Burton comments on Martin

UPDATE When PRN's Garage Pass host Mark Garrow asked Martin Martin's response to Jeff Burton's quote that he would bet Martin couldn't pass up a chance to run for the championship Martin joked "He's going to be broke if he's betting." In other words Burton had better not bet the house. "He better not, " laughed Martin. "That's a big house he's got." He added, "I don't have any plans to run the full schedule. I'm thrilled with what I'm doing and I certainly wouldn't want to spoil it by tampering with the formula. The formula is real good right now. I'll let y'all have fun with it but you know I haven't changed my mind. I'm ready for a weekend off already." When asked what would happen if car owner Bobby Ginn came to him and asked him to run for the championship? "That's not going to happen. He won't do that. That's why I'm happy here. I'm really in a good place in my life. I feel I've taken stock of my career and my personal life and I'm really blessed with all the things I've got going." PRN's Garage Pass radio show

02/28/07 Mark Martin signed up to run 22 races in the #01 US Army Chevy in 2007. However, with his success in the first two races cause him to re-think that plan? “I’d bet almost anybody right now today that Mark Martin runs all 38 races" said fellow driver and long-time friend #31-Jeff Burton. “Matt Kenseth and I told him before the Daytona 500 that we both bet that he would run every race. I believed it before the year started and I believe it even more today." Burton felt all along that if Martin would be up front competing for wins it would be almost impossible for him to give up his ride to Regan Smith for 16 races. “I know him really well" said Burton. “I hate to use this analogy but he’s like a drug addict that can’t get away from it…and that’s a horrible analogy but this is an addicting thing and when you’re having success it’s much, much harder to walk away. The only way that he wouldn’t is if they’d gone to Daytona and got in a wreck or gone to California and had some kind of problem. Mark Martin isn’t going to have a car owner look him in the eye and say, “Hey, we have a chance to win a championship and him say well I’m not riding. I know he’s not going to. He can say all he wants to but he’s not scheduled to run Bristol but who’s doing the Bristol test? Mark Martin." While the official Bristol scoring rundown indicates Regan Smith was testing both US Army cars, Martin was in fact turning laps in the teams’ “A" machine. PRN's Garage Pass radio show