Galliano native Hal Martin continues race to NASCAR

On weekends, fans of the NASCAR Nationwide and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series don the apparel of their favorite driver and watch the rubber-shredding race action for hours to see who makes it to the winner’s circle.

If Galliano native Hal Martin gets his wish, those same fans will soon take to the speedways wearing his colors to watch him race in excess of speeds of 150 miles per hour alongside the likes of Jimmy Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

A year ago, Martin was a force in Pro-Late model racing, rising to the top of small tracks in Texas, Florida, Alabama and Georgia.

But after proving himself on that stage, Martin made the jump up this year and is now participating in the ASA Late Model Series, the ARCA Re/Max Series and even drove in a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for the first time in his young career.

It proves the 23-year-old has come a long way since racing in the GUMBO Grand Prix at age 16. The Cunningham Motorsports driver, an affiliate of Penske Racing, is one step closer to achieving his NASCAR goal.

“He’s had Penske scouting him a few times,” said Hal’s father, Lafourche Parish Assessor Mike Martin. “He’s in their driver’s development program where if he does good enough there, he goes right to Penske.”

With the ASA Late Model Series, Martin races for Larz Motorsports based out of Chicago, Ill. He ran his first race this past weekend and has two more on tap, at the Nashville Super Speedway and Iowa Speedway sometime in October.

“It’s the same cars I’ve been racing, only on much bigger tracks like mile-and-a-half tracks,” Martin explained. “Really, the last year has been crazy. I’ve had all this other stuff come up, but I’m enjoying all of it.”

A favor to friend Andy Hillenburg led to Martin driving in the NASCAR Camper World Truck Series two weeks ago.

According to the younger Martin, he has known Hillenburg for four or five years. As an amateur driver, Martin went to Hillenburg’s racing school in 2005 and returned after that to be an instructor for other ambitious drivers.

In return for his work as an instructor, Hillenburg offered Martin a ride in the truck series at Memphis Motor Sports Park.

It would be the young driver’s first taste of a NASCAR atmosphere.

“We qualified 26th and finished 26th, ” Martin said. “I had some overheating problems, personally. The heat got to me. It was a scorcher day. About 114 degree index and 155-160 degrees inside the truck throughout the entire race.”

“That truck was not equipped with an air conditioner or head cooling unit so we decided to pull in. I couldn’t handle it anymore,” he added.

The 26th place finish was expected from both Hillenburg and Martin however, as the equipment Hillenburg can afford isn’t as good as some of the other driver’s equipment.

For his first time in a truck, Martin was pleased to be able to at least meet expectations.

“We had a good first outing,” he said. “NASCAR approved me for the mile-and-a-half tracks because I made the decision to pull in and didn’t stay out there and hurt myself or hurt somebody else. They decided to up me to mile-and-a-half approval. NASCAR is a big steppingstone. You have to complete a smaller track to be able to move up to a bigger track so we ran the three-quarter track successfully and that helped my licensing to mile-and-a-half tracks.”

Over his young racing career, Martin has worked towards gradually moving up on the circuit.

Even before he was driving, Martin was racing, only it was remote controlled cars. He was sponsored and had the chance to travel the country to race the toy cars competitively.

It wasn’t until he was 16 that he had his first experience in an actual organized race. At that time the Gumbo Grand Prix, a go-kart race, took place once a year in Houma.

He entered following his 16th birthday. After raising the proper amount of money, he took to the track for the first time.

The Gumbo Grand Prix led to an increased interest in go-kart racing. After racing several more races for charity, he ended up raising over $5,000. That’s when he moved on to shifter karts, a modified version of a go-kart.

He raced shifter carts for nearly three years and after winning the state championship, moved on to stock cars. He has been racing stock cars since 2006 and has no ambition to look back.

As for the ARCA Re/Max Series, Martin has only raced once for Cunningham, an 11th place finish in Mansfield, Ohio.

That race caught the attention of Penske scouts, who told Martin they are interested in seeing him run a few more races in the near future.

“It was my first ARCA start. We started 9th, ran in the Top Five all night but the brake pedal went soft on me about halfway through and I had to pump the brakes up just to keep the pressure in the lines for the entire second half of the race,” Martin said. “Overall I’m really excited about the ARCA. I have a lot of guys at Penske watching me now which is always a good thing.

“They were impressed with how well I ran in just my first start,” he added.

Martin will race in ARCA two more times, once at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. on Aug 28 and another in Kansas in October.

With such a busy schedule, Martin still has to make time for school. The senior in mechanical engineering at the University of New Orleans is expected to graduate in December.

It’s a degree he hopes he won’t have to put to use for some time.

“It’s been a lifelong dream to do what I’m doing, and that’s racing,” he said. “So I take every opportunity I can. It can get stressing but I welcome it. I love the intensity level of it with pleasure. I don’t even look at it from a stressful standpoint because I am having so much fun with it.

“But I could not do it without the support of my parents (Mike and Tammy),” he added. “They provided for me to be able to do this and they were there the whole way.”

By this time next year, Martin hopes to be on the ARCA circuit full time, getting ready for his next step – NASCAR.

“We are working on doing that entire season in 2010 and a handful of NASCAR Camping World Truck Races if that opportunity becomes available with a top running team,” he said. “This year is pretty solid. What we have left to do this year is pretty solid base from 2009.”