“Good Dads Are Hard to Find”: NASCAR Legend Mark Martin’s Touching Tribute to Father Moves Fans to Tears

NASCAR will celebrate its 75th anniversary this year. Thousands of drivers have made their careers in the sport, but only a handful ever got their hands on the championship trophy. Mark Martin, despite accumulating 40 wins in the top tier of NASCAR, still falls in the first category. Though most fans would agree that he deserves to be in the second one. 

Widely considered the greatest driver in NASCAR history to not win the Cup Series title, Martin embodied everything fans look for in a driver to root for. In 31 years of racing in the topmost league of stock model racing, Martin had a lot of great moments.

Apart from winning 40 races in the Cup Series, he also won 49 and 7 races in Xfinity and Truck Series, respectively. Also worth remembering is that in 882 starts in the Cup Series, he grabbed 56 pole positions and 61 second-place finishes. But at the end of the day, none of that was enough. The trophy eluded the Arkansas man as he finished second in five seasons between 1990 and 2009.

His racing prowess aside, fans also loved his maturity and level-headedness. Despite never winning the Championship, he never “b*tched about it.” And that strength of character came from how he was raised. Martin himself credits his parents for his stoic character as well as his achievements.

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Missing the man who made him Mark Martin

Incidentally, January 6th would have been Mark’s father Julian Clyde Martin’s 87th birth anniversary. Unable to celebrate it with him, Mark posted a picture of himself with his dad, along with a touching message on Instagram.

His post read, “Yesterday would have been Dads 87th birthday. In my opinion the baddest MoFo ever lived. I’m the luckiest guy in world to have had him for a Dad. Julian Clyde Martin.”

The heartwarming post received a lot of well-meaning comments. People noted the similarities, with a fan commenting, “I say your dad is very proud of you, I only know you watching you race in nascar on tv your a awesome man and I’m sure you’re dad was too.”

They just couldn’t stop applauding Julian for his parenting, “You definitely don’t need a dna test… good dads are hard to find great ones are extremely rare.. I too was very fortunate 😇🏁” One fan even related with Mark and said, ‘My Dad was my hero, we lost him 13yrs ago. My Dad was a truck driver, Jack of all trades an amazing man that taught me a lot about life.”

“That’s massive honor you’ve given him. He left big shoes to fill” was how one fan of the Martins felt. Another wished the big man on his birthday, “Great memories. You’re dad had to be a Awesome guy cause you Turned out to be a Great guy. Happy Birthday in heaven to your dad. 💪”

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Martin was lucky to have a dad like Julian. He must have been amazing because he raised a brilliant person.