NHRA OUTLAW STREET

Martin’ s team struggled throughout qualifying, with a 3.889 at 177.84 mph being his best pass, narrowly making the field in the No. 8 position. His reward for getting in the show was a firstround matchup with No. 1 qualifier Kyle Canion, who posted a 3.667 elapsed time at an incredible 218.58 mph. Martin admits there was no specific moment that turned things around.

“ I hate to say this, but I think we just had a lot of bad luck,” says Martin.“ We tested at Rockingham on the way here, and we couldn’ t do no wrong. This car’ s been a 3.64 before, and we were dipping close to that. When we left the test session, I thought we were gonna be in good shape.

“ We showed up for Q1 and I honestly believed we were going to go down and set the bar, but we busted the bypass valve off the hose. In Q2 it was a tuneup malfunction, and Q3 the thing smoked the tires out of nowhere. Sometimes you get bad luck and sometimes you get good luck – we just had a string of bad luck.”

Martin’ s luck changed quickly in eliminations. He used a slight starting line advantage and a 3.724 at 210.57 mph in Saturday afternoon’ s first round to get around Canion, who slowed to a 3.807 at 175.94. From there, he knew he had his hot rod back headed into Sunday.

Carson Baker

Scott Taylor

“ We knew you can only suck so many times, right?” Martin says with a laugh.“ We knew Kyle was the car to beat, but we also knew the sun was out. The track was 125 degrees. That’ s where [ tuner ] Jamie [ Miller ] came in and really helped us out. He said,‘ Let’ s calm it down, make a fast run in the heat of the day.’ That’ s why we won, because he made the right tuning call on race day.”

In the semifinals, Martin faced his teammate, Carson Baker, in his orange“ Speedo Cheeto” Camaro. Like Taylor would do later in the final round, Baker also went red, handing Martin a free ticket to the final round. While some might argue that Martin got lucky being on the receiving end of two red lights in three rounds, it’ s also an example of how widely respected Martin is – opponents know they have to cut a great light to beat him.

“ I guess you could call it an intimidation factor,” says Martin.“ For me to be able to go up there and they be worried about racing me, I like that. Carson’ s my teammate, so I don’ t like to have that on him. He had a bunch of family members here, and he was on a big stage. It was easier for me to just breathe and make a pass than it was for him.

“ Scott, that’ s a different story. He’ s a veteran driver. Him and I have been battling it out back and forth for 10-plus years now. We know how to deal with each other, and he was getting in my head as much as I was getting in his. You could say he had a consistent car and I didn’ t, but at the end of the day, we got the W.” DI

36 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 200