96 race wins across the top-3 NASCAR National Touring Series, but no championships? That hardly justifies the greatness of Mark Martin. It’s no wonder the collective NASCAR community calls him the best driver to never win a major title at the highest level of professional stock car racing. But Mark Martin’s career was a marathon, not a sprint. Did you know he was the last driver born in the 1950s to win a Cup Series race in the Playoff era? And he’s probably the only person in NASCAR to feature on a Gucci Mane song. Mind you, “The Kid” is 65.  

But beyond that, Martin holds a one-of-a-kind distinction in auto racing. We’re talking about a record that puts him above guys like Dale Earnhardt, Al Unser Jr, AJ Foyt, and Mario Andretti. And he’s not one to downplay it either.

Mark Martin’s five IROC championships crush critics on social media

A photo recently made the rounds on Twitter, capturing Martin seated proudly beside one of his IROC championship trophies. Dressed in that legendary white True Value firesuit, the winningest IROC driver (13 race wins) beamed with a grin as timeless as his career. The Batesville, Arkansas native, quite the social media personality these days, retweeted that picture with a quote and a ‘thinking face’ emoji. “They say he never won a Championship though,” wrote Martin sarcastically. That signature confidence has won so many fans over the years, and it’s quite a welcome sight to see the legend hasn’t lost it.

Let’s put things into perspective a little. Mark Martin has raced against Richard Petty, and his namesake, a certain Richard Childress. He’s also raced against their respective grandsons, Adam Petty, and Austin Dillon. There is no way mere statistics could justify a career with feats like that. But if we’re talking numbers. Martin’s résumé isn’t just impressive; it’s almost mythical. Across 882 Cup Series starts over three decades, he racked up 40 wins and a staggering 453 top-10 finishes. Do the math, and you’ll realize he finished inside the top 10 in nearly half of the races he ever entered at NASCAR’s highest level.

Agreed, that non-champion tag is a glaring void in his enormous list of accolades. However, people often forget that Mark Martin is a five-time champion outside NASCAR. He’s been the championship bridesmaid five times in his Cup Series career. But in a lesser-talked-about series, once proudly known as the International Race of Champions (IROC), Martin was the King of the Hill, boasting five titles, with three back-to-back from 1996 to 1998. His nearest rival was ‘The Intimidator,’ hot in pursuit with four championships, followed by names like AJ Foyt and Al Unser Jr (two each).

He’s a born winner, even in ‘retirement,’ although you must know, Martin doesn’t necessarily enjoy the sentiments attached to that word. His five successful car dealerships under the Mark Martin Automotive Group umbrella are a testament to that notion. Regardless, earlier this year, the evergreen Hall of Famer made an IROC-worthy return to Lime Rock Park in Connecticut, as the series returned ‘spiritually’ for the first time in 18 years.

The winningest IROC driver silences detractors

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At the beginning of this year, former NASCAR team owners Ray Evernham and Rob Kauffman teamed up to form IROC Holdings LLC. The series, originally set up by Les Richter, Roger Penske, and Mike Phelps, ran from 1973 to 2006 with drivers from different motorsport disciplines such as NASCAR, IndyCar, Sports Car, and Sprint Car fighting for the ultimate prize. Mark Donohue won the first IROC championship; Tony Stewart won the last.

When the series shut down in the mid-2000s, it left behind a pocket of fans who always wished for a revival. So, once Tony Stewart and Ray Evernham agreed to begin the Superstar Racing Experience (SRX) together, based on the IROC concept in 2021, there was a beacon of hope for that demographic. Hope resonated again early this year when Evernham and Kauffman made waves by acquiring the IROC name. Then, the new consortium announced IROC’s first exhibition event in nearly two decades as part of the inaugural SpeedTour All-Star Classic weekend at Lime Rock Park, dated for July.

Mark Martin was one legend alongside Greg Biffle, Geoff Brabham, and Danny Sullivan, who did not race in the main event feature. Instead, they ran exhibition laps in their previous IROC vehicles. Martin wheeled his Number 14 1995 Dodge Avenger and reflected on his past achievements. He told George Tamayo of RACER.com, “I don’t like to toot my own horn,” he said.“But, you know, there are detractors out there that say, ‘Well, Earnhardt would have had more, if he would have lived longer.’ Whatever. Earnhardt ran more races than I did. He participated in more seasons than I did. Earnhardt was older than me. He was there way before me. So, it’s a real feather in my cap. Do you think Martin Brundle came from overseas to play around? You think that Al Unser Jr. would’ve got on a plane while he was at an IndyCar race on Saturday and flew to an IROC race somewhere across the country and then flew back to the IndyCar race for Sunday, if it didn’t mean something?” 

“It was racers racing, and there ain’t no such thing as 80%,” were Martin’s last words on the issue. Indeed, no IROC race was merely an ‘exhibition run at 80%.’ And the competition the 5x champ had to get past to claim his honors is evidence of that notion.