Mark Martin is rooting for Denny Hamlin right now because he knows how hard it is to defy the odds and overcome Father Time when he starts working against a high level athlete.
The 2017 Hall of Fame inductee says he was first drawn to Hamlin because he’s started to see something of a baby face turn from a driver that was long established as something of a heel, and he lived that when he watched Darrell Waltrip become the same thing in the late 80s and early 90s.
But Martin also was winning Cup races through his 50th birthday in 2009 and really appreciates what Hamlin is starting to do right now at 45.
“So many people have changed the way they feel about him and he’s one of the greatest drivers ever,” Martin said on Tuesday during a media availability at NASCAR Productions. “I don’t care what car he drove, you look at his numbers and it’s some of the greatest ever, and I appreciate that he can win a race at 45 because most winners can’t win races at 45.
“It’s pretty damn cool. When he said after the race that he’s working hard, I believe it because I think it’s harder now to win at 50 than it was when I did it and it was hard then.”
So, with all of that said, what does Martin think Hamlin needs to be most prepared for as he continues to age while still seeking wins and an elusive championship that evaded them both over their careers.
“So, I still had speed,” Martin said. “At 54, I sat on the pole at Phoenix and I was running (with Rodney Childers) and it was not a slow car, it was rocket fast, but my race craft had been suffering for years.”
This next part is a metaphor.
“I’ve got a 15-year-old iPad and it was fast when I got it but now it’s so slow that it’ unusable. That same thing happens to your processor. I don’t know it happens differently for different people but I knew it. I could feel the difference in 2009 from 1989 even though I was winning races and still had great race craft.
“I still could tell and by 2013, it was blatantly obvious to me, even if it wasn’t to you because I had lived in this world of such heightened senses. I drove a race car off of what I felt, not what I saw, and when you process all of that stuff, I’m sorry it just slows down and it’s slower now, because my processor is even slower now than it was in 2013.”
So what Martin did is also what Hamlin has done in recent years.
“I stayed incredibly fit,” he said. “I kept the desire to win. That’s the only reason I took Rick Hendrick’s third attempt to hire me for the 5 car because I almost won twice in the (Dale Earnhardt Inc.) 8 car and had the car to beat at Phoenix and Pocono when we had to pit for fuel, so I could taste it.
“I wanted to feel that one more time because it’s euphoric and I can’t describe it to you what it feels like to win or what it felt like to me but I knew after the last one that I would never experience that again.
“The way Denny looks, he could go another five years, and I know he probably won’t but it’s just harder now. Look at Kevin Harvick. It’s just harder when you get in your 40s, your mid-40s, and he’s one of the greatest to ever do it too. There are exceptions to this and Denny Hamlin is the exception right now.”
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