Mark Martin Reveals Beautiful Letter From his Father to Ex-Driver Jack Ingram After Breaking His NASCAR Record

Recently, former NASCAR Cup driver Mark Martin posted a special hand-written letter from his father on social media. The contents of the letter was a special message to the late Jack Ingram, who raced between 1965 and 1981 in the Cup Series. Apparently, his father wrote the letter after Martin broke Ingram’s win record in the Busch Series.

The letter read, “I appreciate the things you said about Mark in the Winston Cup scene. You don’t know me, I’m Mark’s dad. I admired you a lot when you were racing. I used to tell people you were my idol for nailing that guy head on and getting parked by NASCAR. I also felt pain for you when you lost your son.”

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“Mark and I both know how you had to work to do what you did. We also raced in one state tonight and another one tomorrow, and overhauled the cars and haulers in the parking lot. I didn’t realize at the time, how much fun we were having.”

What record is Mark Martin talking about?

The former Roush Racing driver was alluding to beating Ingram’s tally of 31 Xfinity Series wins, then called the Busch Series. However, he acknowledged that NASCAR did not account for Ingram’s wins when he raced in the Late Model Sportsman Series. So, the statistics were actually ‘bullsh**’ according to the 63-year-old. Nevertheless, this was still a touching moment for him, and possibly Ingram as well.

Tragically, Jack Ingram passed away at the age of 84 in 2021 and he was the 1972 Late Model Sportsman champion. In the Xfinity arena, Ingram amassed a grand total of 31 wins.

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Safe to say, Martin broke that record out with an astounding 49 wins. Unlike the late champion, Mark Martin was pretty successful in the Cup Series, racking up 40 career wins and 7 Truck wins.