NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin is one of the greatest drivers in the history of NASCAR. Beginning from driving trucks on narrow dirt lanes in Batesville, he progressed to being a motorsports icon that America loved. Apart from the incredible joy that Martin received from driving a race car, he had one other passion: rap music.
Talking on a recent episode of Rubbin is Racing, he opened up on his love for the genre and revealed the root of his affinity for Gucci Mane, his favorite artist. He said, “I had one of the son’s friends ask me if I listend to Gucci Mane [In 2002]. I didn’t know who it was. As soon as I found him, it was crazy.”
Unable to find any of Mane’s music on iTunes back then, Martin had to download and transfer songs from the oddest websites. He continued, “In my opinion, there is no one in the same zipcode with Gucci Mane. If I rap, I would never do a duo with him. Everytime he does one with anybody he just crushes them. This guy is unbelievable!”
No one is banging the drum harder for @gucci1017 than ***Checks Notes*** Mark Martin.
Awesome interview with NASCAR Legend and Rap Enthusiast @markmartin is out now @RTICCoolers pic.twitter.com/6CQY59l33R
— Rubbin is Racing (@rubbinisracing) April 18, 2024
The icon’s love for Mane’s work has been so staunch that he has dissed at other artists on social media and even gotten his fellow drivers in NASCAR to listen to rap. Quite interestingly, Martin wrote on X in 2015 that Drake was soft like a tissue in response to a random fan suggesting him to have the Canadian rapper as his favorite artist.
When Mark Martin forced Dale Earnhardt Jr. to listen to Gucci Mane
Many years back during the Daytona Speedweeks, Martin was four buses down from Dale Earnhardt Jr. when he called him over and said that he had something to show. Since he was seated in a brand new Roush Mustang, Dale Jr. thought that the icon was initially showing off the car. But as it turned out, Martin had a different idea.
He began blaring Gucci Mane’s music in the car much to the surprise of Dale Jr. He wrote about the incident on his X handle and cast quite a few people into surprise. To verify the story, Martin even put out song recommendations for fans on social media. The entire sequence earned the old driver serious street cred.
Scene: Daytona 500 speeedweeks.
Mark Martin is 4 buses down and waves me over.
“got something you need to check out”
Has me sit in a new Roush Mustang.
Thought he was showing me the car. Nope
He starts blaring @gucci1017 out the speakers. https://t.co/ZesJWHKq9K— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) December 13, 2017
As things turned out, Mane was quite a big fan of Martin as well. The rapper congratulated him upon his induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2017.
