Martin continues to have drive

MARK MARTINNot retiring type

Mark Martin doesn't consider himself much of a sports fan. "Just a motorsports fan," he said. But even Martin couldn't help but follow the drama surrounding Brett Favre's retirement, unretirement, and messy divorce from the Green Bay Packers that resulted in his trade to the New York Jets.

Martin can sympathize with the indecision Favre experienced after making a tearful farewell speech in March. Martin, after all, experienced the same feelings when he was confronted in 2005 with the prospect of leaving the sport he lived and loved for much of his adult life after spending 19 years driving for Jack Roush, only to be drawn back to it the following year on a limited basis with Ginn Racing, which last year merged with Dale Earnhardt Inc.

Martin's 26-race dalliance with Ginn/DEI last year led the 49-year-old to reconsider retirement after he had done two farewell tours with Roush Fenway Racing. Martin officially put his retirement on the back burner when he announced his plans next year to drive the No. 5 car full-time for Hendrick Motorsports.

"You know what? Every decision that every human being makes is not always going to be right," Martin said last week at Pocono, Pa., when asked about Favre. "I don't know for sure. Maybe he didn't make the right decision at one time that put himself in a box, and I just feel sorry for him because I know that he wants to play."

Last month at Indianapolis, Martin was asked why it was so difficult for athletes to step away, and stay away.

"Well, because it's hard to describe to anyone that hasn't done that and been there," Martin said. "You know, it's their life's work. It's their passion. For me, I don't have the same kind of passion toward anything else. That is going to be a tremendous void for me unless I find something."

Martin, a licensed pilot who flies from race to race in his private jet, hinted his love of business aviation was something he would likely pursue when he does indeed park it for good.

"But it certainly doesn't fill the passion completely," he said. "It's something everyone has to face, just as I saw my dad take the car keys away from my grandfather. That was a really hard day, you know?"

Martin said his grandfather, Clyde, was 100 when he died. "But he got the car taken away from him around 90," Martin said. "He lived by himself until he was like 97. He was in very good shape, but he didn't see well. When he hit somebody on a bicycle, I think they finally decided to take the keys away from him. It was a kind of tough time in his life."

Martin's example seemed to resonate after the Packers took the keys away from Favre.

"At some point in time you have to meet those kinds of things all through life," Martin said. "I think for a professional athlete who is pretty good at what he does, that comes earlier in life."

Which explained why Martin felt for Favre through the quarterback's soap opera.

"It looks to me like he's in a position where he can't really do what he wants to do and he's physically up to it," Martin said before Favre was dealt to the Jets. "For me, I just really feel fortunate that I'm physically and mentally up to doing what I really love and I have the opportunity to do that."

And that no one is asking him to give up the car keys just yet.

NASCAR responds
After getting pummeled by the plaintiff and her lawyers in the court of public opinion since June, NASCAR yesterday launched its legal defense against a $225 million sexual harassment and racial discrimination suit brought by Mauricia Grant, a former Nationwide Series technical inspector who claimed 23 specific incidents of sexual harassment and 34 specific incidents of racial and gender discrimination.

In a response filed yesterday in New York, NASCAR denied that Grant complained to her superiors about the incidents, and said her termination last October after her January 2005 hiring was legitimate and stemmed from her repeated reprimands for tardiness and other behavioral issues.

According to the Associated Press, Grant had a restraining order filed against her in 2002 in Los Angeles Superior Court by a former boyfriend and was arrested in 2004 for driving under the influence. Grant's attorney, Benedict P. Morelli, told the AP, "Ms. Grant's alleged prior actions are totally irrelevant to this suit."

Planting the seed?
Kyle Busch, the Sprint Cup Series points leader, can clinch the top seed in the 12-man field for the Chase for the Championship with a victory tomorrow at Watkins Glen, N.Y. "You go out there and run as hard as you can in practice, qualifying, and the race, and see what you've got," Busch said yesterday. "Whether you win or run out of gas and finish 36th, it doesn't matter at this point. Second through 36th don't really matter, but a win would be nice." Busch, who won a Nationwide road course event April 20 at Mexico City and the Sprint Cup road course race June 22 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., will get that opportunity when he starts the Centurion Boats at The Glen from the pole position after yesterday's qualifications were rained out. "That win at Sonoma wasn't easy at all," said Busch. "We were miserable in practice and had some things go wrong for us in qualifying. But it was all the hard work from all my guys that got us back on track for the race and got us pointed back in the right direction." . . . With rain threatening to hamper today's Nationwide race at Watkins Glen, NASCAR officials have decided to follow the plan of last week's rain-soaked event in Montreal by breaking out Goodyear rain tires. Canadian Ron Fellows, who will drive tomorrow for rookie Regan Smith in DEI's No. 01 car, won the 48-lap Nationwide race in Montreal behind the wheel of the No. 05 fielded by JR Motorsports. NASCAR officials, however, will not sanction the use of rain tires in tomorrow's Sprint Cup event. "I liked racing in the rain. I thought it was fun," said Carl Edwards, who finished sixth at Montreal and then won the next day at Pocono, giving him four Sprint Cup wins this season. "It looks like we might race in a little bit of wet [weather today] - it would be crazy to do that two weeks in a row. It looks like it's going to rain a little bit, but the rain's fine with me. I had a blast. It was a new experience and something I'll never forget." Don't count Denny Hamlin among those Sprint Cup drivers who would like to race in the rain. "I think the true NASCAR fans want to see side-by-side racing," he said. "They want to see guys make passes on each other, and you're just not going to have that in the rain. I think, from the show standpoint, I think it's better to have the race without rain, even if you have to wait a day."

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com; material from personal interviews, sanctioning bodies, race teams, sponsors, manufacturers, and track publicity departments was used in this report.