Martin began his Winston Cup career in 1981. After bouncing about with different sponsors and teams from 1981 to 1983, he returned to ASA in 1984. In his only full year in Cup during this period, he ran his own team and even had 5 top 10s, but ran out of money. In 1986, he won yet another ASA championship.

In 1987, he gave NASCAR racing another shot by running in the NASCAR Busch Series. After a win in Dover, Delaware, he was spotted by car owner Jack Roush. In 1988, Martin began a long relationship with Roush that didn't end until the end of the 2006 season.

Overall, Martin has 35 career NASCAR Cup wins and has finished second in the Nextel Cup Series point standings four times (1990, 1994, 1998 and 2002). A cup championship still eludes him.

He has also achieved a record 48 victories in the NASCAR Busch Series. In 1990, a 46-point penalty at Richmond for using an illegal (but non-performance enhancing) carburetor spacer caused him to lose to Dale Earnhardt by 26 points in the final standings.

Martin finished off the 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup season with an exciting second-place finish in the season final race to fellow Roush Racing teammate Greg Biffle at the Homestead International Speedway. In doing so, he also secured a fourth place spot in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, just 105 points back from series champion Tony Stewart.

Martin has also won 5 IROC titles (1994, 1996, 1997 1998 and 2005) in addition to 13 races, both records for that series. His sponsors have included Stroh Beer, Folgers coffee, Kraft, Valvoline motor oil, and Viagra/Pfizer, and his current sponsor is American Automobile Association. Martin announced he would retire after the 2005 season; thus the season was called Mark Martin's "Salute to You" tour, as a "thank you" to his fans.

However, he ultimately opted to run one more season at the request of Roush, who did not have a replacement driver lined up.

In June 2005, it was announced that Jamie McMurray would replace Mark Martin in the #6 car in 2007. This left Roush without a driver for that car in 2006. Martin later agreed to drive for the 2006 season. Ultimately, it was announced that McMurray would be released from his contract and would take over for Kurt Busch instead in car #26 (formerly #97), and Todd Kleuver would replace Mark Martin in the #6 AAA Ford Fusion in 2007. Martin signed with Ginn Racing in 2007  with the merger of Ginn and DEI drove  the # 8 car in 2008 .