MYERSTOWN, Pa. – The masterplan behind Brent Marks’ breakout season originates from a simple but often-overused proverb.
“This stuff is not given to you: you really have to earn it,” Marks said. “I’ve been doing my best to keep working hard. We have a great weekend, we win races, and the following day I’m concentrating on the next weekend to go win the next race. Keep that mindset, and not fall behind.”
It seems so cliche but Marks’ laborious hands have undeniably keyed a career-best nine wins this year. Since he revived his No. 19 family car in April, Marks has worked day and night to bolster resources beyond a single-car, bare-bones unit.
That is until he returned home on Monday from his sixth-place run at the Knoxville Nationals. For the first time since his nonstop return to his family car, Marks took back-to-back days off from the race shop on Monday and Tuesday.
It felt so good that Marks will forgo a potential three-race weekend to enjoy some time off before the busiest stretch of the year in Central Pennsylvania.
“I feel so weird being lazy right now,” Marks said he told his wife, Meghan, earlier this week as he lounged around the house with his daughter.
Once he got home from battling the best in sprint car racing in Kyle Larson, Donny Schatz and Brad Sweet, Marks turned off his phone and turned his attention to what he really knows best: being a family man.
When Monday comes around, the work will resume for one of the biggest stretches in all of sprint car racing, Central Pennsylvania’s month of money: nine All Star Circuit of Champions races, two weekends with the World of Outlaws, and a handful of other lofty-paying shows.
“I’m used to getting back to Knoxville and winding down,” Marks said. “It’s going to be a little different this time around. … I’m really excited for all of the races and think we have a really good car to compete for every single one of those wins. It’s really exciting.”
Marks is fresh off the Pennsylvania Posse’s best run at the Knoxville Nationals since Daryn Pittman’s fifth-place finish in Mike Heffner’s No. 27 in 2011. If it wasn’t for a two-spot penalty for working beyond the five-minute limit under the halfway open red, his finish could’ve been the Posse’s best run in more than a decade.
“The support was overwhelming,” Marks said. “I was really proud of what we accomplished. I’m really happy with sixth.
“I’m also kind of disappointed we got penalized there under the break and lost a couple spots,” he added. “Truthfully I was in front of Brad [Sweet] there [at the 25-lap halfway break]. I think we could’ve run top-three, or even fourth there. A little disappointed in that, but I was proud of what we accomplished.”
Marks’ nine wins currently rank fourth in the nation, only behind only Sweet, Larson, and David Gravel. He’s won on the big half miles such as Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, to the compact bullrings such as Path Valley.
Additionally, he boasts a pair of World of Outlaws wins and came one faulty spark plug short of potentially winning Pennsylvania Speedweek.
“It’s been a pretty amazing year,” Marks said. “It’s been really, really fun.”
With the Williams Grove National Open and Tuscarora 50 among the races left on the schedule, Marks could make his amazing year even better.
“I’m ready for them,” Marks said. “I’m excited to wind down a little bit, reenergize, and then go back after those big paying shows.”