If there ever was the perfect name for a book that best describes Mark Martin’s NASCAR Hall of Fame racing career, it’s the soon-to-be-released “Mark Martin: Never Lift.”

The 544-page book, co-written by Martin and author Bones Bourcier, is slated to hit bookstores and online vendors on August 4. The exhaustive history of Martin’s life and career covers everything from growing up in his native Arkansas, through his induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2017,  to the present day.

In-between, chapters cover key moments in Martin’s career, including his time in the American Speed Association (ASA), his first go-round in NASCAR, having to go back to ASA for more seasoning and then his 30-plus year career as one of the most successful, hard-nosed and respected racers that NASCAR has ever seen.

There’s plenty of examples of the good times Martin enjoyed, including 40 NASCAR Cup wins (in 882 starts), 49 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series wins (in 236 starts), and seven Truck Series victories (in 25 starts), but also profound sadness, including when his father, step-mother and half-sister perished in a plane crash in Nevada in 1998. There’s also reflections on how Mark was one of the most successful drivers of his era, but never was able to break through to win even one Cup or OAPS championship. It wasn’t for lack of trying: he finished runner-up an incredible five times in the Cup Series, barely missing out on taking the championship.

The 67-year-old Martin has already begun touting the book online and is beginning to make appearances prior to what he expects will be a lengthy media tour with book signings and meet-and-greet sessions that will promote the book with his countless fans.

As Mark has done numerous times already, he spoke exclusively to EssentiallySports.com to talk about the book, the challenge of writing it, the satisfaction of essentially putting his whole life on paper and more. Here are excerpts from that recent interview:

Q. How did you come up with the original idea to write the book, as well as its title, “Mark Martin: Never Lift”? And tell us more about things you recalled as the book evolved?

MM: Never Lift was the motto that my dad lived by, about never lifting in life, to keep your foot on the gas, no matter if it was racing or in business, things like that. It was all about moving forward and never lifting. My dad believed if you were going to hit a ditch at 60 (mph), you’d be better off hitting it at 150 (mph). He believed you could just clear the damn thing if you’re going fast. So, that was kind of his motto. And, of course, when it came to working and focusing on a race car, I never lifted. That’s why at such an early age I was able to have the success I had because I was able, with (mechanic and crew chief) Banjo Grimm at my side, I was able to outwork everybody.

My son, Matt, had told me for several years that I should write a book about my life, that my fans would like to read about how I came up through the ranks in racing, from ASA to NASCAR and everything in-between. Matt is really into books and he’s the one that really pushed me into it because I knew that it was going to be a long process – and it was. It’s nearly five years in the making and will finally be launched this summer (pre-order information is at the end of this story).

This is Matt’s entire brainchild. It’s his project. He’s the one who convinced me to do it because I didn’t really want to do it because I know how much work is involved to do a book that is historically accurate for 65 years. It’s a lot. And so it’s taken five years, but there won’t be any autobiography or any racing drivers books this thorough or this accurate.

We really included a lot more details – and that’s why there are so many pages — because a lot of books about motorsports that I’ve read, I can tell were either written by somebody who didn’t fully immerse themselves in motorsports, or that the facts of some of the details in the stories weren’t exactly right.

That’s what took so long with this book because every single thing in it is fleshed completely out and fact-checked. It’s either the way I saw it, and I might see something differently than you see. We might see the same things and interpret them differently. So it was the way I saw it, but if there was something that went off of memory, the memory was checked.

My son likes to collect books and has some that are 150 years old. It’s amazing to think about where that book was 150 years or 125 years ago. If you think about it, it’s a way for the grandkids and great-grandkids to know about a time in history that is so different than what they live in. And so, this book really encompasses what may be the golden years of motorsports.

Q) You mentioned the book is more than 500 pages with a ton of photos from throughout your career. How many words is the actual writing of the book?

MM: It’s about a quarter of a million words, not including all the photos. There’s probably several dozen photos.

Q) How difficult was it to write the book with Bones?

MM: It’s taken five years. So it was an enormous amount of work for Bones, an enormous amount of work for Matt, and a mild amount of work for me. Bones was the only guy I wanted to do it, there would be no other consideration. He’s written books on Tony Stewart, Ritchie Evans, Bentley Warren, Gary Ballew, Parnelli Jones and Ron Bouchard, among others. He’s my favorite motorsports writer and he’s been doing articles on me since the 80s, and he gets it. And so publisher-wise, Octane did an extremely nice job on Ray Evernham’s book and seemed to be pretty eager to take it on. There were other ones, but we were impressed with Octane.

I’m excited about sharing the stories. It’s fun for me. It’s really fun for Matt, and it will be really fun for the race fans, because there’s a lot in there that they don’t know about.

There’s so many memories. For example, in 1977 we went down to New Smyrna (Speedway, near Daytona Beach, Fla.) for Speedweeks, the World Series of Asphalt Racing, because I could race nine nights in a row and get two or three months worth of experience, what you would back home with. We didn’t think we’d go down there and run great, just go down there and get experience.

It was my first year on pavement, first race in that hotbed. I was running and this car in front of me was holding me up. I had three years of dirt experience, and back home on dirt, when somebody was holding you up, you just give them a shot in the back bumper. So that’s what I did. The car I hit wobbled, and off it turned forward and slapped the wall. I’m just a teenager, 110 pounds and I crashed and hurt and sent Bobby Brack to the hospital. Bobby Brack was a Florida late-model star who I didn’t know. I went on about my business and went on about my racing.

A couple of days later, I kind of wondered why everybody kept talking about Bobby Brack being in the hospital. Well, it was because he was one of the Florida hot dogs, you know, late-model hot dogs. That had an effect on me, because I felt bad about it. I didn’t know. Bones did research and finds out all about the hospital he was in, how long he was in, the extent of his injury, all that stuff. That whole story takes on a whole new meaning that I didn’t fully have. The whole book just kind of does this with these stories, the research, and all the details.

I was busy racing, moved on and didn’t think much about it. But don’t think for a minute that that didn’t have an influence on me going forward because what I wanted the very most in racing was to be respected by guys like Dick Trickle and (Wisconsin short track king) Tom Refner and (Michigan short track racer) Bob Sineker and all those guys. I wanted to be respected. They didn’t wreck people, and they didn’t hurt them. Now, I didn’t mean for this wreck to happen. But that was just my luck, I get this guy, give him a shot coming off of (turn) four, and he wrecks and gets in the hospital. That’s one of the reasons why I didn’t do bump-and-runs the rest of my career.

Because with my luck, I would try a bump and run on someone and it would kill him. That sounds dramatic but I’m not a very lucky guy. I had a lot of bad luck in my career. And that’s the kind of luck that I would have. Everybody else was doing it, but if I did it and then someone would lose their life and I would have that on me. That one incident, it had effect on me in multiple ways.

I really wanted the greatest short track racers in the nation to respect me. And how are they gonna respect me if I’m bumping or running or doing something that they didn’t do? That would be just my damn luck, to have somebody lose their life and then that would hang over me forever. 

Q) Fans are going to love all the stories in the book. Even though it took so long to write it, was co-writing the book a labor of love for you?

MM: It was. Plus, there are tons of pictures in the book as well. The book goes from childhood through ASA and into NASCAR and has great explanations for why and how all the NASCAR stuff went down in 1981, ‘82 and ‘83, and then failing and having to go back to Wisconsin (ASA) and start my career all over again and then work my way back up to the top level and win the ASA championship again for the fourth time before making another run at NASCAR.

There’s literally a full book’s worth prior to the No. 6 car and Roush Racing. That’s why the book is so big. There could be an entire book that ended with signing with Jack Roush. And then I have a whole NASCAR career after that.

What’s important to share with the fans is my foundation, what made me, the struggles I went through, the experiences that I had prior to NASCAR. Because people, a lot of fans just think of me as a NASCAR driver and I won a few races. But there’s so much more. It should be very inspiring to someone to stay true to their dream and to never give up. That’s why it was really important to me to share my story with people, especially all that was prior to the six car because that’s the real story.

One thing people will find out and maybe didn’t know about before, but there’s so many parallels to Jeff Gordon and myself. I just missed (making it during his first tenure in NASCAR) by the skin of my teeth, being that young guy. Then Jeff Gordon came in and turned the whole NASCAR world upside down.

My first time in NASCAR, I was 22 years old with my own car set up by me and with zero people that had ever worked on NASCAR cars before on my team, just me and my three employees and my volunteer crew. We went and led two NASCAR races and sat on two poles and finished third in one and seventh in the other after starting a lap down in last place because a rag was left in the carburetor and the car wouldn’t start while I was sitting on the pole.

