Newly elected NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin will lead the field prior to the green flag while driving the Toyota pace car for the 57th running of the Coca Cola 600.
The Batesville,AR native has accomplished everything there is to do at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Martin has four career wins at the 1.5 mile oval. Most notably the Coca Cola 600 in 2002 as well as the All Star Race in 1998 and 2005.
Martin is ready to be back behind the wheel at one of NASCAR’s most iconic tracks to cap off being elected as part of the 2017 NASCAR Hall of Fame class.
“When the speedway called to ask me if I’d do it, my first reaction was ‘Hell, yeah!’” Martin said. “Originally I’d planned to be at Indy, but now I get to do the ‘double’ in a way, and I can say I’ll be driving at Charlotte. Charlotte Motor Speedway was always my favorite race track. I was fortunate enough to have a lot of success there, including winning a Coke 600. Bruton and Marcus always put on a fabulous show, and this will be cool to lead the field to green in front of thousands of fans that I enjoyed racing for all those years.”
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Sure do miss Mark on the track. Feisty as a rat terrier and just as tenacious. So glad he is in the Hall of Fame