Martin set to run in Nationwide Series

NASCAR beware – racing’s “Ragin’ Cajun” is about to cruise into the Nationwide Series.

Galliano-native Hal Martin will make his debut in the renowned NASCAR-sanctioned racing series Saturday when he races in the Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway. He will be racing as a member of TriStar Motorsports – a three-car racing team within the series.

The 26-year-old’s inaugural race will get under way at 2 p.m. It will be televised before a national audience on ESPN.

For Martin, dubbed the Ragin’ Cajun, the beginning of this new chapter is just another step toward what appears an inevitable goal: NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series – arguably the highest level of racing.

Martin said this week that it’s a “dream come true” to be blessed with an opportunity to compete amongst the best racers in the world.

He added that he never fully knew this day would come years ago when he was getting his feet wet in the racing game.

“I’ve been working toward an opportunity like this since I’ve been a teenager just starting out racing go-karts in Louisiana,” Martin said. “I’ve always dreamed of days racing in NASCAR, so now being in the Nationwide Series, it’s just a thrill for me. When we finally got the deal put together and finalized, I was extremely excited.

“When you work at something for so long and it finally comes to fruition, you just have an amazing sense of accomplishment. That’s where I’m at right now.”

 

 

The early days of remote control cars and go-karts

Martin talked about his long road to NASCAR.

That actually didn’t start behind a wheel, but instead behind a remote control.

Martin said his racing roots were first planted at about 10 years old when he raced remote-control cars.

“It started just in my backyard,” Martin said. “I did remote-control cars, and I just was building hand-eye coordination at an early age. I raced those things for years and I honestly still do it today as a hobby.”

The Tri-parish native quickly realized that there was room for growth within the world of remote-control cars.

“I was pretty good at it,” Martin said. “At one point, I was nationally sponsored by a couple of big-name companies in that hobby and I was just touring the Southeast racing at a lot of different events.

“The hand-eye coordination you build is huge. That’s a huge skill you develop with the remote-control cars.”

After finding success in electronics, Martin shifted behind the wheel at 15 when he started to race go-karts.

“My first race was the Gumbo Grand Prix in Houma, La.,” Martin said with a laugh. “I think we finished fourth or something like that.”

From the modest beginning, Martin quickly found success.

He said he won a handful of races in the first model of go-karts he raced, which led him to advance into shifter karts – a slightly bigger, faster vehicle driven on road courses.

Again, Martin didn’t need much time to show he was among the elite.

“I won the Louisiana State Championship in that in 2004,” Martin said. “That was my senior year in high school, so I was 17-18 at that time.”

Martin hopped into full-sized cars shortly thereafter when he raced late-model race cars along the Gulf South.

“I traveled from Texas to Florida and raced,” Martin said. “I won quite a few races over the years doing that. I did that from a time period of 2006-to-2009. I did pretty well there. I won races. I won a race at Mobile International Speedway in 2007, so that was obviously a huge honor.”

The Tri-parish native achieved all of this success while also attending college at the University of New Orleans – no easy feat.

“I was in school full-time studying mechanical engineering, while also trying to chase these races,” Martin said. “You can sort of envision yourself how that might be a challenging situation.”

With accolades beginning to pile up for Martin, he said he really made a push in 2009 to take driving more seriously to try and see if he could turn his love into a career.

It was during that year that the Ragin’ Cajun was born in the racing world.

 

Getting a big break in ARCA

After finding success in the Southeast, Martin said he opened his schedule and entertained as many opportunities as possible in 2009.

“That year was what I consider to be my breakout year,” Martin said. “I really started to travel a lot more and I raced for many different teams and many different series.”

Martin said he raced in the ASA Series, the NASCAR Champion World Truck Series and the ARCA Series within that 12-month stretch.

But it was in the ARCA Series where Martin said he started to generate some mainstream momentum.

