The Mark Martin Museum Celebrates a Home-Town Hero

The sign that welcomes visitors to Batesville, Arkansas proudly identifies the town as "Home of Mark Martin." The opening of the Mark Martin Museum in April 2006, in a wing of the new Mark Martin Ford Dealership, cemented Martin’s status as an Ozark icon who "remembers where he came from" and is not only proud to claim his Batesville roots but also actively leading the community’s emergence as a "destination" for racing enthusiasts. The variety of out-of-state license plates in the museum’s spacious parking lot on any given day provides ample proof of this trend.

The Mark Martin Museum is not just a "must see" site for passionate Martin fans and NASCAR aficionados. Certainly the initiated who make the pilgrimage will find more than enough to nourish their faith—dozens of trophies, scores of photos, and comprehensive exhibits of Martin’s racing suits and helmets. But the museum’s six central exhibits, each built around and featuring a car that played a major role in the Martin story to date, brilliantly integrate media elements with high-tech personal viewing stations steal the show. The media available on these stations, known as "mantrons"--interviews, race footage, two short western spoofs, and a mock music video--provide context and excitement for casual fans and just plain fun for the uninitiated. The result is a museum where the devoted and the curious feel equally comfortable and where Mark Martin the individual emerges from the headlines as a Batesville boy who never let his success overwhelm his perspective.

Martin’s early dirt track days and his quick rise to the top of the ASA (American Speed Association) are chronicled in two separate stations, each of which feature four reproductions of Martin’s own journals and scrapbooks. The first four cover the years 1974 to 1976, the second group 1977 to 1979. The photos and newspaper clippings convey the sense of a journey just begun that must have characterized those years. The handwritten journal entries from the very beginning of his career are the most compelling. One entry, from a race in Searcy on May 18, 1974, fully captures both the innocence and the challenge of the early years: "The car just won’t run good enough. I got beat and kicked around a lot." The entry concludes with two notations, "7 points, $40."

Four of the six principal exhibits feature photomurals from the period associated with the car on display. Grouped in a circle, these four elements include the Stroh’s Light Ford, driven in Martin’s first career Winston Cup victory at the 1989 AC-Delco 500; the Winn Dixie Ford prominent in Martin’s record- breaking Busch Series career; the IROC car driven in the International Race of Champions; and the 2002 Viagra Ford. Each car/mural combination creates a unique environment reinforced by the media clips on the accompanying mantron. The two additional major exhibits, spaced along the front glass wall of the museum, include Car Memories, with the driver’s second car, a ’55 Chevy, and the 1990 Folger’s Ford.

Each group of media clips is perfectly matched to the companion car. Especially entertaining are two silent Western spoofs shown before televised races. Both feature Martin as a gunslinger. The first, accompanying the Stroh’s Light Ford, is "Young Riders," with motor sports legend Jack Roush appropriately cast as the "gang leader" and Martin as "the new fast gun headed for a showdown with Rusty Wallace." The second, "Dodging Bullets," accompanies the Folger’s Ford and pits the Roush-Martin gang against the Earnhardt gang. Both are delightful, whimsical pieces that reveal the participants’ perspective and ability to laugh at themselves.

Another equally charming clip, the "Liberty Hillbillies," also on the Folger’s Ford mantron, relates the coming together of the Roush-Martin team to the tune of the "Beverly Hillbillies" theme. A fitting tribute to Martin’s early dirt track days, "Fun in Those ’55 Chevy’s," accompanies the Car Memories exhibit

The six mantrons contain a total of 20 clips ranging from about 3 to 8 minutes in length. In addition to the four novelty pieces, viewers can enjoy eight interviews with Martin, conducted by veteran NASCAR pit reporter Matt Yocum, familiar to viewers of NBC, TNT, and ESPN racing coverage. The affable and well-informed Yocum was the perfect choice to do the interviews. The relaxed atmosphere allows Martin to reveal both his intensity and his warmth, his passion and his humility. He is quick to acknowledge the contributions of his team members and generous in crediting his father Julian, Jack Roush, Batesville’s own Larry Shaw, and others central to his success. He is equally generous is discussing other drivers, precise and convincing in his praise. Martin’s extraordinary determination also comes across at several points in the interviews when he candidly talks about the droughts between major wins that dogged him at several points in his career.

The remaining media clips provide actual racing footage from some of Martin’s most storied victories. The clips are skillfully chosen and assembled to set the stage, hit the highlights, and get down to the dramatic finish. The brilliant High Definition mantron screens and powerful sound from speakers on each side of the screens create a surge of energy that seems to rocket the viewer across each finish line. The touch screen menus allow viewers to watch the clips in whatever order strikes their fancy and to watch especially compelling footage more than once.

While the media clips tell the story, the physical exhibits—the cars, trophies, driving suits, and personal journals—provide the evidence. The driving suits are perhaps the most impressive element. Stacked in two rows of individual cases they suggest similar displays of suits of armor in museums celebrating warriors from a time long past.

The museum also features a well-stocked gift shop carrying hats, jackets, t-shirts, miniature collectible cars, and a surprisingly large selection of children’s apparel. It shares a comfortable lounge area with the Ford dealership so visitors can pace themselves through what is easily a half-day museum experience. Large-screen televisions in the lounge area, the gift shop, and the lobby feature broadcasts and re-broadcasts of races from a variety of television sources. The Mark Martin Museum is open Monday through Friday, 9 to 6, and Saturday, 9 to 5. Admission is free.

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