Silly Season, July 11 edition
Dustin Long reports today (not posted) that the 2006 driver of the No. 6 Ford might be ... Mark Martin.
Mark Martin ... Mark Martin ... the name's familiar ... oh, yeah! The guy driving the car now.
As you know, Jamie McMurray has signed to drive the No. 6 in 2007, but Jack Roush won't buy out his 2006 contract with Ganassi. That leaves Roush with no one to drive the No. 6. The guys rolling around in the rumor mill -- Sterling Marlin, Ricky Craven and Jon Wood -- aren't exactly thrilling (though I've said before that I'd love to see Craven back in the Cup series.) And I'm sure Roush doesn't like the idea of having what amounts to a temp driving one of the best rides in the sport.
So when Dustin was wandering around the garage before yesterday's race, he happened about Roush racing president Geoff Smith, who was talking to a couple of other scribes about the possibility of having Martin postpone his retirement for another year.
Martin's reaction, according to Smith: "I will say that in my years with Mark, he's never quite called me the names that he called me when I made the suggestion (to stay another year)."
No wonder they call this Silly Season.
2:15 p.m. update: The Mark Martin story is posted here. We're still working out the kinks in the new Web site, and for some reason this story didn't make it online this morning.