Mark Martin is one of the most respected figures in NASCAR, and this week, he appeared on our very own Motorsport Show to chat with Taylor Kitchen and Matt Weaver.
The Arkansas native started an incredible 882 Cup races between 1981 and 2013, winning 40 times. That incredible career included a remarkable five-win season when he was 50 years old, ending the year as the championship runner-up.
But he's now 67, and while he's been offered the chance to get back behind the wheel again in various capacities since retiring from NASCAR, he's turned them all down. There were even recent conversations about getting him behind the wheel of a late model at Pensacola, but he explained to the Motorsport Show why he won't do it.
"Lorin Ranier is on my really hard to come and test a late model stock," said Martin. "I look at what (Dale Earnhardt) Jr.'s doing, and I think it would be pretty incredible to try and do that but Jr. is a whole lot younger than I am, and I don't have it anymore. I'm sorry, I don't. I know. You may not know, but I know. When I had it, I (knew) I had it. Anywhere, anytime. Drop the hammer, no practice, no getting used to it -- that was me.
"Now, I don't care how much I practice. I can't see as good, I can't hear as good, my old processor is slower than a turn. I'm sorry, I don't have it. Some of these guys do. Bill Elliott still has it, and he's two years older than me. But he stays in race cars and he's still got it. But when I quit racing, the switch went off. If I did, it would just show me that I'm right."
Martin also doesn't miss the pressure that came with racing, noting: "I just enjoy not being under that kind of pressure. Competition will kill you, and it sucked the joy out of my racing in NASCAR and it was a lot of pressure."
On the offer to get behind the wheel again at Pensacola, Martin was told that he didn't even have go fast, and he can just run some laps as a test, but he's not keen on that either.
"To go out there and be half-ass and be half-a-second off, I'm not into that."
Martin was elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2017, and was one of the driving voices behind the recent change in NASCAR's championship format.
You can watch the rest of this week's edition of the Motorsport Show below, where you can watch the entire interview with Martin, and also Patrick Emerling: