Nascar Standout Martin Squirms Over His Biography

A biography, even one written with the subject’s OK, can get pretty personal. One of NASCAR’s top drivers is finding that out.

“Mark Martin, Driven to Race,” which will hit the bookstores next week, is an up-close account of Martin’s first 38 years.

“There’s a lot of stuff in this book that is embarrassing to me,” Martin said. “But because it is so accurate, it had to be.

“There are a lot of things that embarrass me that I have done in my life, and there are a few things that people around me have done that have embarrassed me. Most of that stuff is in here. It’s not sugar-coated.

“I felt like it will give some of my race fans today, who didn’t follow me 15 years ago, an opportunity to find out what made me what I am today.”

Martin said the book, written by motor sports journalist Bob Zeller, contained - among other things - a journal that he kept several years ago.

“It’s in my handwriting and it’s in my slang. That is very embarrassing,” he said. “I always thought I would hate for anyone to ever read that, but that’s part of it.

“And there are other things that I am not going to elaborate on because that just puts a big red pointer right to those areas. I hope people kind of breeze right through that and it doesn’t sink in.”

Hitching a ride

Newman-Haas teammates Christian Fittipaldi and Michael Andretti are still getting a chuckle out of the reaction to the unusual finish of their race day a year ago at Road America.

Fittipaldi, who had fallen out of the race, hitched a ride back to the pit lane on the Elkhart Lake, Wis., road course with the race-winning Andretti, hanging on for dear life.

“I was on the sidepod, holding on the roll hoop,” Fittipaldi said with a laugh. “I was punching Michael because he was driving so quick and I was almost falling off the car.

“He didn’t realize how quick he was going because he was strapped up in the car and driving in first gear, but very slowly. I was just holding on… . These cars aren’t meant to be passenger cars. I know that for sure now.”

Andretti said, “He probably won’t even get in a street car with me now.”

Title search

The Indy Racing League championship will be decided on Oct. 11 at Las Vegas, where Tony Stewart is the odds-on favorite.

Stewart has only a 254-244 lead over Davey Hamilton. But, if neither of them win at Las Vegas and bonus points don’t come into play, Hamilton would have to beat Stewart by 11 positions to pass him for the title.

Third-place Eddie Cheever will be eliminated from title contention if Stewart simply starts the final race of the IRL’s second season.

Young Foyt

There’s another Foyt on the horizon, and this one may be heading for a drag racing career.

Anthony Joseph Foyt IV, the 13-year-old grandson of four-time Indianapolis 500 winner A.J. Foyt Jr., recently got all the way to the finals of the NHRA Jr. Drag Racing League age-group competition before losing to Kyle Rizzoli of San Luis Obispo, Calif.

The youngest Foyt is the son of Tony Foyt, who chose training horses over driving race cars. A.J.’s two oldest boys, Jerry and Larry, are trying to make a name for themselves in Formula Fords.

Hitting hard

NASCAR Online, the internet web site of the stock car sanctioning body, is the 15th most popular news-information-entertainment web site accessed by home computers, according to PC-Meter, which measures such things.

During the month of July, NASCAR Online recorded a new high of 79,993,454 hits, including a record of more than 7.4 million on Sunday, July 20. The previous record for hits in a day was just over 5 million, set on June 1.