Mark Martin began his stock car racing career at the age of 15 on the local Arkansas dirt tracks. He won his first race in only his third start, and the Arkansas state championship in his first year of racing in 1974. He moved up to the V-8 division in 1976 and began racing on asphalt later that year. His success continued, and by 1977 he began competing in the ASA series against drivers such as Rusty Wallace, Bobby Allison and Dick Trickle. He became the ASA Rookie of the Year in 1977, and then went on to win three consecutive championships from 1978-80.

Martin ran five NASCAR Winston Cup races in 1981, which began laying the groundwork for his first full season in 1982. He had an impressive rookie year with eight top-10 finishes, although he never received payment from his sponsor. Unable to fund the team himself, Martin auctioned off everything in his shop in April 1983. He ran a limited Winston Cup schedule for different owners that year before returning to the ASA series. He ran the ASA series from 1984-86. Martin was paired with crew chief Jimmy Fennig in 1985 and claimed another championship in 1986. Little did Martin know that he and Fennig would be reunited as driver and crew chief in 1996 at Roush Racing.

Martin decided to take one more shot at NASCAR racing in 1987 when he drove a full-season Busch Grand National schedule for Bruce Lawmaster. It was Mark’s victory at Dover that year that sparked the attention of Jack Roush. Roush was preparing to begin his own Winston Cup team for 1988 and selected Martin to be his driver. Since then, Martin and Roush have achieved everything just short of a Winston Cup title. Together they have earned 32 Winston Cup victories and finished second in the point standings three times (1990, 1994 & 1998).