Fit at 51, Mark Martin Leads NASCAR's Workout Buffs

A revitalized and resurging Mark Martin won the back-pats and gotta-luv-it grins of NASCAR nation with his incredible five-win, championship runner-up effort in the 2009 season.

And he enters Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway ranked third in the Sprint Cup championship, looking every bit the contender at age 51 that he was at age 50. And age 40 and age 30, for that matter.

He won the pole position for the season-opening Daytona 500 and has two top-five finishes in the No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet through the first three races, proving he's still competitive on the race track even as his contemporaries have moved into the broadcast booth.

This isn't a trek into the tired, age ol' debate of whether NASCAR drivers are athletes. It's an acknowledgment that Martin is and that others in NASCAR may be finally catching on.

Many remember drivers in the 1970s, '80s and early '90s smoking cigarettes during yellow flag laps or being so exhausted after a race they required oxygen masks and/or intravenous fluids (IVs) in victory lane.

Sterling Marlin used to stop at the Krystal Burger drive-thru on race morning and only half-joked that that breakfast of champions helped him to his 1994 and 1995 Daytona 500 victories.

Martin, on the other hand, considers it "falling off the wagon" it he eats even a bite of cake.

His workout regimen was legendary even two decades ago. He can bench press nearly twice his 135-pound body weight and works out every day of the week, incorporating yoga and Pilates, too. Even his youngest competitors say they don't dare arm wrestle him.

Not only is Martin's tremendous physical shape absolutely extending his career, it is enhancing it.

"The competition is so close now that you're forced and pushed to raise your physical and mental level so far beyond where you used to,'' Martin said.

But it's taken 50 years for most NASCAR drivers to figure that out -- for them to realize the real benefits of paying as much attention to diet,exercise and general fitness as they do to restrictor plates, aerodynamics and sponsor promotion.

A decade ago, few in the Cup garage would admit to knowing about Men's Health magazine. Four years ago, 2008 Cup championship runner-up Carl Edwards -- a die-hard fitness buff like Martin -- posed shirtless on the cover. Last year he was shirtless on the cover of ESPN The Magazine's "The Body" issue.

For a sport vying to be taken seriously, its athletes must raise their game too. Team shops have elaborate gymnasiums; pit crews look like NCAA athletes.

NASCAR likes to favorably compare its television ratings and attendance to the National Football League (NFL) and National Basketball Association (NBA). And it couldn't have been prouder when last year, newly crowned, four-time Cup champ Jimmie Johnson became the first NASCAR driver named Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press.

"Athlete" was not a word associated with NASCAR in the past.

Ask Johnson why he's been able to sustain championship form and after the obligatory team and sponsor mention, he'll get to the grit. He has taken a cue from the ultimate "sustainer," his teammate Martin, and incorporated a regimented workout routine into his race preparation, too.

It could be the difference in the 34-year old four-time champ eventually breaking the historic seven-championship mark set by Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt.

Obviously a part of Martin's current success is that he drives alongside Johnson for the champion Hendrick Motorsports organization. But Martin still has to drive the car and he won more races and ranked higher in the standings than two of his teammates also driving tremendous cars.

And of all the other competitors -- including some half his age, others even younger -- it was Martin who gave Johnson a run for his championship money.

"Physically, Mark is a machine when it comes to fitness,'' said 2000 Cup champion Bobby Labonte, driver of the No. 71 TaxSlayer Chevrolet and another of the series' most serious fitness buffs.

"If Mark didn't feel good he wouldn't be doing this and he's built himself up so that he makes it look easy.

"He looks like a young guy doing it.''

In fact, Martin's first win in 2009 made him the oldest driver to win at the Cup level since Morgan Shepherd in 1993, which makes for great trivia, but a lousy point of reference. Martin didn't just rally for one spectacular afternoon. He won five times.

These results are the combination of good equipment (car). ... and good equipment. Martin's own chassis couldn't be more prepared.

"There is absolutely no question in my mind it is an edge for Mark Martin,'' said Ralph Reiff, the lead Certified Athletic Trainer at Indianapolis' St. Vincent Sports Performance center, where his staff trains and evaluates athletes from all different sporting backgrounds.

Last year, Reiff conducted a study to compare the fitness level among diverse athletic genres -- amateur and professional athletes -- a cross-section that included everyone from high school football players to National Basketball Association (NBA) players to Olympians.

In one particular study, they were measured in body weight, percentage of body fat, bench press and functional movement.

Of the 200 athletes tested, 2004 IZOD IndyCar Series champion Tony Kanaan ranked first -- ahead of a starting NFL linebacker, an NBA player and a NCAA Division I All-America baseball player.

"Racers have every right to announce themselves as athletes,'' Reiff said.

"Fast forward 15-20 years and I think everyone on the grid will be (in top physical shape), Reiff said. "It won't even be talked about, it will just be part of the deal.''