There probably isn’t anything that can said about Mark Martin that hasn’t been said before. With 31 years at the wheel and 882 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup starts, the man has been there, done that and bought the T-shirt.

Storming out of the ASA racing series as a then-three-time champion, the wheelman from Batesville, Arkansas lined up for his first Cup race at North Wilkesboro in 1981. That marked the start of one of the most successful and decorated careers in NASCAR’s 70-year history. And to put an exclamation mark on it all, in 1998 Martin was named as one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers, while in 2017, the people voted and inducted him into the sport’s Hall of Fame.

On the eve of Saturday’s 2017 Monster Energy All-Star race, an event Martin won in both 1998 and 2005, RACER tracked him down and found a guy who still follows the sport as closely as ever, even if he now does so from a distance.

Q: Are you still a fan of the sport? Do you watch all the races on TV?

MARK MARTIN: I do. I watch all the races. I don’t talk to everybody that much, because it’s kind of different. I mean, everybody is pretty busy. When you’re in that sport, if you want to be competitive, you’ve got to be consumed by it. I don’t get to talk to my old buddies that much. I don’t go to the races. I’ve only been to three races since November of 2013. I watch them all, or keep up with them. I’m a big fan. I was a fan before I got in it, and I’m still a big fan.

Q: When you look back at your career, do certain things stick out?

MM: The things that really stick out in my mind are the people that I got to work with, and the relationships. And that era, probably around 1979, 1980, 1981, sticks out in my head a lot because I pretty much built the cars, I did the setups, I did the tires and I was kind of at my peak of fabrication. I was building some pretty cars, and some pretty nice stuff then. Not long after that, people better than me wound up doing all that. I love and think about the times when I did a lot of the work on the cars myself. Those years stick out to me.

Q: And that period from 1981 through 1987, you drove for upwards of six different teams. You were a true journeyman then.

MM: Yeah, in the 1980s, before I got with Jack Roush (BELOW), I was. I was trying to make it in the sport, you know? I was trying to get in and have the opportunity. Jack finally gave me the opportunity that I was looking for, which was to help him build an organization that could race for wins and for championships. That was in 1988. Up until ’88, it was a real fight.

Q: You were with Jack for 19 seasons…

MM: Yeah, obviously Jack gave me the opportunity and in the second year we got our first win (Note: at Rockingham) and it was just onward and upward from there. I mean we had a lot of loyalty and a lot of blood, sweat and tears invested into the program. I did it for a long time. I worked with Jack for a long time.

Q: Do you guys still talk with one another?

MM: Yes, we do. I got a lot of love for Jack.

Q: Jack’s team has been on a roll lately. Do you root for those guys?

MM: It really, really, really was great to see them get a win. It was great to see Ricky Stenhouse get a win, but it was also great to see Roush Racing get a win. The organization has suffered through some really tough times. It’s really, really hard to get back to being competitive once you get shuffled down the deck a ways. It’s hard to work your way back up. They’re definitely running good, so I hope that they can sustain that and continue to be top 10 material. It’s tough nowadays.

Q: After you moved along from Roush Racing at the end of the 2006 season, you ultimately drove for Dale Earnhardt, Inc., Hendrick Motorsports, Michael Waltrip Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing. How was it dealing with so many different teams and so many different team owners? Obviously, these men though very highly of you and wanted you in their equipment.

MM: Well, I was just really blessed late in my career after I left Jack. I got an opportunity to work with a lot of other great people in the sport. I had enough success that people wanted to work with me, and it was exciting. I didn’t get a chance to drive for Roger Penske, and really, Richard Childress either. But I’ve known and raced with Richard since 1981. I kept close to Richard even though I never drove for him! I raced him hard for a lot of years, and we were always good friends and good competitors. It was just good times there. After I left Jack’s, I got a chance to just work with a lot of great people and got to do some cool stuff – bucket list kind of stuff.

Q: Any favorite memories from that period of your career? I’ll never forget when you and Kevin Harvick came flying down the tri-oval to try and win the 2007 Daytona 500 (ABOVE).

MM: Yeah, yeah, that was close. I was pretty proud of that effort. It was an amazing effort made by the team to have such a spectacular car, and to lead the last 25 laps of that thing after all the restarts and red flags and everything else that we went through. We really got close.

Q: Do you ever think about it now?

MM: I don’t think about not winning it. When I think about it, I think about it with pride. I’m proud of what we did. I don’t know what I could have done differently to change the outcome. I might have made it worse.

Q: A little ways back ESPN described you as “the best driver to never win a championship”. Yet you did win a multitude of Cup and Xfinity races, and won the IROC Championship five times. Are you happy with how your career played out?

MM: You can look at it however you want. You can look at that as if the glass is half-empty, and focus on you’ve never won a championship. Or, you can look at the glass half-full and say the greatest driver that never won a championship. Or, you can look at it and say, “Hey, I did win five IROC Championships. That’s more than Earnhardt.” You can look at it however you want to. I chose to look at it realistically. I never scored enough points to be a champion, but I had a hell of a career.

Q: IROC was a great test of a driver, wasn’t it?

MM: Well, it was a great series, and the cars were supposed to be equal, and they weren’t. And I know that for a fact because almost every time I got in one, mine was the fastest car. So…

Q: What’s your take on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup here in 2017?

MM: I like it. I like what I’m seeing. I know it’s fashionable for some to complain about this or that or the other, but I think the racing on the racetrack this year has been very interesting. It’s been great racing. I like what I see and I enjoy it enough to watch it, and if I can’t watch it, I’ve got it up on my phone. I’ve been very, very interested in the races this year and really look forward to every weekend.

Q: Is there a driver among the younger guys out there right now who reminds you of your days behind the window net? Maybe one of the younger guys?

MM: I really like Kyle Larson. I have been liking him for quite a while now. He drives his butt off and can do some things that are absolutely amazing in that race car. I have a lot of respect for Chase Elliott. I really like Ryan Blaney. And I don’t think Erik Jones has been noticed quite enough for his amazing performances that he’s put in this year. We have a lot to look forward to in our sport. I think there are some guys coming up that aren’t in Cup yet that are young and amazing as well. It’s a new era, and the next generation, or the next wave, is coming in and I think that it looks really promising.

Q: The Monster Energy All-Star race runs on Saturday night in Charlotte. Not only were you a part of the 1992 One Hot Night event in 1992, but you won the thing in ’98 and ’05. It looks like NASCAR is throwing back to ’92 this year. Are you amped up about it?

MM: Oh, yeah. I love it. I love the All-Star Race. I’ve always liked it and been a part of every year since ’92, and all the way through 2014. It was long stretch there. It was really good to me. We had a heartbreaking defeat in ’93 [ED: Martin narrowly lost out to Dale Earnhardt] and we had some really exciting triumphs in ’98 (BELOW) and ’05. It’s always a great race, and this year is going to be very interesting to look at and see how the soft tire option may affect strategies and how they’ll affect the cars. I approve, and I can’t wait to Saturday night.