To say the NMRA needed a race like Martin is like saying Anna Nicole Smith is a few sandwiches short of a picnic-it's simply a huge understatement. Several races this year have been plagued with rain, and the previous race at Atco, New Jersey, was cancelled because of inclement weather. There was the potential for a few showers here and there at Martin, but the weather turned out to be beautiful. While we're sure many people thought it was too hot, we're from Florida, so to us it was actually refreshing. Nitrous cars generally have the advantage when racing in the heat, and that was the case with Super Street Outlaw but not so much with EFI Renegade and Real Street.
Speaking of Super Street Outlaw, of the 13 qualified cars, the top 10 were all in the 7s. With Kentucky Sam Vincent at the top with a 7.65, the Outlaw field looked like an NHRA Pro Stock quali-fying sheet, with the top 9 racers within two-tenths of Vincent's time. In the end, two nitrous cars would battle it out, but the big news was that Sam wasn't one of them.
Factory Stock racer Shawn Johnson raised quite a few eyebrows at Martin as well, setting the record with an 11.41 at 119 mph. That's huge mph in Factory Stock-one a pushrod Factory Stock could only run on the jug, and we all know that would be slightly illegal. Before we give everything away, check out the captions for the hot cheese.