Mark Martin has visited victory lane on many occasions during his 26 year plus NASCAR career.  In fact, the veteran of 700 Cup starts has hoisted NASCAR trophies more times than he can recall. However, his victory in the 1998 inaugural Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS) is one of the few instances where Martin allowed himself to take a moment and reflect on the accomplishment. 

Mark Martin makes his 701st start at Vegas, and looking for his first win since 2005

“Very rarely in my career have I allowed myself to stop for a second and think about a win,” said Martin, who will make his first start at Vegas for Dale Earnhardt Inc. this Sunday. “I was always a lot more focused on the next race or what we needed to do to get better.

“But that day as we left the track, I can remember looking down from the helicopter at the track and thinking, “wow.” This wasn’t some dirt track win. It was a big deal to win at Vegas and we had done just that. It was and still is a very special win for me.”

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the inaugural Cup run at Las Vegas and Martin’s victory. He led 82 laps en route to the win, the 23rd of his career. It would be the first of a career-high seven for Martin during the 1998 season. The victory would also kick off one of the most successful runs in LVMS history, becoming the first of a series-high eight top-10 finishes for Martin at the 1.5-mile track.

In fact, in 10 starts at LVMS Martin has finished inside the top five 50 percent of the time, including a fifth-place result in last year’s event.  No other driver has scored as many points at the D-shaped oval and 72 of his career 258 laps led there have come in his last two races.

“Really it’s hard to believe it has been 10 years since that win,” said Martin. “I’ve always loved the track at Las Vegas and we’ve had some great runs there over the years. We have not been able to get back to victory lane, but we’ve been really fast.”

In addition to Martin’s accolades in the Cup series at Las Vegas, he boasts two wins, two poles and four top-10 finishes in four starts in the Nationwide Series, including a win in his 2005 start. He will make his first Nationwide start at the track since then this Saturday behind the wheel of the No. 5 Chevrolet.

Martin started the inaugural race in 1998 with a brand new team and uncertain promise. This year he will do the same, as he sits behind the wheel of the No. 8 U.S. Army/Dale Earnhardt Inc. Chevrolet for just the third time. He would like nothing more than to make his return to the Vegas victory lane – 10 years after his first visit.

“Tony Gibson, this No. 8 team and everyone at Dale Earnhardt Inc., have been awesome to work with,” said Martin. “They’re really on their game and they are a great group of guys to work with. We missed the setup and were a little off at California last week, but not one person on this team gave up. I like the fight that I see in this team, and I know we have some really good runs ahead of us. I’m confident we can win races and it would be really cool to get the first one this weekend in Las Vegas.”

Career Sprint Cup Starts

Year	Age	Races	Win	Top 5	Top 10	Pole	Laps	Led	Earnings	Rank	Avg Start	Avg Finish
1981	22	5 of 31	0	1	2	2	1478	76	$13,950	43	3.6	15.0
1982	23	30 of 30	0	2	8	0	7450	4	$115,600	16	15.1	19.5
1983	24	16 of 30	0	1	3	0	4130	1	$99,665	30	15.6	21.0
1986	27	5 of 29	0	0	0	0	1342	0	$20,515	48	15.2	21.8
1987	28	1 of 29	0	0	0	0	68	0	$3,550	103	41.0	39.0
1988	29	29 of 29	0	3	10	1	7605	123	$189,400	30	11.5	19.1
1989	30	29 of 29	1	14	18	6	9010	480	$605,878	3	5.3	10.7
1990	31	29 of 29	3	16	23	4	9636	451	$803,095	31	5.4	6.6
1991	32	29 of 29	1	14	17	5	8907	663	$805,105	102	7.9	12.0
1992	33	29 of 29	2	10	17	1	8954	533	$809,505	21	8.1	12.4
1993	34	30 of 30	5	12	19	5	9381	1349	$1,151,890	3	8.8	11.6
1994	35	31 of 31	2	15	20	1	9549	733	$1,059,237	2	8.1	11.7
1995	36	31 of 31	4	13	22	4	9393	740	$1,499,446	4	8.4	10.7
1996	37	31 of 31	0	14	23	4	9064	702	$1,500,555	5	8.8	11.3
1997	38	32 of 32	4	16	24	3	9597	798	$1,806,550	3	11.0	9.0
1998	39	33 of 33	7	22	26	3	9830	1730	$2,998,870	2	8.9	8.6
1999	40	34 of 34	2	19	26	1	9903	700	$2,652,296	3	8.2	9.4
2000	41	34 of 34	1	13	20	0	9240	493	$2,663,605	8	11.0	13.6
2001	42	36 of 36	0	3	15	2	10138	190	$3,419,897	12	15.6	17.9
2002	43	36 of 36	1	12	22	0	10517	363	$4,183,150	2	16.0	12.2
2003	44	36 of 36	0	5	10	0	9544	159	$3,951,043	17	20.7	20.3
2004	45	36 of 36	1	10	15	0	10403	465	$3,792,997	4	15.3	13.8
2005	46	36 of 36	1	12	19	0	10306	324	$4,823,833	4	15.5	13.2
2006	47	36 of 36	0	7	15	0	10455	292	$4,142,613	9	16.1	14.3
2007	48	24 of 36	0	5	11	0	6405	67	$3,913,668	27	16.3	14.5
2008	49	2 of 36	0	0	0	0	450	0	$430,054	24	14.0	23.5
26 years		700	35	239	385	42	202755	11436	$47,455,967		12.7	15.1