NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks

Topics:  FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks

Mark Martin
May 15, 2011

DOVER, DELAWARE

THE MODERATOR: We welcome into the media center Mark Martin. Mark, this is your first top five of the season. Talk a little bit about the race today.
MARK MARTIN: It was another great race at Dover. Golly, I love this place. I always get excited about coming here to race. You know, we had a really fast racecar. Today we finally got a finish. Looked like we were going to get 15th again with a really fast racecar. We've had a racecar this good a lot this year. Seems like for some reason or another we wind up in the back of the pack and we just don't have enough to climb our way back to the front.
This was a good race for us, great call by Lance, great teamwork. We've had great teamwork all year. I'm proud of this race team. I'm proud of these guys.
THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions for Mark Martin.

Q. Mark, Lance made the call to stay out. How good was your car after the green flag compared to how you expected it might have been?
MARK MARTIN: It was good. I feel like it could contend. I had enough speed to be right there without tires. We've had great teamwork all year. I'm proud of this race team, I'm proud of these guys.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Mark, Lance made the call to stay out. How good was your car after the green flag compared to how you expected it to be?
MARK MARTIN: It was good. I feel like it could contend. Matt had two tires there and had a little advantage on us for a little bit. Then after a little bit, we seemed to start breaking even. I know he had a little bit left. But I had enough speed to be right there without tires. All the guys behind me were dropping off.
You know, we've had racecars this good this year. Every time we turn around, something goes against us.
It was nice to have things go our way.

Q. Did you have a chance to discuss the call or was it just his?
MARK MARTIN: Next question.

Q. Mark, talk about how hard it was to catch somebody who is out in front?
MARK MARTIN: Well, like I said earlier this week, all the cars are almost the same speed, so it's incredibly difficult. This is the era of NASCAR racing that we have today. Twenty years ago, there weren't so many cars the same speed and passing and overtaking was easy. Not so easy now because you have the world's greatest drivers, 40 deep, 40 darn good racecars out there, too. That's to be expected.