Relevance

I think I’ve lost my mind. For some reason, every time we show up to the racetrack, I think we’ve got a chance to run in the top 10 and compete for good finishes.

Crazy right?

You see in my head I think that despite the fact we run older SB2 Chevrolet motors – motors that are at least 15 HP off of the $20,000 to $30,000 per race lease engines – we can still qualify in the top 15. Despite the fact we have a 2-man team that works out of a shop that doesn’t even have a setup plate, I think we’ll be just as prepared when we unload as any of the big teams like ThorSport or GMS. Despite the fact that we can’t afford to buy new tires at $2,200 per set, and instead have to buy scuff tires off of other teams, I think we should be just as fast as them on restarts & long runs. I’m so stupid that I think despite the fact the truck series is having the most deep, competitive field it’s had in it’s entire 20 years of existence, that I’m a good enough driver to compete for wins with an underfunded, understaffed, & overworked team.

I’m an idiot.

But, luckily, this idiot had an epiphany this past weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. I finally got a grip on where Martins Motorsports is as a NASCAR race team. And the truth is, we’re average. That’s it. We’re average. Average might even be stretching it a bit. We’re below average. We should be finishing in 25th place every single week. It shouldn’t disappoint us or frustrate us. In fact, we should be excited about it. Heck, we qualified seven tenths off the pole at TMS and wound up 24th on the board. The field is really deep. The fact that we’re able to be average at this level with a team this small is pretty damn impressive.

The simple fact is, hard work and talent in this sport can only separate you when everything is equal. Things are rarely equal in racing. More than that, people like to embellish just how unequal things are for how it suits their own narrative.

I try my absolute guts out every time I’m in that racecar. I think I’m a pretty good driver. Kevin & Steve work their asses off each and every week. They’re both good, knowledgeable workers. But, it’s completely unrealistic to think that we’re going to consistently beat teams with good drivers and way more resources, experience, & people than we have at our disposal. Our misses are bigger. We don’t have the equipment to afford us room for any mistakes. When Cole Custer is really loose, he’s still running 15th and on the lead lap. When I’m really loose, we lose 2 laps in the first caution clock run and wind up completely out of the race (ie: Texas).

It really irritates when I hear people that cover this sport talking about guys being on small teams or running without a sponsor or being underdogs or blah-blah-blah. I think John Hunter Nemecheck is awesome. He’s friendly, has an unreal knowledge of the trucks we race (he’s basically an engineer), & he might be the best driver in the whole field. But to say he’s underfunded? Gimme a break! Undersponsored? No doubt. Underfunded? Psh. Ryan Truex can wheel it, but Hattori Racing is hardly an underfunded team. Jordan Anderson is an awesome dude with an awesome story, but he would grimace to tell you how much money his new team Bolen Motorsports spent this offseason. Parker Kligerman is killing it this year. But, they’re still showing up in a full rig, with 8-10 guys, buying the full compliment of tires, & leasing motors for every speedway race.

When you lease a motor & buy a full allotment of tires every week, that’s a minimum of $30,000 every race; it could be as high as $50,000 per race. Maybe I’ve been on the skid row side of the garage too long, but when you’re driving for a team with that kind of budget, you’re not an underdog. Top-10 finishes shouldn’t be surprising - they should be expected.

Which isn’t to say that Bolen Motosports, Hattori Racing, NEMCO, & RBR aren’t small teams. They are! They certainly don’t have the resources of KBM, Red Horse, GMS, ThorSport, or BKR. Those multi-truck teams are commanding per-race prices of upwards of $75,000 per race in sponsorship – for KBM I’ve heard as much as $150,000! I But, they are able to do what it takes to put a good, competitive truck on the track. Sure, they may cut a corner or two. Ricky Benton actually runs old style D3 Ford motors at some of the smaller tracks on the schedule to save money. Bolen Motorsports has run a short track truck at a few mile and a half races. Maybe they don’t have a 10+ person staff in the shop full time, but they aren’t underfunded. They’re just small.

We’re smaller. Smallest even. To quote the movie Moneyball, “There’s big teams, there’s small teams, then there’s 50 feet of crap, and then there’s us.” We’re literally relying on the prize money of [roughly] $15,000 a race to completely cover our expenses. Payroll included! I’m certainly not getting paid. Diamond Gusset has been an unbelievable partner to us, but they’re a small company who can’t afford to be a full-time, big team NASCAR sponsor. Fortunately for them, we don’t have a primary sponsor. We’ve been able to put them in a primary position, improve the look of our team, and give them some occasional TV coverage for the cost of an associate level sponsor. It’s been beneficial to both sides. I can’t say thank you enough to David Hall for his continued support.

I guess the thing is, if I’m not sending out press releases every week and complaining to the media about how rough the sport is or how we’re having to do it with less, then nobody should be. Besides, you never want to come across as if you’re begging for money. If anything, you always want to act like you’re doing it with less than the other guy! The guys I gave examples of - they all absolutely deserve every opportunity they have in front of them. I’m not bitter about their success. Far from it! Obviously my family had enough money to be able to buy some equipment and give me a shot in NASCAR. Believe me, we didn’t have that much. And what my family had, we spent too much of. My parents have risked their futures to put me in a racecar more times than I’d like to talk about. But, that’s still more than millions of hopeful drivers around the world will ever get. It’s just the business of racing. Teams with bigger budgets are going to run better than teams with smaller ones. We don’t have to continually exaggerate the truth to the fans of this sport.

I get so caught up in how other people look at me as a NASCAR driver. I doubt myself all the time. Do I deserve to be here? That’s the wrong question to ask in racing. Lots of guys deserve to be here. Unfortunately, they’re not. Most of them won’t ever be. The only thing we can do is judge the guys that are here based on the opportunities they’ve been given.

Tommy Joe Martins is a known quantity in this sport by now. I ran 4 races in 2009. My best finish was 21st. I ran 13 Xfinity races in 2009. I start and parked a lot. My best finish was 14th at Talladega but everyone knows anyone can get a good finish at those things. My average finish for the year was somewhere around 34th. This year I’ve raced 6 times and had an average finish of 25th place (the Martinsville race Austin Wayne had to sub for us because we crashed out of 8th in qualifying). To everyone that covers and watches this sport, Tommy Joe Martins is a slow driver. Yeah, our team is what it is - but it’s still my name above the door. My entire NASCAR career I’ve done nothing but finish in the back of the pack. I’m irrelevant. And it burns me to no end. Everything my family and I have been through just to get to this level and despite all our effort we don't have anything to show for it. Not even recognition. No one cares who finishes 25th. Nor should they. Will that be my racing legacy? Will all of that time, money, & sacrifice never be rewarded? I know I’m a good enough driver to compete for wins in this series, even if I’m the only person in the whole world that believes it. But, if that win, that top 5, that moment never comes simply because I was never in a truck good enough to do it – then was it worth it?

Kevin Eagle is a good Crew Chief. He’s got a reputation in the garage area as being one the hardest working, nicest guys you’d ever meet, but where has it gotten him? He’s been kicked around, fired, underpaid, worked countless hours for teams & drivers he knew had no shot at ever winning races or even competing for quality finishes. He actually said to my father and I that Martins Motorsports is the best team he’s ever had the privilege of working for (which oughta tell you a lot). He’s mostly worked in the Xfinity & Cup series, and he’s still learning more about the truck series, but he’s picking it up pretty quick. I know nobody is working harder than he is, and I can say that literally because he has to prepare the trucks & drive the hauler to every single race with only 1 other guy to help him.

It’s not a fair sport.

Our hands are tied. Until we’re able to get more funding, we are who we are. We’re a small team that can occasionally overachieve and run in the top-20.

That’s okay.

I don’t have to be happy running 25th; I wouldn’t be a racecar driver if I was. But, I’m blessed to even be a part of this wonderful sport, and I’m going to try a lot harder to appreciate the opportunity that I do have, instead of being irritated by an opportunity that someone else has. Maybe my time will come. Maybe it won’t. Either way I’ve learned more about myself as a driver and a competitor this year than I have in my entire racing career, and I’m going to enjoy the ride.

Bad Breaks

It seems like we’ve had a couple weeks worth of bad luck to start out the 2016 season. Before I get into the weekend in Atlanta I want to be sure to thank our wonderful sponsors - Diamond Gusset Jeans, our NEW sponsor ClikIt.tv, RPM Trailer Sales, & Riessen Construction.

I think the Diamond Gusset Chevy might’ve been the best LOOKING car in the entire field. This was the first race we ran our silver paint scheme, and I think it really popped. Big thanks to Brett Frankovich from Diamond Gusset & Rick Gaskins from Frontline Designs for their work on the scheme.

Also, it was a dream come true for me to be able to race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. I saw my first NASCAR race ever at AMS in the early 90’s. My dad took me up to the turn four wall just as Darrell Waltrip was making a qualifying run in his Western Auto Chevy. He ran high off the corner, shooting tire rubber & dust up through the fence and all over my face. At that point, I was hooked. I wanted to be a NASCAR driver.

My dad and I attended more than a dozen races at Atlanta over the years. My grandmother lived in Atlanta, so we made a family trip out of the spring and fall races there. Through all my racing career, I’d never had the opportunity to race at Atlanta until this past weekend. My grandmother passed away this last year, and my mother and father were both sick with the flu, and were unable to attend the race. I hate that none of them were able to see it in person. But, this past weekend allowed me to check one of the final boxes off my racing bucket list.

It’s been rare in my NASCAR career that I’ve been able to hop in a really nice piece of equipment, but I can certainly say our Silverado was as nice of a race car as I’ve ever had the privilege to sit in. Kevin Eagle & Adam Deem did an awesome job prepping our truck for Atlanta, and it showed in how we unloaded.

We missed first practice because of a tech issue as well as a fifteen-minute time penalty we had to serve from Daytona. Being my first time at Atlanta, I was conservative the first few laps we ran in practice, which really hurt our chances of posting a GREAT lap time. With the tire fall off at Atlanta, your first two laps of a run are the best you’re going to get. We didn’t have another set of tires to make a mock qualifying run, so we just worked on race runs throughout the second and third practices. We wound up 23rd & 28th in practice times, which I didn't think was that bad given the fact that we never changed tires. I was expecting us to make a big pickup in qualifying.

We did…it just wasn't quite enough. We ran a 31.71 – only 8 tenths of a second off the pole speed – with our SB2 motor. I never lifted off the throttle the entire lap. Unfortunately, that was only good enough for us to finish 28th in qualifying. The reason that’s important is the top 27 trucks get locked into the race based on qualifying times. So, just like at Daytona, we “officially” made the race because of our position in the owner’s points standings. We need to somehow find a little more speed in qualifying, and that’s something Eagle and I talked about after the session ended. We’re really close! With our motor situation, it just becomes so important to maximize every other thing you can out of your setup & line in qualifying.

Disappointing. That’s the best way I know how to describe the race. I felt really good about our setup heading into the race, it was so consistent during practice, but as soon as the green dropped, we started getting really tight. It was also really tough for us to pass people. Every time I would pull up behind another truck, we would get even tighter because of the aero push.

To make things even worse, we had ANOTHER tire issue. About 25 laps into the race, we had just gone a lap down. As our spotter, Toby, called out 5 minutes left on the clock, I started feeling a vibration. This is where I made a terrible mistake as a driver. Instead of bringing it up, and letting the crew chief make a call, I kept my mouth shut thinking we’d be able to fix it at the caution.

Only a few laps later, the tire gave way in turn 4. I managed to keep the truck off the wall, but couldn’t get down to the inside quick enough to make it into pit lane. Instead, I had to get going back up to semi-speed and make an ENTIRE lap back around. It wound up costing us two laps. So, 35 laps into the race we were already 3 laps down.

From that point on, we made some pretty conservative calls and just focused on bringing the truck home in one piece. I felt another vibration around lap 70 or 80, and we decided to change tires under green just in case. That cost us another two laps.

Realistically, we should’ve finished one or two laps down. We didn’t have the speed to stay with the lead lap trucks. But, we were definitely faster than some of the trucks that finished in front of us, which is really frustrating. One of our biggest goals as a small team is to beat some of the other small budget teams. Two races into the year, we haven’t achieved that goal yet.

I’m encouraged by the communication Eagle and I are developing. He’s sharp. We’ll get better each race. I’ve been encouraged by all of our friends and supporters telling me to keep my head up through our struggles. We’ll bounce back. It’s a long season. And I’m looking forward to having a solid run at Martinsville.

Tommy Joe

Rough Start

Well, that sucked.

First things first, I have to say thank you to my awesome team & wonderful sponsors for all of their help & support this past weekend. We deserved a much better end to the weekend than what we actually got.

