Mark Martin: How NASCAR Drivers Should Handle Their ‘Bidness’

Surprisingly, Mark Martin said he hasn’t been asked for his advice too much lately when it comes to teaching young drivers about the etiquette of racing and how to handle conflicts.

But if one of them did ask, the new Michael Waltrip Racing driver told reporters during the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour what his response would be.

“The best thing to do is if you have problems, you need to talk about it – not to the TV cameras, to the person,” he said.

Told that wasn’t much fun for the media, Martin nodded and said, “I know it.”

“That’s how a man handles his bidness, though!” he added, letting his Arkansas accent shine through.

Martin was once known as NASCAR’s cleanest and most respectful racer, but last year he began to change his style. At one point, he seemed fed up and intentionally wrecked former pupil Regan Smith.

After the Smith incident, Martin said the current state of racing “requires less sportsmanship, more ‘me.’” On Monday, the veteran racer was asked if give-and-take racing is dead.

“It’s leaning that way,” he said. “Give-and-take still exists, but it has to be with the right guy and it has to be at the right time. There’s a lot less of it than there used to be.”

Martin noted that the top 35 cars now are all basically running the same speed. Until recently, the field wasn’t so even.

“Back in the day, they were two seconds apart and there wasn’t much you could do about it if you were one of the ones that was two seconds off,” he said. “You could fight it, but it wouldn’t do you much good. Now, it does.”

As a result, Martin said “the code” of racing has changed.

“The line has to be so hard right now,” he said. “Passing is so difficult when you have cars all close to the same speed that you’ve got to fight tooth-and-nail for everything.”