United States GP
KTM sees MotoGP 2027 as a fresh start: “We never had the chance to build a new bike”
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP 4 h
KTM sees MotoGP 2027 as a fresh start: “We never had the chance to build a new bike”
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe