By Sarah Handy, Staff Writer
In this week’s edition of Throwback Thursday, Kickin’ The Tires relives when NASCAR driver Mark Martin won the Goody’s Headache Powder 500 from Bristol Motor Speedway on August 22, 1998 for Roush Racing.
The 22nd race of the 1998 NASCAR Winston Cup season would be one of the most memorable yet emotional races for Roush Racing’s driver Mark Martin.
A couple weeks prior to the race at the track known as The Last Great Colosseum, Martin’s father Julian was tragically killed in a small plane crash in Nevada that he was piloting at the time.
Martin started the event at Bristol from the fourth position in his No. 6 Valvoline/Cummins Ford and would dominate the later part of the race.
He would lead a race high 190 laps, including the final 181 on the half-mile oval track.
Martin’s win at the time was his fifth of the 1998 season and 27th of his career.
Overall, during that season Martin saw victory lane seven times, and earned 22 Top-5s, 26 Top-10s, three pole awards and led 1,730 laps.
Career Update:
Mark Martin last raced in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in the 2013 season competing in 28 of 36 events with one Top-5, five Top-10s, 1 pole award and 98 laps led.
Martin’s Cup career consists of 40 wins, 271 Top-5s, 453 Top-10s, 53 pole awards, and 12,879 laps led in 882 starts.
He was a 2017 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee and is often refereed to as one of the best drivers to never win a championship in NASCAR’s premiere series.
