Spake Up Podcast<\/a> with host Shannon Spake, Martin praised Stewart for his actions and comments over his career as both a driver and former team co-owner (of the now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing).<\/p>\nSpake asked Martin his thoughts about the NASCAR Drivers\u2019 Council. Martin didn\u2019t disappoint with his answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s good,\u201d the Arkansas native said. \u201cI know for a fact, as far as that council goes, I\u2019m standing by myself. I don\u2019t have anyone standing shoulder-to-shoulder with me, and I get it (that other drivers are oftentimes too afraid of speaking their minds).\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, everybody on that council makes their living in the sport. So, that changes how you look at things. Even as outspoken as Kevin Harvick is, you know, Kevin works in the sport (now as a broadcaster), and he has a kid (son Keelan) coming up. I mean, he can only afford to be so far off the center,\u201d added Martin.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I raced, there were a lot of things I couldn\u2019t say and didn\u2019t say. Tony Stewart was the only guy that came along, and I was like, everything he said I had thought, but I wouldn\u2019t say it out loud. Tony was the only guy that was so damn good. He was so talented that he could get away with saying (whatever was on his mind). I loved him.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Martin can understand some of the limits\u2014either directly or indirectly\u2014placed on those who are on the Driver\u2019s Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re in the sport, you have to stay in your lane to some degree,\u201d Martin said. \u201cI commend Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick because they are certainly the most outspoken. I mean, Denny owns half owns a race team, not only driving. So you have to think about that when having input.\u201d<\/p>\n
NASCAR has often been known to not take criticism in the best of spirits, with the likes of Hamlin<\/a> and Harvick offering nothing but the same. Hamlin also finds himself embroiled in a legal battle with the governing body over the core fundamentals of racing and owning a team in the sport, and we\u2019re sure that does not help his likability with the top brass.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a way, NASCAR Hall of Famers Mark Martin and Tony Stewart are kindred spirits: they are not…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":149699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-149698","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-nascar","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115036769061221702","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}