#500 for Martin: #6-Mark Martin will make his 500th career start on the Winston Cup circuit this week at Bristol Motor Speedway in the Food City 500 on March 24, 2002. Martin first raced on the Winston Cup circuit in 1981, when he ran his self-owned car five times, claiming two poles, two top-10 finishes and one top-five. He made his Winston Cup debut on April 3, 1981 at North Wilkesboro Speedway at the age of 22. A few months later in only this third Winston Cup start, Martin captured the pole at Nashville. A few weeks later Martin captured his second career pole at Richmond. “I didn’t really realize that it was coming up on 500,” said Martin. “As a kid growing up in Arkansas, and being into racing, NASCAR was the cool thing to do. It has certainly changed a lot since the early days of my career.” In 1988 Martin teamed up with car owner Jack Roush and 15 years, 441 races and 32 wins later Martin is still running the #6 Roush Racing Ford Taurus(Roush Racing PR)(3-19-2002)