Practice went well. We went out and drafted a couple times & the Diamond Gusset Jeans Chevy handled really well. The only problem was that it didn't quite suck up to the other trucks bumpers the way that I wanted. Kevin Eagle, our crew chief, made a few changes to help lower the front end of the truck, which we felt would help us with overall speed. We made a few single car runs to prepare for qualifying, but we never made a full blown mock run, so we weren't totally sure how the thing would run.

I was disappointed in qualifying - we finished up 33rd out of 43 trucks - but I really don't know why. We're running SB2 motors (the old style compared to the new Chevrolet R07's) and that is obviously going to hurt us on single truck qualifying time at a track like Daytona. There were a couple things we learned that we could've done differently that would've picked us up a couple tenths, but as a whole, running a 51.84 - less than 2 seconds off the pole time - with an old style motor is a pretty solid effort.

We wound up starting 28th, but we didn't stay there for long. The truck was a BULLET. I was trying to play it safe for the first couple laps, but we were just so fast in the draft that I had to make some moves. I think we were the first truck to make the field three wide, but it was just so stable and easy to pass people that I never felt like we were really putting ourselves in harms way. We had made our way up near the top 20 by the fourth lap when our troubles started...

I'm still not totally sure what happened. Judging by the pictures, it looks like a tire went down or something broke in the right front of the truck. I did everything I could do to try to keep it off the wall in turn 4, but the thing just went straight up the racetrack. I'm just glad we didn't collect anyone else in the incident so early in the race.

At the time (and right after the race) I was pretty sure that Scott Lagasse in the 14 truck had bump drafted us in the center of the corner, sending us into the wall. Upon review, that definitely wasn't true. Scott is a veteran, and it was silly of me to think he would do something that dumb on the fourth lap of the race. So, I want to make sure I apologize to him and his team.

I brought the truck down for repairs, and the pit crew did a nice job getting all the sheet metal off the tire as efficiently as they could; we didn't even lose a lap! On the restart, the truck felt okay - not great, but okay. That didn't last long. We passed a few people, and while running on the high side going through turn 4, the truck made another sharp right and headed into the wall again. Kevin made the smart move and decided to just pull the truck into the garage, ending our night in last place - 32nd.

I think that's what I'm the most upset about, finishing last. It's a race, and we finished last in it. As a small team, there are some places that we won't have a chance to WIN the race, but Daytona levels that playing field & gives everyone a chance to get a great finish. We didn't capitalize on that opportunity, and some of our direct competitors in the standings were able to get top 10's out of the night. I knew that racing in Daytona could mean us having a torn up race truck, that's just part of it, but the competitor in me HATED our final finishing position.

I hate that we're starting off the season battling uphill in points, but we'll make the best of it. I'll be looking to make up of those points we lost at Atlanta, and I know Kevin and the crew will have another great truck for us there.

Tommy Joe

We're Back...

I'm so excited to announce I'll be competing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series full time in 2016 for our family team, Martins Motorsports. With a technical partnership with Gallagher Motorsports, I truly believe this is the best opportunity I've ever had in my NASCAR career.

As far as equipment goes, we'll be running Chevrolets with SB2 motors, to be maintained by Mark Smith and his team at Pro Motors. Our shop will be based out of Mooresville, NC, the NASCAR home base, offering our small team a convenience our previous effort out of Nashville in 2014 never had.

Kevin Eagle will be our Crew Chief. He's served as a Crew Chief on several cars in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and most recently worked as both Car Chief & Crew Chief for the #98 car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for Phil Parsons Racing & then Premium Motorsports.

We've already gotten some great partners for the upcoming year. I'm excited to announce Diamond Gusset Jeans as our sponsor for Daytona, and would like to say a very special thank you to David Hall at DG for his support of my racing career. Also would like to say thank you to our good friends Rodney and Lynn Riessen at Riessen Construction, & RPM Trailer Sales for their associate sponsorship. I can't tell you how thankful we are to have your support this year.

It'll be the first time I've raced in NASCAR since 2014 in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, and I couldn't be more excited about it. I'm even getting to run my favorite racing number, and the first number I ever ran in NASCAR - the 44. I'll still be working at Ron Fellows Performance Driving School part time throughout the season, and I'm thankful for Rick Malone and the entire staff of instructors for their support of my career.

See you at Daytona!

Tommy Joe