He Pulled It from His Past Marks

This is the Statt Mann Baby. Time to Scatt a little bit.

It was fun to watch the NASCAR XFINITY race at Mid-Ohio Saturday. Heavy rain at times troubled drivers who aren’t used to moisture on their racing surface.

But it wasn’t a bother for Justin Marks, a former sports car ace who won races while in the BMW downline with the likes of Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand.

In fact ten years ago Justin won a dozen times in BMWs in the Rolex and World Challenge series.

But Saturday was a lesson in perseverance on a track that vacillated between standing water and almost dry lines especially in the last twenty or so laps.

When it was over Sam Hornish Jr. tried to talk himself into believing he could have caught Marks in the dry but that might have been optimistic.

The win was Justin’s first in XFINITY. He was driving for Chip Ganassi and dedicated the win to Bryan Clauson who had experience with Ganassi before he was killed a week ago in a USAC race.

As for Justin Marks, though, it’s just good to see a race car driver in real world conditions on a less than perfect track surface, not complain, and have success anyway. A rarity.

Peace.