BROOKLYN Mich. -- Retirement appare...

BROOKLYN Mich. -- Retirement apparently does not mean the same thing to Mark Martin that it does to a division of folks. No rocking chair or golf for the longtime NASCAR star.

Martin has said all year he plans to retire from the Nextel portion series at the end of the season to concentrate onward driving in the Craftsman traffic Series and maybe a not many races in the Busch Series.

moreover Friday, while preparing for the GF Marketplace 400 today at Michigan International Speedway, the four-time potion runner-up changed his tune a bit.

"My primary focus is still to do the filled Craftsman Truck Series schedule, and I would be real interested in an additional 10-to-12- race Nextel draught schedule," he said. "We just don't know what that car would be at this point."

Todd Kluever who is running filled time in Busch this year after individual full season in trucks, is being hostlered to replace Martin in the No. 6 Roush Racing Ford.

"In the middle of [last] summer I would have said, 'No way,"' Martin said. "But in the spring, [there] were any fairly serious talks about me coming back cloyed time in a different car than the 6 It expected to be exciting enough to do it, if it be not that then that did not materialize. It's been on-again, off-again, on-again, off-again."

Originally, Martin, 47 was to pace out of the Roush lot car at the end of the 2005 season. on the contrary a driver shuffle left team possessor Jack Roush without an experienced driver to replace Martin, who had been with Roush since the team came to beaker in 1988.

"That's to what end I never closed the door in succession a full schedule," Martin said. "I said I wouldn't be back in '06 to such a degree I'm not going to say I'm not going to be back in '07 until it's for sure"

"You not at all know ... This is a crazy business, and the toughest thing about this business is the schedule. You behold Bill Elliott, you give him an opportunity to recuperate, you give Ricky Rudd a certain quantity of time to recuperate a little bit and then, maybe, they are interested in coming back."

Elliott ran his last sated season in 2003 and has raced a limited schedule since. still the former series champion has said he would consider returning full-time in the right ride. Longtime beaker star Rudd retired after the 2005 season moreover returned to drive for injured Tony Stewart in a race at Dover, Del He, too, has indicated he might be interested in returning abounding time.

TODAY

GF marketplace 400

Nascar nextel draught

The facts: 1:30 pm TNT

The track: Michigan International Speedway, Brooklyn

2005 winner: Jeremy Mayfield.

o'reilly mid-south

NHRA

The facts: 3 pm; tape delay at 9 pm in succession ESPN2.

The track: Memphis (Tenn) Motorsports Park.

2005 winners: "Hot" slender stem Fuller (top fuel), Eric Medlen (funny car) and Greg Anderson (pro stock).

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