About five years ago, when Danica Patrick was in her early days of IndyCar stardom, she attended the NASCAR Cup race near her Phoenix home.
Danica Patrick Wrecks At Dover, But A Surprise Visitor Lifts Her Spirits
She walked through the garage and visited with various drivers, but one driver that day gave her an extraordinary amount of his time.
The driver offered advice, shared his racing knowledge and talked to her about his impending retirement.
It was Mark Martin, who would one day share the Go Daddy sponsorship with Patrick in NASCAR. At the time, who would have ever thought?
“It was race day, and he sat in there and talked to me for, shoot, almost an hour,” Patrick recalled. “I know how valuable that time is on race day. He’s always been a nice guy.”
But the two drivers hadn’t spoken in all the time since then, at least in Patrick’s memory.
That changed on Saturday.
On lap 70 of the Nationwide race at Dover, Patrick blew her right-front tire and slammed the wall. She had already been a miserable three laps down, suffering through another poor performance in her seventh Nationwide start.
She drove to the garage and took refuge in the lounge of her team’s transporter while her crew fixed the No. 7 car, the frustration of her NASCAR experience only mounting (she ultimately finished 35th).
As Patrick tried to turn the race on and fiddled with the TV, she looked over her shoulder.
There, in a white T-shirt and jeans, was Mark Martin.
“It was nice to see him,” Patrick said with a smile.
As the crew worked on her car for about 45 minutes, Martin sat with Patrick and talked about racing. The drivers discussed trying to figure out what exactly Patrick needs out of a car to help her team set it up to her liking.
“One time out of this whole thing, I’ve had somebody drive my car and set it up – Kelly Bires (at an offseason test),” she said. “Then I went out there and I was pretty quick. That’s what happens when somebody can help me out.”
Martin helped her understand how to navigate the car and the setup through the various practice sessions and grip level changes during a race weekend – “Everything that I don’t have a full grasp of,” Patrick said.
"We talked about how hard that is and talked about some ideas of how we can improve that for the future," she said. "I've heard he's a great coach. Any kind of help I can get from him would be appreciated.
“I’m sure some of these lessons have to be learned the hard way, but maybe we can fast-forward through some of it.”
Here’s the catch: Though he drives for Hendrick Motorsports, Martin has no relation to Patrick’s JR Motorsports team. And just because they’re both sponsored by Go Daddy doesn’t mean he’s under any obligation to help Patrick.
Martin couldn’t be reached for comment (he somehow left the hauler without being spotted), but the guess here is that he was watching the Nationwide race in his infield motorhome, saw Patrick’s wreck and simply decided to go give her a pep talk.
And to hear Patrick tell it, it was a well-received gesture.
“He just gave me some ideas and some kind words that he knows I can do better than this,” she said. “I know I can do better than this, too, but it’s nice to hear.”
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