MARK MARTIN STREAK TO END: For weeks, Mark Martin has been answering the questions. Would he or wouldn't he run Bristol? Friday in the Atlanta Motor Speedway media center, Martin put those rumors to bed, for once and for all. So fans that want to watch him race will have to do so at this weekend's Kobalt Tools 500, or miss him until the April 15 race at Texas. "There are mixed emotions, but the bottom line is that I'm gonna take a break," Martin said. "Right now I'm doing what I love. I want to keep doing it and I want to keep loving it. There have been a few times in the past few years that I didn't love it. I need a break."

He said this in spite of the pressure he's been getting from former teammates Matt Kenseth and Jeff Burton, who have bets riding on whether he'll return for next week's Bristol race. Both have said they expect him to race.

"Last week I was trying to taxi the plane and my phone rang and it was Kenseth," Martin said. "He called saying, ‘I wouldn't have passed you on the last lap, but you aren't running for points, so I did.' We were hanging out the other night and he just kept at me; he's relentless. I finally just had to get up and leave."

 

BEST RACING FOUND IN TRUCK SERIES: Many fans and competitors agree: the best racing in all of NASCAR can be found in the Craftsman Truck Series. Even Martin was watching the track longingly as the trucks circled the fast track for practice.

"When they started running those trucks, I thought, ‘Gosh, I wish I was out there.' It's driving me crazy not to be out there with them," Martin said. "I'll definitely work toward trying to do more of that in the future."

Longtime truck competitors Jack Sprague and Rick Crawford understand Martin's longing for the series. Both said they are happy to have found a home in such a competitive, aggressive place - despite initial misgivings.

"I've admitted all along that when the opportunity came to race a track, I though, ‘Man, that's really weird, racing a pickup truck,'" Sprague said. "But, man, what an experience it's been. If I wasn't a race car driver, this is the series I'd watch on TV. It's exciting. From my first thoughts and feelings, I couldn't have been more wrong."

REMEMBERING BOBBY: It has been precisely a year since Bobby Hamilton sat in the AMS media center and stunned everyone by announcing he had head and neck cancer. But as Crawford and Sprague said Friday, it's much more stunning to be sitting here a year later mourning his passing.

"I think Bobby meant a lot to all of us," Sprague said. "I never in my wildest dreams thought he wouldn't beat it. He was a tough dude. I had a really tough time with that.

"It's a huge loss for the series, competitors and friends of his. I really hope he's not forgotten."

For Crawford, who remembered Hamilton as one of the best driver spokesmen and most honest fellow competitors, it was a hard blow to lose him.

"It was just a reality check," Crawford said. "We all felt like he could beat this deal."