700 up for Martin.

Perennial NASCAR favourite Mark Martin will reach another career milestone this weekend when he makes his 700th NASCAR Cup Series start.

The 49 year-old Arkansas born driver, who made his Cup debut at the tender age of 22, becomes just the 13th driver in NASCAR history to hit the 700 start milestone and will sport a special commemorative paint scheme to his #8 DEI Chevrolet to mark the occasion.

Since taking his Cup Series bow at the old North Wilkesboro Speedway in April 1981 Martin has gone on to record 35 Cup Series wins to date and has finished as the Championship runner up on no less than four separate occasions. His most recent win came in October 2005 at the Kansas Speedway during the 18th of his 19 seasons with Roush Racing although it was his heartbreaking loss in the final centimetres of the 2007 Daytona 500 that has been his career-defining moment thus far.

Despite missing out on the series title Martin has remained hot property in the driver market ever since his decision to cut back to a partial schedule at the end of 2006. Currently tasked with the double goal of making the much-heralded #8 DEI team a championship contender and bringing on the teams development driver Aric Almirola Martin will drive in 24 of the 36 races that make up the 2008 Sprint Cup Championship.

During pre-race ceremonies at California, Martin's sponsors for the weekend the Principal Financial Group and DEI will present their driver with a commemorative green flag emblazoned with the same 700th start logo that will appear on DEI's #8 Principal Financial Group Chevrolet for the race itself.. Following the race, this same green flag will be signed by Martin and auctioned on e-bay with proceeds benefiting the Dale Earnhardt Foundation.

'The King' Richard Petty leads NASCAR's all-time starts list with a whopping 1185 green flags to his name followed by the recently retired Ricky Rudd on 906. Of the current crop of drivers Kyle Petty sits top with 816 starts.