Mark Martin has 35 Cup wins in his career. Credit: Autostock

10 Questions: Martin

Mark Martin recently answered 10 questions not necessarily connected to his racing career.

1. What's at the bottom of your "honey do" list?

	Stats at a Glance Mark Martin's Cup record Year Races Wins Rank 1981 5 0 42 1982 30 0 14 1983 16 0 30 1986 5 0 47 1987 1 0 102 1988 29 0 15 1989 29 1 3 1990 29 3 2 1991 29 1 6 1992 29 2 6 1993 30 5 3 1994 31 2 2 1995 31 4 4 1996 31 0 5 1997 32 4 3 1998 33 7 2 1999 34 2 3 2000 34 1 8 2001 36 0 12 2002 36 1 2 2003 36 0 17 2004 36 1 4 2005 36 1 4 2006 30 0 3 Totals 668 35 --

Martin: I don't know. It's not because Arlene doesn't make me do a lot of stuff -- I just don't have a clue. It's not on my radar screen.

2. What are your favorite recent movie and your favorite all-time flick?

Martin: My favorite all-time flick is probably '48 Hours.' The last movie that I thought was really; really good was 'A Beautiful Mind.'

3. What is your favorite airport to fly into, and on the flip side of that, what's the most daunting airport to approach?

Martin: I really don't fly into daunting airports at this time. But that would be out west, in the mountains. And I can't name 'em because I just don't know 'em -- I don't go there.

But my favorite is Spruce Creek -- my home airport. It would either be that or the one in Batesville, Ark. In those cases, amenities don't matter, it's coming home.

Where do we get the plane washed? I have people who work for me who keep that stuff clean. We don't use a water hose on my airplane -- we wipe ours down.

4. Which athlete outside of racing do you most admire?

Martin: You know, there are a lot of them -- most all of them. But maybe the guy I admire most would be Michael Jordan. I felt like he was greatly respected and was a great man -- a great athlete.

5. If you could trade places with anyone for a day, who would it be, and why?

Martin: You know, I just can't imagine that. I've got it pretty good in my life right now, so I don't know who I'd change with. It just doesn't come to mind.

6. What were your first job and your most vivid memory of it?

Martin: Well, outside of working for my dad, when I was a kid, my first job was a paper route, delivering papers in Batesville. I don't really remember how many customers I had -- maybe a few hundred.

It wasn't a deal I did on a bicycle -- it was on a motorcycle. But still, I was young, though -- maybe 12 or 13 years old. Basically, it taught me that I had to remember which houses got the paper and which ones didn't.

7. What would you consider to be your biggest guilty pleasure?

Martin: Oh, it's definitely food, or something food-related. Luckily, my percentage of giving in and ending up feeling guilty is about one percent.

8. What's your best memory of your hometown?

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Martin: Just that it's home. My memory of my hometown is whatever the definition of your home is. It was home to me when I was a kid, so that's my memory of it and it's something that will always be special to me.

9. You seem more optimistic this year, so why the change?

Martin: One of the things that changed the way I look at things is, Kenny Wallace called me a pessimist. I said I was done with that and I'm a man of my word. I am a realist, but my glass is not half empty, it's all the way full.

I have bad days, and I'm hard on myself, and I'm a fierce competitor. I've been mad more times this year than I have any year of my career because I'm such a fiery competitor -- but my glass is all the way full.

I've done more and experienced more and been blessed with more than I ever dreamed. Now, to answer your question about being less optimistic or at least more level -- the bottom line is I have to protect myself. I can't be like Rusty Wallace.

Rusty Wallace said before every race he ever drove, 'I'm gonna win.' That would break my heart because if I said that, I would believe it -- and he didn't win every race. He won a lot of races, more than I did, but he didn't win every one of them and I can't deal with that.

Disappointment has been a big part of my career and for me to deal with the disappointments that I have in my career, I can't expect to win [every] Sunday. I can't deal with that. What I can expect is to run good and to give everything we've got -- and if I do that and we win, it's a great day.

If I do that and we don't win, then I did just what I said I was gonna do: I was gonna give it everything that I had. So that's sort of how I've dealt with that stuff.

10. What have you learned about yourself in the last year?

Martin: I've learned that I don't know nearly as much as I thought I did. It's not a case of a lot of other people thinking they know more -- it's a case that I realize that I don't know nothing, that's what it is.