Mark Martin finally get's his Crown Jewel

I was a little kid when a first heard about this new guy from Arkansas coming into racing with a new car owner.  My dad worked at Winn Dixie in the same small-town his in-laws were from and I quickly became a fan of Mark Martin in 1988.

I didn't go for Mark Martin for the winning, the moving people out of the way, I went for Mark because he was a true class act on and off the race track from the first time I met him until now and that is why he truly deserves to be in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.  You can look at Mark Martin's statistics, he's got 40 wins in the premier division of NASCAR, 56 poles, finished second in the points standings 5 times, won 49 NASCAR Xfinity Series races, and 7 Camping World Truck Series, and 4 ASA championships.

Yet it's not those numbers that I think make this guy a Hall of Famer.  I met Mark at Winn Dixie in a autograph signing in 1991 and he told me I've got one word for you if you want to make it in racing "Commitment." I seen all of Mark's ups, and all of his downs throughout his entire racing career, from winning his first race at Rockingham in 1989 with the Strohs Light Thunderbird, losing two very close championship battles with Dale Earnhardt and Tony Stewart due to points being taken away by NASCAR. 

Who knows, had Mark Martin raced like Dale Earnhardt he might have had a couple of

championships but it just wasn't his style of racing.  However it is what made me a fan from the first time I seen him.  I always put a strong believe it isn't the size of the man but his character that makes him who he is, and Mark Martin is a giant of a man when it comes to that.  It makes this year's Darlington throwback car with Trevor Bayne even more special considering the tribute it will be making to a Hall of Fame driver this season.  Mark Martin won 3 times with that paint scheme in 1997. 

Back to that commitment.  He told me it was a promise to yourself to do the very best at what you are good at to get you where you want to be.  I'll never forget being a kid and meeting this man, back then he was my hero I always looked up to because of things just like today when he was interviewed by NBC NASCAR America.  Mark felt many other guys should have gone in the Hall Of Fame before he did, but he was well deserving of it.  It's not just the W's in the column that make get you that jacket, it's respect, dignity and commitment.