Martin, new sponsor look to grab elusive championship

Friday, March 2, 2001 | 10:44 a.m.

Mark Martin has won 32 races in his 18-year NASCAR Winston Cup career, but he counts his victory in the inaugural Las Vegas Winston Cup race in 1998 as among his biggest.

And it had nothing to do with the $313,000 paycheck Martin earned for the win.

"In 1997, I had a championship-caliber team that finished third in the points standings and won four races and I left that team and started a brand-new team with a brand-new car and moved the shop (to Mooresville, N.C.).

"It was all new and we win the third race out of the gate -- that's probably a better record than anybody in NASCAR."

Martin tested at LVMS in late January and finished his two-day session ninth fastest among the Winston Cup teams that tested. But he left Las Vegas still searching for more speed.

"We did a lot of hard work at the test," Martin said, "but there is still more to do. We didn't get off to the start we wanted on Monday and were pretty unhappy then. On Tuesday, we really made a lot of progress, but we're still not quite where we need to be.

"If you're not the fastest, you still have more to do."

Although Martin continues to drive for Roush Racing and the same team that got him to victory lane at LVMS in 1998, the 42-year-old Batesville, Ark., native has a sense he is making another new start this season.

After spending 12 seasons running the Valvoline colors, Martin's Ford Taurus begins its first season under the sponsorship of Pfizer Inc.'s Viagra brand.

Although Martin has heard all the jokes connected with Viagra, he insists the sponsorship is a serious matter.

"It's very fresh and exciting to be a part of a company that has given back so much to the race fans," Martin said. "I have never been a part of that before.

"This year, at Daytona and Rockingham, Pfizer gave approximately 2,000 free health screenings, check-ups, that these fans didn't have to make appointments for, didn't have to take off work and didn't have to pay for. That's pretty exciting."

For the second straight year, Pfizer will host a mobile screening unit at all Winston Cup races that will give fans free cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure and erectile dysfunction screenings.

Martin also is hoping his new sponsorship will help him achieve one of the goals that has eluded him throughout his career: a Winston Cup championship. Martin has finished second in the final points standings three times in his career and has nine top-five finishes in the championship.

Martin is off to a slow start this season, finishing 33rd in the Daytona 500 and 20th last weekend at Rockingham, but said he feels his team has all the ingredients to make a run for the championship this season.

"We have only run two races and we haven't had any good fortune in either one of those races but that doesn't have any major impact on the rest of the year," Martin said.

"I'm very happy with the cars that I have and with the team that I have. This is the best-looking stuff I have had in a while and everything within the team is as good or better than it ever has been."