I sat on the pole for Richmond, but the car wouldn’t crank when they said “Start your engines.” And by the time we got the car going, I had to pull out at the back of the field after one lap. But I came back, finished all 400 laps and still finished seventh, one lap down.

Q) One of the other great stories you tell is how legendary crew chief and engine builder Waddell Wilson, who won the Daytona 500 three times, offered you a ride in the Daytona 500 – and you turned it down. Why?

MM: “Waddell called me late in the 1982 season and asked if I wanted to drive the 28 in the ‘83 500, the same 28 that went straight to Daytona and sat on the pole for the 500 (and would go on to win with Cale Yarborough behind the wheel). And I turned it down. I told him, ‘No, Waddell, I think I’d rather do my own deal.” It was the worst decision of my professional career. It’s all in the book.

Q) You’re supposed to be retired, yet you’re anything but. In addition to the book, you’re doing two different podcasts each week on Apple Podcasts and iHeart, you built a large broadcast-quality studio for both audio and video back home in Arkansas, plus you’ve got a mini-studio in your incredible motorhome, so you can essentially broadcast from wherever you’re at. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re traveling more and working harder than when you were racing. Tell us about the podcasts and other things you’re doing?

MM: Matt didn’t only play a big part with the book, he’s also co-host on The Official Podcast of Mark Martin (part of the Kenny Wallace Media network) and also the Mark Martin Archive Podcast. Matt also oversees the Mark Martin Archives, which include tons of interviews, videos and photos from throughout my career. Plus we have the Mark Martin Podcast YouTube Channel and the Mark Martin Archive Podcast, which you can watch full episodes and clips on the Kenny Wallace YouTube Channel or the Mark Martin Archive YouTube Channel.

Q) Matt also handles most of your social media activities. Is that the thing that started all the other things, all the other projects you’re involved with as well?

MM: Well, the book really started it all when we decided that we would do the book. Then Matt created the Mark Martin Archive and the Mark Martin Archive social media accounts. He’s been the one in charge of all the photographs. He’s doing one post a day, every day. Most of the photographs have never been seen before, and they’re not the ones that are going in the book. He’s five years in the making of getting and gathering these photographs, with some of these photographs dating back 40 or more years. That’s where it all started. Then people that were following wanted merch, so Matt did merch. That has been really, really big and strong. Now he’s pulling together a book signing and publicity tour. He’s just in charge of all things like that. Historian, restoration of old race cars of mine, and custodian of all my trophies and memorabilia and all that kind of stuff.

Q) Given how busy you are and are going to become even more once the book comes out, have you thought maybe about moving into broadcasting or something similar?

MM: Matt’s 100% convinced that I would be great at it, and I’m 100% convinced that I would not be any good at it at all. I’m a deep thinker, and I think a lot more than I verbalize, and I don’t just spill stuff out. A lot of times, the things that I spill out might not be appropriate for broadcast. They’re funny, but they might not be appropriate. I could never do what Kevin Harvick is doing, which is carrying the broadcast. I would be no good at entertaining. I would make a good pit reporter. One thing that we’re missing in our sport today is more technical information. It’s too heavy on entertainment and not heavy enough on the technical aspect, what teams are doing to their cars, what specific issues they have with their cars, and that kind of thing. I might do okay with something like that, but I don’t feel like I’m a booth guy. I have no interest. They couldn’t pay me enough to go to the racetrack on Friday and be there until Sunday night. The networks don’t have a big enough checkbook to buy that time. That’s my time now, nobody else’s. It’s not for sale.

Q) With so many irons already in the fire, what’s next up for you and your new career?

MM: Everything that we’re trying to do, you have to wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. The book was five years. The shop and studio took nearly 2 ½ years. The restoration of JR10 (one of his most famous race cars from 1993) took over a year. Everything is wait, wait, wait. Neither of us are interested in taking on anything else for a long time. We want to get this book done and go have some fun finally. It is a professional studio, but I’m on Zoom or a conference call or interview of some kind all the time.

Editor’s Note: “Mark Martin: Never Lift,” published by Octane Press, is set to be released on August 4, 2026. You can get your pre-order copy here.