“In my second ARCA start, I finished third and that was really the big breaking point in my career,” Martin said. “That race really caught a lot of attention and turned a lot of heads. That was my breakout race. That was sort of what started it all for me.”

In 2010 and 2011, Martin remained in ARCA and raced abbreviated schedules.

During his time with that racing body, he was able to get experience behind the wheel in prominent tracks like Daytona International Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway, Pocono Raceway and Michigan International Speedway.

Martin posted three top-10 finishes in 11 career ARCA starts.

But he said he had some tough circumstances plague him in many of his starts.

“I had some bad luck last year in some of my ARCA events,” Martin said. “There were some things that happened in the races that were out of our control. Sometimes those things happen in racing. As frustrating as it is, you just deal with it and go on to the next race.”

Toward the back-half of the 2011 season, the Ragin’ Cajun’s luck appeared to get worse when his crew chief left and accepted a job with the No. 14 car with TriStar Motorsports.

Little did he know, his crew chief’s departure would open the door to the Nationwide Series.

 

The Ragin’ Cajun set to make waves Nationwide

Following Martin’s 2011 ARCA Series season, he said he was called by Mark Smith, the team owner for TriStar Motorsports.

The Galliano native said his old crew chief referred Martin to the team and placed him on their radar.

From there, contact was made because Smith liked Martin’s gritty demeanor on the track.

“They were just happy with what they saw,” Martin said. “In ARCA, I had some mechanical failures and tire issues and different things. But the point is we were running up front in the top 5 in basically every race and that caught Mark Smith’s eye.”

After the initial conversation and several months of planning, Martin reached a deal to represent the company’s team in the Nationwide Series – a career move that will begin Saturday.

Following this weekend’s race, Martin will run in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway on Nov. 3 and the Ford EcoBoost 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

After the abbreviated schedule in 2012, Martin will dive into a full season with TriStar in 2013 and will attempt to compete for the Rookie of the Year honors in the Nationwide Series.

Aside from the Rookie of the Year talk, Martin said he is maintaining realistic goals within his new endeavors.

“Our goals starting out are just to simply complete every lap that we’re racing toward,” Martin said. “We want to finish the lead lap at every race that we go to. In our first race, our ultimate goal is to compete in the top 20. If we can do that, it’d be huge. That’d be a really good accomplishment for me and for our team starting out. From there, we’ll work on breaking into the Top 15 and then the Top 10 and then at that point, we’ll work our way up.”

While working his way up, Martin said he knows he will be representing the Tri-parish area and the rest of Louisiana.

Martin currently stands to be the only Nationwide driver that hails from Louisiana.

With our state boasting lofty television ratings for NASCAR-related events, the racing world is widely expecting Martin to quickly become one of the sport’s more popular figures.

“I’m the only one from Louisiana at this level,” Martin said. “I’m hoping to represent Louisiana and make everyone within our state proud.”

But popularity is more easily attained through success and that’s a formula Martin hopes to achieve.

The racer said it is his dream to conquer the Nationwide Series and move onto the Sprint Cup Series – the highest level of racing.

Whether that happens remains to be seen.

But the Ragin’ Cajun is surely knocking on the doorstep of stardom – not bad for the small child who used to race remote control cars in his Galliano backyard.

“I’ve always had dreams of this,” Martin said. “I won’t shy away from saying that – I’ve always dreamed of doing this. Being from Louisiana, you’re so far disconnected from the hub of racing and it just felt sometimes like I’d never, ever have the opportunity to be able to do it.

“But I’m a firm believer that if you want to do something bad enough, you’ll find ways to do it and I just stuck with it. It wasn’t easy by any means, but anything that’s worth it isn’t easy, but it was worth it. I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat. I’m grateful to have made it to this step and I just can’t wait to get going.”

Galliano native Hal Martin stands in front of his No. 44 car – the same automobile he will use in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Martin will make his Nationwide Series debut on Saturday. That race will be shown to a national TV audience on ESPN. 

COURTESY PHOTO