The Old Guy does it AGAIN!

Have I mentioned previously that I love Mark Martin? If not, here's notice - I love Mark Martin. Crusty Old Fart of NASCAR. Just love it. Him. Them.

The man is SO good at what he does, with a terrific team behind him. His FIRST win at New Hampshire puts him in the lead for the Cup...whoa! Told My Chief he needs to buy me a new twenty dollar hat...cuz I am a BIG fan.

Enough for now, back to puttering around the house.

Mark Martin is still nifty at FIFTY!

My Favorite Old Guy does it AGAIN! Hot damn and congratulations, Mark, thanks for cheering up my Saturday!

From Fanhouse.com -

"I'm going to feel like hell tomorrow because I ain't going to sleep much tonight,'' Martin said on Saturday night. "When I'm pumped up driving fast race cars, I certainly don't feel 50.''

He's far from the sunset of his career and proved it under the lights on the 1.5-mile track.

From Chicago Tribune online -

The close-cropped stubble on his head contains as much salt as pepper, and the wrinkles run across Mark Martin's face like long-ago dried-up riverbeds. And for a while, twilight racing had a far less poetic meaning, semi-retirement leaving him with a loose grip on the track.

So it was with unmistakable giddiness that a man a half-century old took to the radio early in the LifeLock.com 400 on Saturday, his Chevrolet efficiently chopping through traffic and turning the Chicagoland Speedway's 1.5-mile tri-oval into a veritable senior circuit.

"This is easy, bud," Martin told crew chief Alan Gustafson.

He spoke far, far too soon, as double-file restart dueling extinguished his well-earned lead and then returned it to him, all in the final 50 laps.

"Rick Hendrick, he wouldn't quit," Martin said of the team owner who coaxed him back to full-time driving this year. "I was persuaded to do it. And I can't believe what an idiot I would have been. I had no idea it could be this much fun. The whole thing has been beyond my dreams."

• "He's been in his prime for 30 years now."
- Tony Stewart on Mark Martin

My Favorite Old Guy does it again!

Bob's Bites has the story...and what a story it is. Thanks, Bob, I love that picture!

If it's true that you're as young as you feel, Mark Martin oughta feel like a young gun tonight. That ol gunslinger hasn't had the young'uns after him. He got respect from the whippersnappers, including ones he's known since they were in Pampers, but no one worried about him stealing their thunder. He's old, he even semi-retired...but that means diddly when you're the one taking the checkered flag AGAIN!!!

Is he a threat to win the Cup? I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand, that's fer damn sure. He is a DRIVER!

One other quick thing - I really get interested when they start worrying about running out of gas. It adds another something that keeps me on the edge of my seat and the unpredictability makes me CRAZY!!! But in a good way.