Mark Martin is in the news this week for a couple of different things. The famed 65-year-old former NASCAR driver and 2017 inductee into the NASCAR Hall of Fame waved the starting green flag at the GEICO 500 at Talledega Sunday. Ahead of that, he did numerous media interviews, and one on Barstool Sports’ Rubbin Is Racing podcast Thursday particularly took off.
Many NASCAR fans had long been aware of Martin’s love of rap music. But the specific discussion the famed driver (who posted 40 Cup Series wins and 49 wins in what’s now the Xfinity Series during his career) had on this podcast about Gucci Mane got a lot of wider attention. First, here’s a key part of his appearance there:
No one is banging the drum harder for @gucci1017 than ***Checks Notes*** Mark Martin.
Awesome interview with NASCAR Legend and Rap Enthusiast @markmartin is out now @RTICCoolers pic.twitter.com/6CQY59l33R
— Rubbin is Racing (@rubbinisracing) April 18, 2024
And here are some of the quotes from that appearance, transcribed by Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos:
“I got on Dr. Dre in about 2002. I evolved from that to Eminem. And then, I had one of my son’s friends, you know they were kids, ask me if I listen to Gucci Mane. I didn’t know who it was. As soon as I found him, it was like crazy. You couldn’t get him hardly anything on iTunes. You had to go to Datpiff.com. It was free all the music was free, but you had to figure out how to download it on your computer and put it over to your phone.
“I’ma tell you right now, in my opinion, there is no one in the same zip code with Gucci Mane. If I rapped, I would never do a duo with him. Every time he does one with anybody, he just crushes them. I mean, this guy is unbelievable. I do like the old Gucci much better than the new Gucci. I liked his old music. I like him when he was fat and scary.”
This got a lot of positive reaction. Here’s some of that:
Mark Martin said
1. He had to look up Gucci Mane’s music on DatPiff
2. he said he preferred the music of fat and scary Gucci over the one that got out of prison a few years back.
3. This was my weekly bingo card. https://t.co/AzNvzicy20— Channel Zero (@MikeTroy81) April 19, 2024
Mark Martin loving “Swing My Door” by Gucci Mane was not on the bingo card this morning.
He is replying back n forth to people in the comment section on the ATATF IG 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/YnAdDzk4YQ
— K.O. (@kofromatatf) April 19, 2024
A true fan! Mark Martin is a legend for this level of Gucci Mane knowledge https://t.co/X0iQTOgpxj
— Cody Barbo (@codybarbo) April 19, 2024
It was interesting to see Martin talk so candidly about his Gucci Mane fandom here, and to see the wider attention that drew.
